Oppo Band 2 Review
A great, low-cost smartwatch
Verdict
The Oppo Band 2 offers quite an impressive package in spite of its low price tag, but it’s held back by some of its features.
Pros
- Incredible value
- Large, bright screen
- Impressive automatic workout tracking
- Great battery life
Cons
- Bluetooth connection issues
- Sleep tracking is all over the place
- No built-in GPS
Key Features
- New 1.57-inch display:Larger than the Oppo Band’s original 1.1-inch screen
- Collection of nearly 150 watch faces:Choose from tons of different designs
- Over 100 workout modes:Everything from yoga to swimming included
Introduction
The Oppo Band 2 makes a great case as a low-cost smartwatch but there’s still room for improvement when it comes to fitness tracking.
When you’re shopping at the lower-end in the world of wearables, there’s a near dizzying amount of great value picks to choose from. The Fitbit Inspire 3 sits at the higher end of this chain while lower-cost options like the Poco Watch manage to overcome their price points and offer tons of features.
I bring this up because at £59.99/$69.99, the Oppo Band 2 has no shortage of competition in this arena but after spending several weeks wearing the device, I can definitely say that it does more than enough right to make it worth checking out.
Design and display
- 1.57-inch AMOLED display
- Only weights 33g
- Touchscreen only, button-less design
Right off the bat, the Oppo Band 2 strikes a nice balance between having a reasonably sized display that’s easy to read, and never feeling too heavy on your wrist. Weighing just 33g, it’s easy to forget that the Oppo Band 2 is even there, and that prevents it from ever feeling cumbersome, particularly if you wear it to bed.
The 1.57-inch AMOLED display is quite impressive for the Band 2’s price point, displaying watch faces and any other bits of information clearly. There isn’t any adaptive brightness however which can make it tricky to view the Oppo Band 2’s display in direct sunlight unless you have the screen’s brightness set to one of the higher modes.
Just like the original Oppo Band, its successor features a completely button-less design so all of your interactions with the device are relegated to the touchscreen. Typically I prefer having at least a rotating crown to make it easier to navigate through menus, but I will admit that I do like the smooth-all-over look that the Oppo Band 2 has managed to achieve.
Even though the build is smooth to the touch, there’s still a degree of sturdiness to it as the Oppo Band 2 is water resistant up to 5 ATM, so it’ll have no issues with being taken to the local pool, or if you’re unlucky enough to get caught in the rain.
Features and performance
- Music controls, Find my Phone and more
- Amazing collection of watch faces
- Potential Bluetooth issues
In spite of its affordable price point, I’ve found myself pleasantly surprised at how well the Oppo Band 2 works as a smartwatch. For starters, everything runs smoothly during everyday use and I’ve yet to encounter any slowdown when moving through menus and workout options.
There is a good amount of smartwatch features too, including music controls, find my phone, and the ability to set multiple alarms. All of these are handy to have and it’s great to see it all included for the price, but what really impressed me about the Oppo Band 2 is its collection of watch faces.
In addition to the handful of watch faces stored on the wearable from the get-go, there’s a ton of extra ones you can install via the accompanying HeyTap Health app. It’s honestly one of the best collections of watch faces I’ve ever come across, being right up there with what Apple and Samsung are able to offer.
There’s great variety between sports focussed ones that put your daily workout stats front and centre, and eye-catching original designs that’ll give you pause whenever you want to check the time. There’s even a watch face called ‘AI Outfit’ that prompts you to take a picture of the clothes you’re wearing with your phone, and then the app with develop a watch face that complements their colours. I honestly didn’t expect the experience here to be so well thought out, but kudos to Oppo for investing its time here.
It is worth noting however that when paired up with the Honor 90, I encountered issues with Bluetooth connectivity, and more often than not notifications simply wouldn’t appear on the watch if I didn’t keep the HeyTap app open in the background. Oppo seems to be aware of this issue because the app includes a whole host of remedies for troubleshooting, but since pairing the device with the Pixel 7, I haven’t encountered any Bluetooth issues, meaning that this could be a problem that varies from handset to handset.
Fitness tracking
- No shortage of workouts that can be tracked
- Daily effort is easily conveyed to the user
- HRM struggles with intense workouts
Similar to its smartwatch chops, I’m impressed by the amount of fitness tracking capabilities that Oppo’s squeezed into the Band 2. In terms of the amount of available workouts to track, you’d be hard pressed to find something that’s not included – from badminton to bobsleigh, bungee jumping and skateboarding, it’s all here. If you forget to pick one then you won’t have to worry there either as the automatic workout tracking has been surprisingly snappy, kicking in very early on into an outdoor walk and pausing itself just a few seconds after I’ve stopped to take a breather.
