OnePlus Watch 2R: There’s a Lot to Like, Unless You Have Small Wrists [CNET]

The Watch 2R is lighter and cheaper than the Watch 2, but it hasn’t solved my biggest complaint about OnePlus watches.

With a lower price and lighter build, the $230 OnePlus Watch 2R is sure to appeal to Android fans in search of a reliable smartwatch without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, I don’t exactly fit that bill.

Like the $300 OnePlus Watch 2, there’s a lot to love about the Watch 2R. The battery life comfortably lasts for days, the screen is sharp and there’s a handy, dedicated button for quickly jumping into a workout or launching an app. However, my biggest issue with the OnePlus Watch 2 has trickled down to the OnePlus Watch 2R: its bulky design. While it’s lighter than the OnePlus Watch 2, it occupies just as much space on my wrist. 

Size may not be the most important factor in a smartwatch, and there are plenty of Android users that will probably find the size and fit to be just right. Still, it feels like OnePlus has neglected those of us with smaller wrists which also makes petite smartwatches, like the Google Pixel Watch 2 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, even more tempting. 

If you can get past its large size, the OnePlus Watch 2R is a tad cheaper and offers a bigger display than the $300 Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. OnePlus’ closest competitor is probably the TicWatch Pro 5, which usually costs $350 but is currently on sale for $262. I’ll need to spend time testing that watch alongside the 2R to see how it compares.

But after nearly two weeks with the OnePlus Watch 2R, here are my takeaways.

First, what’s different about the OnePlus Watch 2R?

The Watch 2R is a budget-friendly version of the OnePlus Watch 2. It has the same selection of health and fitness features, exercise modes and apps. Both watches also share the same sensors, battery, processor and display size, so check out my full review of the Watch 2 if you want more details about its key features, such as its dual-frequency GPS and shortcut button.

The difference primarily comes down to design. The OnePlus Watch 2R has a more sporty aesthetic, with an aluminum alloy chassis and a silicone strap compared with the Watch 2’s stainless steel build and fluororubber band. This makes the OnePlus Watch 2R look more like a Garmin watch (one of my colleagues even mistook it for a Garmin device), while the Watch 2 looks more like something you could wear to a dinner party.  

The screen’s cover plate is also made of glass, while the Watch 2’s is sapphire crystal. OnePlus’ more expensive watch also lacks the Watch 2R’s high brightness mode that kicks the screen up to 1,000 nits, according to OnePlus’ website.

But perhaps the biggest discrepancy between the two watches is their weights. The OnePlus Watch 2 weighs 49 grams without its strap while the OnePlus Watch 2R is notably lighter at 37 grams on its own. And that extra weight is noticeable.

The OnePlus Watch 2R still feels like a lot for my wrist. It’s not as heavy as the OnePlus Watch 2, but it has more heft to it than the 33.8-gram Galaxy Watch 7 (44-millimeter version).

What I like about the OnePlus Watch 2R

The OnePlus gets plenty right on the Watch 2R, and battery life is at the top of the list. The OnePlus Watch 2R lasted more than two full days on a single charge, going from 100% at 11:30 a.m. on July 27 down to 10% at around 10:41 p.m. on July 29. 

Battery life will always vary depending on how you use the watch. I left the always-on display turned on for much of that two-day period and activated the sleep tracking feature that assesses breathing problems by examining blood oxygen readings and breathing patterns, which also drains the battery faster. 

Tracking long outdoor workouts using GPS can also impact battery life (I mostly logged 10 to 20-minute outdoor walks, while the majority of my workouts were done indoors). 

But when the watch does run out of charge, it powers up quickly. It went from 10% to 56% in 20 minutes, which made it easy for me to juice up the watch while I was in the shower before heading out the door.

Even though the sensors and components are largely the same as those in the OnePlus Watch 2, I was pleasantly surprised to find that heart rate readings felt more accurate. When I reviewed the OnePlus Watch 2R earlier this year, heart rate data during workouts didn’t always match those taken by my Polar chest strap monitor. 

That’s normal to some degree; chest straps are usually more accurate since they’re positioned much closer to the heart. But the gap between the two was larger than usual, typically requiring me to reposition the watch to get a good result.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case with the OnePlus Watch 2R. The watch fell closely in line with my chest strap without having to fuss around with the fit. On top of that, the auto-pause functionality seemed very responsive. Whenever I briefly stopped during a run to check a phone notification or skip a track on Spotify, the watch buzzed my wrist almost immediately to let me know it had paused my workout.

What I don’t like about the OnePlus Watch 2R

My biggest complaint about OnePlus’ new smartwatch is still its size. It has nearly the same dimensions, display size and wrist circumference as the OnePlus Watch 2, which is far too large for my taste. That’s not entirely uncommon for Android smartwatches, especially those with more of a sports-oriented design such as the Watch 2R (the TicWatch Pro 5, for example, has even slightly larger dimensions). For context, my wrist circumference is 5.5 inches, or 139 millimeters, which is just shy of the 140 to 210mm size for the OnePlus Watch 2R listed on the company’s website. 

When I first heard that OnePlus decided to release a secondary variant of its 2024 smartwatch, I hoped it would be a smaller version. The Watch 2R may be lighter and cheaper than the OnePlus Watch 2, but its hefty size makes it feel like it’s targeted at the same audience. Launching a smaller variant would have given people like me with smaller wrists a reason to consider a OnePlus Watch instead of one from Google or Samsung. 

Even though the OnePlus Watch 2R has an almost dizzying number of workouts to choose from, including jump rope, dog walking and about 10 different types of yoga, there’s no option for high intensity interval training, or HIIT. These are fast-paced, high-intensity cardio workouts that usually alternate between work and rest intervals in about 30-second increments.

It’s a surprising omission considering HIIT is reasonably popular — or at least it’s probably more popular than kite flying and tug-of-war, both of which are exercise options on the Watch 2R. Sports and fitness website BarBend found HIIT to be the second most popular workout in the US based on Google search volume after analyzing more than 6,000 workout- and fitness-related search terms, for example. 

OnePlus’ health app, known as OHealth, also feels a bit bare-bones compared with other apps like Samsung Health, Fitbit and Apple Health. While it does provide a sleep score and makes it easy to see daily progress at a glance, I haven’t seen overall trends or insights in the main dashboard. The ability to crunch data to provide takeaways and insights is becoming all the more important for wearables, so just presenting fitness and health stats may not be enough to stand out.

Since the OnePlus Watch 2R shares a lot of the same hardware and software with the OnePlus Watch 2, my other criticisms of that watch likely also apply here. The Watch 2 lacks fall detection and is only guaranteed two years of software updates. I’ve reached out to OnePlus to confirm whether that’s also the case for the 2R as well and will update this story accordingly.

As I wrote earlier this year, the OnePlus Watch 2 may be a good choice for those who really just want a big screen, long battery life and plenty of workout options. The Watch 2R offers all of that at an even more affordable price, but you’ll have to be a fan of large watches to appreciate it.