OnePlus Watch 2 leaks point to larger screen and Wear OS 4
Changes are incoming
In our OnePlus Watch review we gave the wearable four stars out of five, so we're intrigued to see if OnePlus can improve that score with the OnePlus Watch 2 – and some new details about the upcoming device have just leaked out.
Unofficial renders of the smartwatch have now been published by MySmartPrice and @OnLeaks (via Android Authority), and among the changes on show is a slightly bigger 1.43-inch AMOLED display (compared to the 1.39-inch AMOLED screen of the original).
We also have a slight bump to the right-hand side of the watch face – this is new, and could house a couple of physical buttons. It seems that this time around there will be black and white options, rather than the single black color that the OnePlus Watch is available in.
MySmartPrice says that the renders are based on "actual images of a prototype in the testing phase", so the final design might look different. We're also told that the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chipset will be powering everything under the hood.
Sooo #FutureSquad... Here comes your very first and early look at the #OnePlus Watch successor (which I assume will be unveiled as the #OnePlusWatch2) through stunning 5K renders, along with its display size and CPU...😏On behalf of @mysmartprice 👉🏻 https://t.co/2OOn2AuZTf pic.twitter.com/prTB1G6FWpNovember 10, 2023
Ready to Wear OS
While there might not be huge differences in terms of the design of the OnePlus Watch 2 compared to its predecessor, we are hearing that there will be a change on the software side: specifically, the adoption of Google's Wear OS 4.
According to Max Jambor (via 9to5Google), the smartwatch will make the switch to Wear OS, after OnePlus went with a custom operating system on its first model. That meant limitations in terms of available apps and watch faces.
It's the same software that runs on wearables such as the Pixel Watch 2, and as a result the OnePlus Watch 2 should be much more versatile in terms of its capabilities beyond the core functions that come built in out of the box.
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Rumors about the OnePlus Watch 2 have been rather thin on the ground so far, but we have heard that it'll be "better" than the original (as you would hope, really), and that it's scheduled to launch sometime in 2024.
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Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.