The Oppo Band 2 also does a great job of breaking down your daily effort into easy to understand metrics, similar to the fitness rings on the Apple Watch 8, except this time your day is broken down into your step count, calories burned, workout duration and number of activities (standing up and walking around).
It’s all colour coordinated which makes it very easy to see exactly how you’ve performed on a given day, so for making moves towards a healthier lifestyle, the Oppo Band 2 is definitely worth considering to help you meet your goals. It’s a similar case with the accompanying app as all of your fitness data is broken down into key information, as opposed to overloading the user with too much information.
When it comes to heart rate monitoring, the Oppo Band 2 is okay under certain scenarios. For example, during a less-intensive stint on a cycling machine, the Oppo Band registered the same peak BPM as the Myzone MZ-Switch while the average BPM was only off by one. That’s quite impressive for a wearable of this price, but it ran into trouble with more intensive workouts. When the MZ-Switch registered a high of 183 BPM during an eliptical workout, the Oppo Band didn’t get any higher than 179, which is worth bearing in mind.
If your main method of exercising includes running outdoors then also be aware that the Oppo Band 2 doesn’t pack an untethered GPS connection, so if you want a detailed look at your route post-workout then you’ll need to bring your phone with you. This isn’t too surprising given that the feature is typically reserved for more expensive wearables, but if you absolutely need GPS tracking then you might want to consider the Fitbit Charge 5.
The Oppo Band 2 can also track your sleep patterns in theory, but in reality I’ve found the experience here to be wildly inaccurate. The biggest issue is that the Oppo Band 2 has constantly informed me of not getting enough deep sleep, while my accompanying Whoop Strap 4.0 has, by comparison, found that I’ve been getting just the right amount. It’s a shame, because the partner app does offer some great written advice over how to improve your circadian rhythm, but it’s paired with data that simply can’t be trusted.
Battery Life
- You can get up to 12 days of use under certain circumstances
- Charges from 5% to a full battery in under an hour
Even though the smartwatch and fitness tracking experience on the Oppo Band 2 has a few setbacks, the same cannot be said for the wearable’s battery life, which is easily one of its best features.
On a single charge, I’ve been able to get roughly nine days of use before the battery fell to 10%, and that time included multiple workouts being tracked, sleep tracking every night and countless notifications coming in from my phone. I can’t see anyone making it to Oppo’s quoted two-weeks of battery life, but I do think that under the right circumstances you could probably stretch it to 11 or 12 days which is still handy. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to leave the country for a few days without needing to bring a smartwatch charging cable with me, but that’s exactly what I was able to do with the Oppo Band 2.
Charging is a pretty hassle-free affair too, as I managed to get from 5% to a full battery in just 50 minutes, which is more than enough time for you to crack on with your morning routine and have the Oppo Band 2 ready to go when you step out the door.
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Should you buy it?
You want a long-lasting, affordable smartwatch: nailing the basic functions, the Oppo Band 2 has a great screen, handy features and a long battery life, all at a very reasonable price.
You need a fully featured fitness tracker: if you need a more well-rounded fitness tracker then options like the Fitbit Charge 5, which include built-in GPS, can be found for not that much more.
Final Thoughts
I’ve mentioned being surprised and impressed several times throughout this review, and they are still the major takeaway from my time spent with the Oppo Band 2. As a low-cost smartwatch with an easy to read display, digestible fitness metrics and a ton of great-looking watch faces, it’s hard to argue with what’s available here.
If it wasn’t for the Bluetooth issues that I encountered during my testing, and the wildly inaccurate sleep tracking results, I’d probably be ending my verdict with a higher score but as it stands, the Oppo Band 2 does do a lot right, just not everything, and if your budget can stretch a bit further then you’ll get a lot more in return from something like the Fitbit Charge 5.
How we test
We thoroughly test every smartwatch we review. We use industry standard testing to compare features properly and we use the watch as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Worn as our main tracker during the testing period
Heart rate data compared against dedicated heart rate devices
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FAQs
Yes, but several features including Music Control and Find My Phone will only work with Android handsets.
Yes, the Oppo Band 2 is waterproof up to 5 ATM (50 metres).
Full specs
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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.
Editorial independence
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.
