In brief: Oppo has already released one of the most interesting Wear OS watches this year. The Chinese company wants to one up other brands with a new Oppo Watch that will sport electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality, which would make it the first Wear OS watch to do so.
Back in March, Oppo unveiled the Oppo Watch, which is the latest Apple Watch clone with a slim profile, an AMOLED display with a resolution of 402 by 476 and a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits, aluminum/stainless steel frame, and a ceramic backplate. It’s been available internationally (except for the US) since August, and is one of the few worthwhile Wear OS smartwatches that’s held back only by its starting price of $300.
Most of the other Wear OS smartwatches are produced by Fossil, despite Google’s efforts to reinvent the ecosystem. They’re also extremely generic in that they come with the same health and activity tracking features, as well as support for Google Pay, Google Fit, and Google Assistant.
The Oppo Watch comes with a “3D curved” screen akin to that found in the company’s smartphones, and is powered by a dual-chip solution that combines the performance of Snapdragon Wear 3100 and the power efficiency of an Ambiq Apollo 3 co-processor. These two alone are great differentiators, as is the integration of SuperVOOC fast charging tech which can fully charge the battery in 75 minutes.
The company isn’t content with just imitating the general look and feel of the Apple Watch, and is working to release a new variant of the Oppo Watch that will also include “professional-grade” ECG functionality. The feature has been teased for months, but it likely didn’t get approved by health authorities in time for the official launch.
According to a teaser on Oppo’s Weibo page, the new Oppo Watch will arrive on September 24. It’s reportedly pending US FDA approval as a Class II medical device, which would make it the third US smartwatch to support ECG along Apple Watch and Fitbit Sense. In terms of pricing, we can expect it to cost slightly more than the stainless steel version, which has a price tag of $369.