The OnePlus Watch 3 launched last week with tremendous battery life and welcome improvements, but it didn’t address two key requests in size and LTE support. Apparently, though, that’s coming “this year.”
Following up on the excellent OnePlus Watch 2, the OnePlus Watch 3 seems like a solid smartwatch. It extends battery life out to five days with a bigger battery, improves on the hardware and design considerably, and also brings welcome health upgrades too. But that didn’t solve a couple of core complaints that many had with the first generation.
One of those complaints is the size.
The OnePlus Watch 3 is a big wearable, with a chassis that measures upwards of 47mm. In an interview with PULSE by Wareable, a paid newsletter, Head of R&D at the OnePlus Health Lab, Dr. Leo Zhang, acknowledges that some users may want a smaller smartwatch, and teases that it will “fix that this year.”
It’s true that the watch remains heavy for a small wrist and that this typically affects women, but we will fix that this year. We value our customer’s voice and we’re working on that.
There’s no word on if this would come as a new smartwatch entirely or just a smaller version of the existing device, but it’s not the only change in the pipeline.
Zhang goes on to acknowledge the lack of LTE support in the global version of the OnePlus Watch 3, saying that “technology isn’t a problem,” and that rather it’s a “big hurdle” with carriers. He adds that LTE is “something we’re working on… especially in Europe.”
LTE is also something we get asked about by many users. The technology isn’t a problem, that part is quite simple. In China’s domestic market, we have an LTE version. In an overseas market, we need to work with the carriers—and that’s a big hurdle. We need to work with carriers so users can put in an eSIM and have a data plan… So LTE is something we’re working on, and as long as we work smoothly with the carriers, especially in Europe, we should have that as well.
There’s no word on when these new variants might arrive, but the OnePlus Watch 2R did debut about 4-5 months after the Watch 2.
The OnePlus Watch 3 is technically available now, though orders are currently disabled as OnePlus remedies a typo on its existing stock.
More on OnePlus:
- The OnePlus Watch 3 was ‘Meda in China’
- OnePlus Watch 3 has ECG support, but not in the United States or Canada
- How to get 120 hours of battery life on the OnePlus Watch 3
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