Last week, OnePlus launched its very first smartwatch, the OnePlus Watch. The $159 watch comes with several features but also misses out on some, one of which is Always-On Display (AOD). In a Deep Dive and FAQ posted on its official forums, OnePlus explains why the feature is missing and the possibility of it being added later on.
The OnePlus Watch has a 1.39-inch AMOLED display. Owners will be able to wake the display by pushing the side button or lifting their wrist. If the watch had support for AOD, owners would not have to do either of these just to check the time or date.
OnePlus acknowledges that AOD is a much requested feature, however, it explains that AOD can lead to a 50% increase in power consumption. Nevertheless, they are “evaluating the possibility of bringing it in a future OTA”
Some manufacturers that include the AOD feature in their smartwatches allow users to be able to turn it off or on when they want. For example, on the Amazfit GTR, there is a settings menu that lets you turn on or off the feature. It also lets you customize what time during the day you want it activated. We expect OnePlus will follow a similar pattern if it decides to bring the feature to the OnePlus Watch.
The post also mentions some other important details about the watch. OnePlus says that they optimized the bottom layer of the display architecture and increased the frame rate from the industry’s 30 fps standard to 50 fps. This result in the OnePlus Watch beiing one of the smoothest smartwatches with long battery life available.
OnePlus also revealed that an OTA update will allow users customize a pre-set reply list to instantly reply to messages on the watch. At the moment, the pre-set reply list cannot be modified.
The OnePlus Watch will go on sale on April 14 in select markets. It is only compatible with Android devices for now and works with the OnePlus Health app.
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