Oppo Watch global: Looks like an Apple Watch, but runs on Wear OS

Oppo has announced the launch of a global variant of the Oppo Watch, and just like the China version, Oppo’s latest smartwatch looks to be heavily, heavily inspired by the design of the Apple Watch. The most obvious difference here? The Oppo Watch runs on Wear OS—as opposed to ColorOS Watch (which is also based on Android).

There are three available models within two sizes: 41mm and 46mm. The 46mm one also comes with LTE support via eSIM, although you’re missing the option for the smaller version. Just like the China version, one of the more unique things about the smartwatch is the dual-curved screen, with a 3D flexible hyperboloid display offering a frameless appearance of sorts—although this is only for the 46mm version..

Additionally, you’re missing the “crown” from the Apple Watch here (IP issues, perhaps?), with two physical buttons on the right side of the watch body instead. The larger 46mm watch has a large 1.91″ AMOLED display pushing a resolution of 402×476 pixels, while the 41mm variant has a “rigid” 1.6″ AMOLED display with a 320×360 resolution.

Battery life isn’t amazing, per se. The larger version has a 430mAh battery that gives an estimated 36-hour use-time in smartwatch mode, and Power Saver mode should last you 21 days. As expected, these numbers are smaller on the 41mm variant: up to 24 hours in smartwatch mode and 14 days in Power Saver mode. You’ll still have support for VOOC fast-charging tech, however, with Watch VOOC Flash Charging. This means that you should be able to get a full charge within 75 minutes, or 46 percent within 15 minutes.

Much of the watch’s interface should be familiar to Wear OS users, with the Oppo Watch powered by the dual Snapdragon Wear 3100 and Apollo 3 Wireless SoCs under the hood. This means access to Google Play, Google Pay, Google Assistant, and so on. You’ll even be able to “download music” onto the watch, although this will have to work with supported apps—Spotify doesn’t support this for Wear OS, but Google Play Music does.

The Chinese company has made several tweaks to the UI, however. There are custom watch faces, an Oppo Health app, and more functionality that has been brought over from Oppo’s smartwatch UI. There’s also water resistance of 5ATM for the 46mm (3ATM for 41mm), and you get 1GB of RAM and 8GB of onboard storage for both models. Oppo hasn’t confirmed if there will be a built-in speaker and microphone, but the company says that Google Assistant is supported, so a microphone seems likely.

The Oppo Watch will be available in select markets, with initial release via pre-order in India. Pricing starts at INR14,990 (~RM847), which is slightly cheaper than the launch price in China. However, more details—including Malaysian availability—have yet to be announced. As always, bookmark SoyaCincau.com on your browsers for the latest updates.

So, yay or nay on the Oppo Watch? Does the Wear OS-powered Apple Watch-lookalike scratch your itch? Let us know in the comments section below. To find out more, click here.

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