When you're choosing the best Apple Watch in terms of battery life, there's only one place to look. The Apple Watch Ultra 2 can run for longer than any other Apple wearable between visits to the charger and it's the model to go for if battery life is a key feature for you. But as strong as the Apple Watch Ultra 2's 36-hour battery life (or 72 hours in Low Power Mode) might be, it still isn't the best you can find in a smartwatch. Not by a long shot.
That's something that has been very much proven following the unveiling of the new OnePlus Watch 2, a product that was shown off for the first time at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) event in Barcelona, Spain. The wearable, which is obviously aimed more at Android phone owners than those carrying an iPhone 15, has battery life for literal days. Days upon days, in fact.
OnePlus says that its new smartwatch can run for 100 hours on a single charge, and that's without turning off all of the best features as well. The way it does it is pretty incredible, packing two different chips and effectively running two different operating systems, the OnePlus Watch 2 can switch between them depending on what is needed at the time. Magic? Perhaps not, but it isn't all that far off.
A smarter smartwatch
OnePlus announced its latest wearable in a press release that detailed exactly what buyers of this little marvel can expect. The watch features what OnePlus calls Dual-Engine Architecture which means it uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 performance chip when it needs to run apps and other smart features. But when it's just telling you the time it switches to a BES 2700 MCU chipset that's designed with efficiency and battery life in mind.
"The BES2700 Efficiency Chipset runs RTOS and handles background activity and simple tasks, while the Snapdragon W5 handles more demanding tasks, like running your favorite Google apps," OnePlus explains. "This optimized approach, enabled by the Wear OS hybrid interface seamlessly managing the transition between chips, means users will experience a smartwatch that effortlessly does it all while extending the time between charges."
And by all accounts, it works. 100 hours between charges is impressive and even during heavy use wearers can expect 48 hours before the OnePlus Watch 2 is screaming for power. Charging is nice and quick as well with a 7.5W VOOC charger fully charging the 500mAh battery in just an hour.
While the Apple Watch Ultra models use titanium and go for the rugged look, that definitely isn't the case here. The OnePlus watch 2 is made out of stainless steel and is raised for IP68 water resistance. It's even certified to the latest MIL-STD-810H US military standard, should that thing be of interest to you. All the usual features are also present including sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and more.
The OnePlus Watch 2 will be available in Radiant Steel and Black Steel with a price of $299.99 when the watch goes on sale this March 4th. And while it's unlikely many iPhone owners will rush out to pick one up, products like this are a good thing for Apple Watch owners as well. As is so often the case, competition is good for everyone and the more other smartwatch makers step up to the plate the more impetus Apple has to improve the Apple Watch lineup, too.
More from iMore
- I never loved my Apple Watch until I used it at the beach
- Apple Watch Ultra 2 review: The adventure continues
- How to train for a marathon with the Apple Watch Ultra 2
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Oliver Haslam
Contributor
Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.
Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.
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3 CommentsComment from the forums
Just_Me_D I’ll stick with my Watch Ultra 2… :)
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Annie_M Ummm, no thanks! I'll be sticking with my Apple Watch!
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FFR I thought one plus went out of business
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