OnePlus’ initial venture into the popular wearables market is the OnePlus Band. The new OnePlus Band is a cheap fitness tracker that keeps track of your exercises, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, sleep patterns, and notifications. It was launched only in India.
BUILD AND DESIGN
In terms of fitness bands, the OnePlus Band is rather standard. The fitness tracker is rather unobtrusive and certainly not obtrusive.
The display is crisp and clear, and the colors are vibrant.
The core module has a touchscreen panel with a 1.1-inch AMOLED display. The 294 x 126 resolution is standard for fitness trackers in this category.
The interface is slick and responsive, but it will take some time to get used to, especially if you’re used to the operating system of another wearable. It also stands out from the sea of typical minimalist fitness bands thanks to subtle design aspects.
You’ll discover a daily activity record with your health metrics, workouts, heart rate tracking, collecting SpO2 data, sleep data, breathing exercises, weather, and tools all in one place. In a minute, we’ll come to the last one.
A slew of sensors, including a heart rate monitor and a SpO2 sensor, may be found in the backside. Two pogo pins are inserted into the charging dongle at the top.
The OnePlus Band is available in a single color–anthracite-like black — but additional strap variations are now available. This contains a navy blue and tangerine grey color scheme similar to OnePlus’ McLaren edition phones.
The strap is rather comfy once you’ve got it on, although it’s a little clumsy to put on.
To charge it, you’ll need to remove the core module from the silicon strap. This is simple enough, however, connecting it to the dongle can be tricky. It isn’t easy to install, but once done, it stays put. The dongle is far too short. You’ll find it dangling from the USB charger’s end.
ONEPLUS BAND FITNESS TRACKING
The OnePlus Band can monitor 13 different activities, including the usual suspects like jogging, cycling, swimming, yoga, and more. The heart-rate monitor takes up the rhythm of your heart. while you sweat it out, while the built-in SpO2 sensor provides more specific information on the workout you complete.
The band transmits your heart rate data while cycling, as well as GPS data if you have your phone with you. As a consequence, the Health app shows you how many calories you’ve expended as well as your heart rate. However, because the OnePlus Band lacks GPS sensors, you will lose GPS-based information if you go for a ride without your smartphone.
ONEPLUS BAND SLEEP TRACKING
The OnePlus Band also has a sleep tracker and can produce reliable deep-sleep data owing to the heart rate and SpO2 sensors. The OnePlus Band is quite accurate in terms of sleep length. Although there is no method to validate the sleep phases data.
SMART FEATURES AND ONEPLUS HEALTH APP
The OnePlus Band isn’t a smartwatch, but it provides a decent collection of functionality. Table stakes, such as relaying alerts, are reliable. The band detects music players automatically and displays a music player widget for most music apps. Spotify and YouTube Music, for example, functioned well, but Tidal did not.
Apart from that, the Band’s features’ general dependability shined through. Even if it can’t respond to notifications or call alarms, it never misses them. The band’s tools tab contains a stopwatch, a timer, and find my phone function, and the ability to activate your phone’s camera.
While the OnePlus Band does not require a OnePlus smartphone to sync and function, it requires the OnePlus Health App.
The Health Software isn’t the most user-friendly app we’ve seen for managing health data.
In addition, the daily activity page does not provide a full summary of your previous exercises. In this section of the app, there’s also no linked heart-rate data. Step count may be found in a separate section of the main page, however, it only displays the overall number of steps you’ve taken in the week/month/year, with the daily breakdown only shown as a graph.
BATTERY LIFE
OnePlus now promises a 14-day battery life for the Band, which is reasonable given the device’s bare-bones sensors and limited smart features. With charging, the 100mAh battery takes roughly 45-50 minutes to completely charge. You’ll receive notifications on your band, but you won’t be able to do anything with them. You won’t find the band’s battery depleted by a large amount because there is no GPS onboard, as you could with other wearable gadgets that include onboard GPS. However, with the SpO2 monitoring set to maximum, I only lasted approximately three days. Since then, OnePlus has released a software update aimed at resolving the battery drain issue.
Is it worth buying?
The OnePlus Band is the company’s first fitness tracker, and while it isn’t a full-fledged smartwatch, it has a lot of features. Its design stands out from the crowd thanks to a finely curved silicone band with a dual-tone finish.
The OnePlus Band is adequate as a basic fitness tracker, but it doesn’t go above and beyond. Because of how intense the competition is, it does not receive a strong recommendation from us. If competitors like the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 5 aren’t an option, your options are even more limited.
