OnePlus could be about to return to the smartwatch fray with a new budget offering.
That’s the word from a new report on 91Mobiles, which credits twitter tech tipster Yogesh Brar.
According to Brar, OnePlus is prepping to launch a budget device in India. The budget smartwatch will cost between Rs 5,000 and Rs 8,000. To put that in context, it would put the smartwatch in the sub-$100 category, and up against the likes of the Realme Watch 2 Lite.
There’s no word on the specs and features the OnePlus Nord could pack in, but the device could launch alongside the rumored Nord 3 smartphone.
It wouldn’t be OnePlus’ first smartwatch. That dubious honor went to the OnePlus Watch, which was launched in 2021. The smartwatch was much anticipated after being shelved in 2016.
However, despite an attractive $159 price tag and a decent build and design, it was a software horror show, with basic, buggy and incomplete features that made it impossible to recommend.
We called out the accuracy of GPS and bugs in the software that made it unusable (including changing the language to Urdu during an update). But we did conclude at the time that these were all fixable aspects of the experience, and that the watch itself and battery life were all sound.
If OnePlus has spent the last two years fixing the software aspect, then a budget offering could be a smart move.
The company has already shown that it could build something premium looking at an affordable price, so repeating that trick could be a path to redemption.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.