UPDATE: Just as expected, Oppo has announced the Oppo Watch is coming to the UK in a duo of sizes with some pretty neat features built-in.
The beefy 46mm version of the wearable has a curved OLED panel, LTE support and a ceramic finish. They’ll also be a 41mm version for those who don’t want quite such a large wearable, however this has ditched the LTE, curved panel and has a smaller battery.
Both watches have a Snapdragon 3100 (an update to the story below), GPS, 1GB RAM and 8GB storage. You’ll be able to pick up the 41mm for £229 and £369 will get you the larger model. Both will be available to buy later in the year.
Original story: Oppo has confirmed its next smartwatch will launch globally on July 31 and will run Google’s Wear OS operating system.
The Oppo Watch launched in China earlier this year rocking the homegrown ColorOS, but the firm has decided on software more popular on western shores for the global release.
The watch may be running Google’s operating system, but there’s no prizes for guessing what has inspired the Oppo Watch design. The hardware build is almost identical to the Apple Watch, right down to the shape of the silicone bands. The watch face does look slightly narrower than the Apple Watch, while there’s no sign of a Digital Crown; instead rocking two buttons on the right side.
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A recent check in at the FCC in the United States confirms the Oppo Watch specs are unchanged from the original Chinese version. That means a Snapdragon Wear 2500 chipset, which was released in 2018. That Wear 2500 SoC will be backed by 1GB of RAM, a 430mAh battery, and a 1.9-inch AMOLED display which has a 402 x 476 resolution.
Unfortunately, the Oppo Watch won’t have the brand new Snapdragon Wear 4100+ or Wear 4100 processors, which were announced last month and promise much more in the way of additional power and battery life.
The Wear 4100 would have given the Oppo Watch an 85% power boost over the similarly-ancient Wear 3100, as well as 25% lower power usage and more than double the graphical performance.
Unfortunately, we’ll be getting a device that suffers from many of the pitfalls of Wear OS devices in recent years. There’s no news yet on the official price and release date, but we’ll keep you posted after the announcement next week.
Will you be interested in snapping-up an Oppo Watch? Or is the underpowered chip and Apple Watch likeness putting you off? Let us know @trustedreviews on Twitter
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
