OnePlus Watch 2R
OnePlus has taken a jab at Samsung by teasing its upcoming line-up of devices just a day before Samsung’s Unpacked event.
The Watch 2R is OnePlus’s incoming smartwatch, due for a full announcement on July 16.
Why is OnePlus teasing exactly what it’s going to reveal a week ahead of time? That’s just how the online tech hype cycle operates these days, at least in some companies.
OnePlus’s early images of the Watch 2R alone offer an idea of what to expect. But it is also expected to be similar, or the same as, a watch announced for the Chinese market in June.
The standard OnePlus Watch 2 was only released in February for western audiences, and this new watch is not a full generational upgrade on that model.
One change is obvious. The unusual lopsided casing design of the Watch 2 has been replaced by a more ordinary round casing.
The Watch 2R is also expected to be slightly cheaper than the OnePlus Watch 2, which currently sells for $299.
While the recent Chinese release of the mid-generation refresh has the same core specs, it has an aluminium casing instead of a stainless steel one, which is coming to the Watch2R too. There was also no mention of the Sapphire crystal used for screen protection in the standard Watch 2.
This is one obvious way to reduce the watch’s cost, by using slightly less expensive materials.
One key change in the Chinese version is support for an eSIM, although it’s not yet clear if this will come to the OnePlus Watch 2R too.
The company has used “R” branding to denote more affordable models, like the OnePlus 12R.
It costs $499, compared to the $799 of the standard OnePlus 12. However, those two phones were announced at the same time, not half a year apart.
This could prove a problem for the OnePlus Watch 2, as price erosion over time at online retailers could eat into the savings the OnePlus Watch 2R seeks to provide.
The OnePlus Watch 2 is a Wear OS watch with 32GB storage and the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chipset. These are expected to return in the Watch 2R, while OnePlus has confirmed the new watch has 100-hour battery life and dual-frequency GPS.
OnePlus will announce the Watch 2R on July 16 at a launch event in Milan, alongside the Nord 3 phone, the Pad 2 tablet and the Nord Buds 3 Pro earphones.