OnePlus Watch 2R: There’s a lot to like, unless you have narrow wrists

With a lower price and lighter build, the $230 OnePlus Watch 2R is sure to please Android fans looking for a reliable smartwatch without breaking the bank. Unfortunately, I don’t quite fit that mold.

Like the $300 OnePlus Watch 2, there’s a lot to love about the Watch 2R. The battery lasts comfortably for days, the screen is sharp, and there’s a handy, dedicated button for quickly starting a workout or launching an app. My biggest gripe with the OnePlus Watch 2, however, has trickled down to the OnePlus Watch 2R: its bulky design. Even though it’s lighter than the OnePlus Watch 2, it takes up just as much real estate on my wrist.

Size may not be the most important factor in a smartwatch, and there are plenty of Android users who will likely find the size and fit just right. Still, it feels like OnePlus has neglected those of us with smaller wrists, which makes smaller smartwatches like the Google Pixel Watch 2 or Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 even more tempting.

If you can look past the large size, the OnePlus Watch 2R is a bit cheaper and offers a larger display than the $300 Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. The OnePlus’ biggest competitor is likely the TicWatch Pro 5, which normally costs $350 but is on sale for $262 right now. I’ll have to spend time testing that watch side by side with the 2R to see how it compares.

After almost two weeks with the OnePlus Watch 2R, these are my findings.

What’s different about the OnePlus Watch 2R?

The Watch 2R is a budget-friendly version of the OnePlus Watch 2, with the same selection of health and fitness features, workout modes, and apps. Both watches also share the same sensors, battery, processor, and screen size, so check out my full review of the Watch 2 if you want the lowdown on key features, like the dual-frequency GPS and shortcut key.

The difference mainly comes in the design. The OnePlus Watch 2R has a sportier aesthetic, with an aluminum alloy chassis and a silicone strap compared to the Watch 2’s stainless steel construction and fluororubber strap. This makes the OnePlus Watch 2R look more like a Garmin watch (one of my coworkers even mistook it for a Garmin device), while the Watch 2 looks more like something you might wear to a dinner party.

The display’s back cover is also made of glass, while the Watch 2’s is made of sapphire crystal. According to OnePlus’ website, OnePlus’ more expensive watch also misses out on the Watch 2R’s high brightness mode, which boosts the display to 1,000 nits.

Look at this: OnePlus Watch 2 review: Big battery, but falls short in other areas

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But perhaps the biggest difference between the two watches is their weight. The OnePlus Watch 2 tips the scales at 49 grams without a strap, while the OnePlus Watch 2R is noticeably lighter at 37 grams on its own. And that extra weight is noticeable.

The OnePlus Watch 2R still feels like a heavy burden on my wrist. It’s not as heavy as the OnePlus Watch 2, but it does weigh more than the 33.8g Galaxy Watch 7 (44millimeter version).

What I like about the OnePlus Watch 2R

OnePlus does a lot right with the Watch 2R, and battery life tops the list. The OnePlus Watch 2R lasted more than two full days on a single charge, going from 100% at 11:30 a.m. on July 27 to 10% at around 10:41 p.m. on July 29.

Battery life will always vary depending on how you use the watch. I left the always-on display on for much of that two-day period and activated the sleep tracking feature, which assesses breathing problems by examining blood oxygen readings and breathing patterns, which also drains the battery more quickly.

Tracking long outdoor workouts using GPS can also impact battery life (I mostly logged 10-20 minute walks outdoors, while most of my workouts were indoors).

But when the watch does run out of juice, it charges quickly. It went from 10% to 56% in 20 minutes, so I could easily charge the watch while I was in the shower before heading out the door.

While the sensors and components are largely the same as those in the OnePlus Watch 2, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the heart rate readings felt more accurate. When I reviewed the OnePlus Watch 2R earlier this year, its heart rate data didn’t always match up with my Polar chest strap monitor during workouts.

This is normal to a certain extent; chest straps are usually more accurate because they are much closer to the heart. But the distance between the two was greater than normal, which meant that I usually had to reposition the watch to get a good result.

Fortunately, that wasn’t the case with the OnePlus Watch 2R. The watch fit snugly over my chest strap without any fiddling with the fit. Additionally, the auto-pause feature seemed very responsive. Whenever I paused mid-run to check a phone notification or skip a song on Spotify, the watch would almost immediately vibrate on my wrist to let me know my workout had been paused.

What I don’t like about the OnePlus Watch 2R

My biggest gripe with OnePlus’ new smartwatch is still its size. It has nearly the same dimensions, screen size, and wrist size as the OnePlus Watch 2, which is far too large for my tastes. That’s not entirely unusual for Android smartwatches, especially those with a more sports-oriented design like the Watch 2R (the TicWatch Pro 5 actually has slightly larger dimensions). For comparison, my wrist size is 5.5 inches, or 139 millimeters, which is just shy of the 140-210mm range for the OnePlus Watch 2R listed on the company’s website.

When I first heard that OnePlus was deciding to release a second variant of its 2024 smartwatch, I was hoping it would be a smaller version. The Watch 2R may be lighter and cheaper than the OnePlus Watch 2, but its hefty size makes it feel like it’s aimed at the same audience. Launching a smaller variant would have given people like me with smaller wrists a reason to consider a OnePlus Watch over one from Google or Samsung.

While the OnePlus Watch 2R has a dizzying array of workouts to choose from, including jumping rope, dog walking, and about 10 different types of yoga, there is no option for high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. These are fast-paced, high-intensity cardio workouts that typically cycle between work and rest intervals in increments of about 30 seconds.

It’s a surprising omission, since HIIT is fairly popular — or at least probably more popular than kite flying and tug-of-war, both of which are exercise options on the Watch 2R. Sports and fitness website Bar Bend found that HIIT is the second most popular workout in the US based on Google search volume after analyzing more than 6,000 workout and fitness-related search terms.

OnePlus’s health app, known as OHealth, also feels a little bare-bones compared to other apps like Samsung Health, Fitbit, and Apple Health. While it does provide a sleep score and makes it easy to see daily progress at a glance, I didn’t see any broad trends or insights in the main dashboard. The ability to crunch data to provide takeaways and insights is becoming increasingly important for wearables, so simply presenting fitness and health stats might not be enough to stand out.

Since the OnePlus Watch 2R shares much of the same hardware and software with the OnePlus Watch 2, my other criticisms of that watch likely apply here, too. The Watch 2 lacks fall detection, and it only comes with a two-year warranty on software updates. I’ve reached out to OnePlus to confirm whether that also applies to the 2R and will update this story accordingly.

As I wrote earlier this year , the OnePlus Watch 2 might be a good choice for those who just want a big screen, long battery life, and lots of workout options. The Watch 2R offers all that at a still-affordable price, but you have to be a fan of big watches to appreciate it.