Okay, so I've been wearing the device now for a couple weeks and ready to give my opinion on it.
You've seen a fair bit of the device when I did my unboxing, so I won't rehash how it looks; but I do want to remind you about some of the specs (remember I'm reviewing the 43mm model):
- 1.32" @ 466x466 (vs. 1.5" for 46mm)
- Snapdragon W5 + MCU BES2800BP processors
- 2GB RAM
- 32GB storage
- 354mAh
- IP68 (46mm comes also MIL-STD-810H certified)
- Cost $399CDN ($50 more for 46mm)
So, not a bad price, compared to other brands (probably save $100 against most brands). Do you want the larger size for just $50 more? There's no spec bump, so it depends on your wrist.
One comment I will make about the screen is that it has little 'tick marks' around for an old school analog clock hands. But without that kinda style hands, when you glance at the screen quickly and it's off, it looks like it has little scratches and makes me worry for a second.
Honestly, the 43mm is pretty good for me. It's just that squeaker of a size bigger than my Pixel Watch and it fits well for the space; which is odd as the flurorubber band has more 'notches' on it to adjust it's size, I find myself adjusting during the day between one or the other (reminiscent of the Corner Gas episode where the parents had their thermostat in Celsius and they switch back and forth between 19 and 20).
I do like how the button layout means that there's no 'central' button, which is good for me as whenever I do things like pushups, or if i'm carrying something heavy and my hand is pushed backwards, meaning the button is getting pushed. Do a few in a row and it'll accidentally call 911 on me.
Speaking of the button, I do like how the 3 now has a rotatable crown -- it's something once you have it, you just can't go back - it makes navigating through your options just that much easier.
Now, navigation of the device is similar to any other WearOS device in the past few years, so it's super familiar. What isn't familiar is how we set it up. Instead of the WearOS app to pair it with your phone, you have to use a proprietary app, OHealth [now, mind you, Pixel Watches have to have a separate app, and that has always angered me, too].
I do not have to like setting up a different app, and then making sure that that app is connected to my HealthConnect system to see my details. Pixel Watches are big on FitBit, but I like pulling it into Google Fit. OHealth uses their own and it can be pulled as well into Google Fit. Which is good. But for some reason it doesn't cancel out sleep measuring. So I tend to see doubled up sleep. Kinda weird.
It might have the feature somewhere, but honestly, I do not like how the OHealth app is set up, it's so hard to find anything (like how you'd have to go and find a weird spot to change the settings for temperature units) - not at all really unintuitive.
Also kinda weird for me is how the night mode doesn't get synced. On Pixel Watches, once my phone goes into 'night mode' where it silences notifications etc... it mirrors that on the Watch. On this, I have to manually hit the button on watch to do it. It's not a major pain, just odd that it wouldn't take the mirror of the phone that it should be mirroring.
Along those lines - one of the areas I definitely notice that it's not mirroring is the notifications specifically for Gmail. Often, I'll see the email, see the preview and then tell it to delete.
It'll take a few seconds. Says it's done, but the Gmail is still there... sometimes, it'll eventually disappear. But at least half of the times the email doesn't go away. And then I'll notice that it wasn't on the phone either (or I had dealt with it on the phone earlier but it didn't sync with the watch).
It's frustrating tbh and I like to rely on my watch for my notifications when my phone is put away; so it doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence.
What it does fill me with confidence is in 2 areas is the performance and the battery.
The device never has stuttered, you can scroll around so easily, so simply, no slow down that I've ever noticed.
The battery - though they claim it should be 7 days, I'd probably say closer to 5 if I stretched it.
On a moderate day, after 24hrs it's still at 55% (after 36% it had gone down to 17%) - so that should get me to 2... 2.5 days of use. Depends on what you're doing, are you accessing GPS, etc...
If I've charged it to 100% (which, I love how fast it does charge up, it doesn't take long to get almost half the battery back in about 20 minutes) it'll be only 8% less after an 8 hour rest. So at minimal use it'll be ~1%/hr. So 100 hours... 4 days.
I tend to use it to track activities, and I have almost half a dozen email apps, same for social media etc... so I get lots of notifications.
So it doesn't live up to the claims for me, but still 2... 2.5 days of usage? Way more than my Pixel Watch, so my battery fomo is so much relaxed. I don't even have to set it into its' Power Saving mode.
It was also nice that because I didn't need to charge it often, and it wouldn't take long I got to use the OnePlus 2-in-1 cord to its best use.
If I could use this Watch with WearOS app and not OHealth, I'd love this so much.
Source: https://www.oneplus.com/ca_en/buy-oneplus-watch-3-43mm
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