The Oppo Watch is the closest thing to the Apple Watch experience for Android users

Here is the state of smartwatches today: they’re not painful to wear, in both literal and figurative sense. 

We’re now way past the days when smartwatches were fragile things that ran out of juice in the afternoon. Plus, they’re actually useable now! Companies have finally figured out what smartwatches are for (health and fitness) and they actually look nice on your wrist. 

Smartwatches still aren’t a necessity, however, but they’re pretty dang convenient. In the end, a good smartwatch boils down to three important elements: a big, colourful display, long battery life, and a lot of fitness features. 

Based on those aspects, the new Oppo Watch ($299) that I’ve been wearing for the past week ticks all the right boxes.

It’s pretty impressive too when you consider that this is Oppo’s very first wearable. The company actually launched it back in March for the Chinese market, where it runs on an Android-based ColorOS (for understandable reasons). The international version that the rest of the world is getting runs on Google’s own Wear OS, which is a relief — this thing can run alongside any phone running Android, then. 

I thought it’d be less obvious in real life, but you just can’t escape the fact that the Oppo Watch looks exactly like an Apple Watch, from the square curved glass display right down to the rubbery sport strap. The biggest difference here (literally) is the size of the display: a whopping 46mm for a larger screen real-estate on your wrist, bigger even than what Apple could offer. 

That immense size would be pointless without a gorgeous display, but Oppo delivers. It packs a bright OLED panel that’s superbly responsive to taps and touches, while the curved sides — akin to waterfall displays on phones — make for easier swiping. Silky smooth animations pop with colour, icons appear crisp, and with the extra screen space comes extra spots to place complications. A blessing for those like me who prefer crafting their own custom digital watch faces. 

Two physical buttons sit on the right of the watch — one to summon the apps page, the other is a shortcut to kicking off workouts. It’s a shame though that you can’t change the watch orientation, or at least, I couldn’t find the setting. I wear my watch on my right wrist and it’s just a smidge inconvenient that the hardware buttons can’t be switched over to the other side, where it’s easier to reach with my other hand. 

Regarding its build quality… it’s a strapping lad. The big glass-and-metal chassis feels well-crafted and seems sturdy enough to withstand a beating without putting any protective case on. But all that means that it’s a hefty piece of tech to strap on.

Compared to the airy weightlessness of Fitbit trackers and the lightness of Apple Watches, you will feel the Oppo Watch around your wrists, especially when you’re out running. Still, the sturdiness of the smartwatch offers peace of mind during intense workouts and its even waterproof enough for light swimming. 

We’d also have to talk about Wear OS, which at this point in time, is still a bit messy and unintuitive. I haven’t faced any buggy issues so far but the lag makes it feel a tad bit slow on the surface, but it’s still quicker than other Wear OS devices. A minor gripe, really, which Google should be fixing soon enough. 

The unfettered access to Google Apps is very much appreciated though and the big screen came in very handy while navigating the roads with Google Maps on my motorbike. There’s easy access to Google Assistant when you swipe right on the screen, which is pretty awesome if you’ve come to rely a lot on voice commands for both your Android smartphone and smart home appliances. 

Making and receiving calls is doable (and decent, thanks to the loud loudspeakers) on the watch, but really though, who does that?

Where the Oppo Watch excels is the usability for fitness. The solid heart-rate monitor on the back works fast in checking your pulse, and the inbuilt GPS has been reasonably accurate in tracking where I’ve run. 

Aside from Google Fit, Nike Run Club or your preferred third-party fitness tracking app, Oppo has something called the HeyTap Health app, which provides an array of workout routines as well as tighter synchronicity between the phone and the watch. At the end of each workout, the watch displays in satisfying detail on things like your heart-rate charts, average pace, calories burnt and more. Standard stuff, yes, but it’s nice to look at all the intricacies on your wrist as you make your way back home. 

Sleep tracking is a huge thing in these anxiety-ridden times, and the Oppo Watch helps you get a better night’s rest by keeping an automatic journal of your sleeping patterns, right down to the time spent in deep slumber. It’s not going to fix your life per se, but the data breakdown can probably guide you into changing your bedtime habits. 

And yes, you can wear the watch to sleep because its battery life is actually decent enough to last a full day… if you’re not working out. While the Oppo Watch easily survives an entire workday (with all the Slack and email notifications chiming in), it’ll start to drain fast once the fitness features kick in. It hasn’t died during workouts so far though, and a Power Saver mode will add a few more hours of juice. 

In any case, battery life wasn’t an issue for me. I just take it off before post-workout showers and plop it in the included rapid-charge cradle — it takes less 20 minutes for the watch to get juiced back up for another day of use. Back on the wrist it goes as the best smartwatch any Android user can strap on right now. 

ilyas@asiaone.com