(Credit: OnePlus)
A follow-up to the best battery-life smartwatch is imminent, with OnePlus taking an odd approach to announce its next wearable.
The OnePlus Watch 4 is now official on the company’s website, as spotted by Android Authority, and its inclusion on a global store suggests it may not be limited to a China-only launch. That may mean it will one day come to the US, but OnePlus has yet to confirm availability or pricing.
It comes in two colors: Evergreen Titanium (green) and Midnight Titanium (black). The design looks rugged but light at 43 grams, with water resistance up to 50 meters, and it’s 6% thinner than the last-gen watch. It features an LTPO OLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466.
Inside is a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 chipset supported by a BES 2800 co-processor, which is the same as the last two generations of the OnePlus Watch. It’s a shame the brand hasn’t opted for Qualcomm’s latest top-end wearable chip, but we found performance was suitable on previous versions. There’s also 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.
You get access to the latest Wear OS 6 software as part of Oxygen OS Watch 8. This makes it the first OnePlus wearable to run the latest software, which is expected to roll out to other variants later this year.
The highlight of OnePlus smartwatches remains battery life, with this version offering up to five days of normal use and 16 days in power-saving mode. We found that the last-gen smartwatch matched OnePlus' promises in our testing, so expect this latest model to last a long time between charges.
The big question is whether you’ll be able to buy it. OnePlus has yet to announce availability details, and it’s unclear when it will. Previous OnePlus Watch devices have been sold in the US, including a smaller variant of the OnePlus Watch 3 introduced last summer.
Since then, rumors have circulated that OnePlus may be reconsidering its business outside China and India. The brand recently said it’s “evaluating its regional roadmap and product strategy in Europe.”
We’ve yet to hear anything firm about changes for OnePlus in the US, suggesting the Watch 4 will likely launch as per normal. The next big question is when that will be, and how much it is set to cost.
The OnePlus Watch 3 launched at $329.99, but it was later hiked to $499.99. That was a temporary price, and the brand eventually dropped it back to $349.99, issuing refunds of the difference to those who paid the higher amount.
However, this will be the first smartwatch from OnePlus to launch after many consumer gadget makers have raised prices amid the ongoing global storage crisis. If you’re thinking of buying a OnePlus Watch 4, you should anticipate the price to be higher.