Oppo has officially unveiled the Oppo Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro with the duo launching in China first packing Qualcomm's new Snapdragon W5 chip.
Announced on the same day as the arrival of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, Oppo's flagship follows the launch of the Oppo Watch 2, which appeared in 2021, but never made it outside of China.
Read this: Exciting smartwatches to look forward to
Oppo's latest flagship smartwatch now comes in standard and Pro versions – with the Pro featuring a full curved flexible screen, which definitely feels like a throwback to the Samsung Gear S, which launched back in 2014.
Oppo Watch 3 and Pro features
The Oppo Watch 3 will be available in black and gold looks, with a 43mm case made predominantly from an aluminium alloy and weighs 31.9g minus the strap.
There's a 1.75-inch, 372 x 430 resolution AMOLED touchscreen and it's waterproof up to 50 metres.
Both the Watch 3 and Pro offer the choice of silicone and leather straps.
The Oppo Watch 3 Pro comes in black or brown colors with a 50.4mm sized case that's also made from an aluminium alloy.
It's heavier at 37.5g without the strap and features a larger 1.91-inch, 378 x 496 resolution always-on, LTPO curved screen.
The display tech that has appeared on some smartphones and is designed to deliver exceptional screen quality without seriously compromising battery performance.
Both smartwatches are equipped to work with Android and iPhones and are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5 along with an Apollo 4 Plus processor to take care of tasks that demand less power. Both have 1GB of RAM and 32GB of ROM.
There's no sign of Wear OS, so Oppo is sticking to its own proprietary operating system, which it says offers access to 80+ apps.
Like it has done previously when it launched the first Oppo Watch outside of China, it could turn to Google's smartwatch operating system if or when they decide to launch these smartwatches further afield.
It's promising features like the ability to unlock cars, track workouts, navigate your way around and access its own smart assistant.
Sensors-wise, you're getting largely the same across with the Pro getting a pretty notable extra. There's the standard motion sensors, an optical heart rate sensor and blood oxygen sensor, while the Pro also gets and ECG sensor to report irregular heart rate rhythms.
There's NFC on board to enable NFC payments and to use the watches as travel cards. There's eSim support on both watches to offer that extra connectivity support.
You're getting over 100 sports modes with automatic exercise recognition for six activities. There's richer stats promised for runners and a dedicated tennis tracking mode that's capable of monitoring shots, swing speed and stroke type. 24/7 activity tracking and sleep monitoring also make the cut with a new health pixie to monitor wellness.
In terms of battery life, the Oppo Watch 3 Pro hosts a 550mAh capacity battery that promises 5 days in full smartwatch mode and 15 days with lighter usage. With LTE and full smartwatch mode, it's 4 days or 2.5 days in heavy usage. There's also a quick charge mode that will give you a day's play after a 10-minute charge.
The Oppo Watch 3 has a smaller 400mAh battery and that delivers 4 days in full smartwatch mode or 10 days in lighter usage. Adding LTE gives you anywhere from 1.5-3 days. It takes 60 minutes to fully charge and also gives you a day's play after a 10-minute charge.
Oppo Watch 3 Pro and Watch 3 price and release date
The Oppo Watch 3 and Watch 3 Pro are currently only confirmed to be going on sale in China. Pricing starts at at CNY 1,599 for the Watch 3, which works out to around £195/$237.
The Watch 3 Pro pricing starts at CNY 1,999, which is roughly £244/$297.
That's pretty reasonable when you consider those conversions, but we get the sense that won't accurately reflect how much they'll cost if they launch in other territories.
If you do live in China, you can order both smartwatches and the Oppo Band 2 now before they all go on sale on 19 August.
We really liked the first Oppo Watch and the larger LTE Oppo Watch. They were standout Wear OS smartwatches, which offered a strong mix of Google's and Oppo's own software. The Oppo Watch 2 didn't go global, but we hope that curved screen and impressive set of specs on the Watch 3 Pro in particular does make it out of China this time.
Oppo Band 2 joins the tracker party
If two new Oppo smartwatches wasn't enough for you, Oppo has also launched a new Oppo Band 2 fitness tracker, which has a design that looks to be more in line with its Oppo Watch Free tracker as opposed to the Oppo Band we tested back in 2021.
The Oppo Band 2 features a 1.57-inch AMOLED display, which makes it a big display upgrade on the original (1.1-inch). It comes in standard and NFC versions with the standard version priced at CNY 249 (£30/$37) and the NFC model pricier at CNY 299 (£37/$44)
It runs on Oppo's custom operating system and will work with Android and iOS, though support for some features it seems will vary across platforms.
It's promising to track over 100 sports modes, GPS, the ability to track steps and sleep, let you pick from a big range of watch faces and also make your own to match outfits. There's continuous heart rate monitoring support, NFC payments on the NFC version of course and the promise of up to 14-day battery life.
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.