Oppo Watch X smartwatch review: expensive and tasteful

 

The flagship watch Oppo Watch X received the latest technologies and sensors. They do not support hundreds of sports modes and allow you to pay for coffee right during a walk. We will tell you more about the watch in this review

 

Design and ergonomics

 

Oppo Watch X is the flagship watch of the company, but they look so concise and restrained that they only know about it after studying the information about them in advance.

 

The glass of the screen covers almost the entire circle of the dial. The metal case protrudes only slightly at its edges. On the right there are two buttons – round and rectangular.

 

The round case rotates, but it does not perform any flips or adjustments. A silicone strap with minimal backlash is attached to the case with a classic 22 m wide fastener. Only by adding clarification that the glass on the screen is sapphire, and the case is made of stainless steel, you understand that it is a flagship-level smart watch.

 

 

The complete strap looks ordinary, but in terms of quality it feels good. It is moderately rigid and flexible. Much more reliable than some seemingly thick silicone straps. Despite the fact that it keeps its shape and does not bend too much, it does not squeeze the hand. Adjustment is sufficient for hands of almost any diameter. The colors of the straps are black, like ours, as well as white and brown.

 

Hardware

 

 

Oppo Watch X received the latest technologies and sensors. The display with a diameter of 1.43 inches uses a matrix based on AMOLED technology. The resolution in numbers may not blow the imagination, but in reality, the fine lines and small details of the interface look great and are clearly visible. The minimum brightness is sufficient for dark rooms and use at night. The maximum in most scenarios, too, but in some cases of bright sun shining directly on the watch, the larger elements of the dial help to compensate for the lack of illumination.

 

 

The body is made of steel and feels very high quality and well put together. The watch is quite heavy for its size. Most people like it. The housing has a level of protection against water and dust IP68. Therefore, you can safely run, get under the rain, wash them and swim for up to an hour at a shallow depth. The watch cannot withstand higher pressure, so it is not worth checking it at a depth of more than a meter.

 

 

Sensors include a pedometer, heart rate monitor, and pulse oximeter (SpO2). The watch can track the route without a connected smartphone at the time of training thanks to the built-in GPS.

 

The watch can monitor the quality of sleep, control music on a smartphone (the icon will appear automatically on the dial), accept and reject calls, read messages and SMS.

 

What makes them stand out among the many smart time trackers is the presence of NFC. Without taking a smartphone out of your pocket to pay for purchases, buying a subway ticket simply by placing your hand with your watch on the terminal is priceless. Although it will require you to enter a pin code, these are the Google payment security rules.

 

 

For charging, 4-pins are used, which must be added to the branded charger. It supports fast branded VOOC Flash Charge with a power of 10 W. More often, such devices charge twice as slowly.

 

Interface and operation

 

The watch runs on Wear OS from Google. Google’s dedicated operating system for wearable devices is very convenient. We have a smart interface, several options for presenting the program menu. More specifically, it is possible to use navigation on maps, receiving hints on the watch.

 

 

But the exotic thing is that the watch has two operating systems. And a separate chipset is installed for each. The main Wear OS by Google is powered by Snapdragon W5 Gen 1. The auxiliary, RTOS or Real Time Operating System is powered by Bestechnic BES2700BP. The RTOS has 4GB of eMMC memory, while the Wear OS has 32GB of faster built-in memory. The second is designed for routine and not difficult tasks.

 

Navigating the software interface can be unusual, because we get to the menu through a button, and we go back one step by swiping the screen. That is, a kind of hybrid control is used. It can be inconvenient, for example, while driving, although we certainly do not recommend using gadgets while driving.

 

Calling the program menu and exiting it is the same button – the top. This is ok if the return is only one level of nesting. And yes, we always go to the dial and the menu journey starts from scratch. Instinctively, we did this for the first few days. And only then did they get used to swipes to return.

 

The lower button can be programmed to be pressed once or twice. There is no action “back” one step in the list of functions. Only call applications and menu items, workouts, for example.

 

 

It is noteworthy that they paid a lot of attention to autonomy. The fact is that the average smart watch lives on one battery charge for one day. The Oppo watch would have suffered the same fate if not for the “duality” of the system. The “smart” mode of operation of the watch determines the type of load and user behavior, optimizing computing resources. As a result, we really have 3-4 days of autonomous work with all active notifications and background tracking of the body’s condition. Yes, with daily training of more than an hour using navigation, we will return to 1-2 days. If you use it at a minimum – in energy-saving mode, receive some notifications, control music and monitor sleep, then you can go out even for 10-11 days. Unfortunately, we did not receive the 12 that were requested.

 

Appendix

 

OHealth looks suspiciously like another brand’s watch customization app. At least the menu of the dials of their viewing is so accurate. However, in general, it is more concise, there are fewer settings and mainly displays physical data and basic watch settings.

 

What should be borrowed from this other brand is the possibility of easy color customization of the dials. There are many designs of the main screen, of course, classic options with arrows are more suitable for a round screen, but digital or creative ones also look good.

 

 

Impressions

 

Currently, high- and medium-level smart watches differ by literally a few points in the list of supported sports modes. As a rule, there are at least fifty of them, reaching a psychological mark of one hundred. The problem is that ordinary people will probably find their sports hobbies among several dozen. And the exotic ones will probably require a more professional tracker. Although this is only a guess. We found cycling, running, walking, Nordic walking, kayaking, indoor and outdoor rowing, kayaking, rollerblading, skating, tennis, squash, table tennis, badminton, horse riding… In the more protected devices there was swimming in the pool and exposed to water. We do not understand what other 90 types a smart watch user needs. This watch automatically recognizes running, walking, cycling, swimming, and elliptical trainers.

 

As for the sensors, here we get the impression that manufacturers want their smart watch to eventually (interesting pun) replace a visit to a therapist. Measurement of pulse, oxygen level, temperature, pressure and sugar. All this from the wrist. It sounds like a commercial idea of ​​the medical startup Theranos, whose directorate was imprisoned.

 

 

The Oppo Watch X can really do a little more than just count activity times, estimated calories, and sleep time. The sensitivity of the gyro sensor is enough to evaluate the game of badminton. The watch will analyze the amplitude and intensity of movements. The programmed algorithms calculate the recovery time based on the received data after the run. All of this really works with reasonable assumptions and is definitely cheaper than a personal trainer. Buying tea or shopping in a store on the road is a little easier thanks to contactless payment.

 

In general, Oppo Watch X is one of the leaders in terms of similarity with a classic watch, which many are looking for. Yes, Apple Watch and similar cubes on the wrist suit many. But in this case, we have surprisingly good autonomy, a good functional set and an excellent classic design with good protection.

 

Oppo Watch X (OWWE231) Smart Watch Features

Display:	1.43”, 466×466, AMOLED, 600 threads
Processor:	Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1
RAM+ROM memory:	2+32GB
Operating system:	Google Wear OS 4
Sensors:	acceleration, gyroscope, geomagnetic, barometer,
Communications:	Bluetooth 5.0 BLE
Navigation:	GPS
Wi-Fi:	802.11 a/b/g/n
Charging:	conductive magnetic
Compatibility:	Android 8+, iOS 12.0+
Battery capacity:	500 mAh
Protection:	MIL-STD-810H, IP68
Weight:	80 g (with strap)
Dimensions:	47×46×12 mm
Where to buy:	Representative of Oppo in Ukraine
Price:	$355

Rating:

+ quality of materials

+ screen protection + responsive interface

+ autonomy

+ NFC

 

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