Oppo Watch 3 Adopts An Old Face And A New Processor

Samsung fans are counting down the hours before the company's next Unpacked event, and while not everyone is in the market for foldable phones, some might be interested in wearables and so-called hearables. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 will no doubt take center stage at Unpacked, but they're also expected to be accompanied by a new Galaxy Buds 2 Pro model and, more importantly, the Galaxy Watch 5 series. Given the fanfare around Samsung's first Wear OS smartwatch last year, it is unsurprising that there is a lot of excitement for its next-gen smartwatch. While the Galaxy Watch 5 so far sounds like a competitive follow-up, at least based on the rumors, it won't be the only one vying for people's attention, and Oppo could very well give it a run for its money.

As a rising star in the smartphone market, a lot of people had high hopes for Oppo's first smartwatch. Some of those hopes were dashed when the Oppo Watch came out with a design that looked all too familiar. The company might take offense at the comparison, but it's hard not to see the similarities with the Apple Watch in the Oppo Watch's design. Ironically, that actually became a distinctive feature of Oppo's smartwatch because it also stood out among the other Wear OS smartwatches that sported circular designs. It seems that Oppo isn't ready to give up on that distinction yet and will use the same rectangular design for the Oppo Watch 3. Fortunately, that won't be all that the smartwatch will have to offer.

GSMArena shared images of the Oppo Watch 3, a model that, to be honest, doesn't look too different from its predecessor. The watch does seem to still have a curved display, which is believed to be the design for the 1.91-inch Oppo Watch 3 Pro. At the moment, there is no word yet on what the regular model will look like, but it could become Oppo's smallest smartwatch to date.

What's more interesting, however, is what the Oppo Watch 3 will be packing inside. According to a product page listed by a Chinese retailer, the model will run on the shiny new Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chipset, potentially making it the first smartwatch to do so, as well as the phone maker's in-house Apollo 4 Plus co-processor. There's a very good chance that this could run circles around the Galaxy Watch 5 — or, at the very least, be on par with Samsung's wearable processor.

There is still no definite date for the Oppo Watch 3's debut, though some believe it will be announced on August 10 in China, just a little before Samsung Unpacked. International availability is still up in the air, of course, but that could happen eventually, like with the Oppo Watch 2 before it. When it does, the global model will run Wear OS — hopefully the latest version — while the Chinese variant will be sticking to Oppo's own ColorOS Watch.