I remember when I got the first OnePlus watch and it was straight-up terrible compared to the current smartwatch standards of that time. Fast forwarding to 2024, OnePlus knocked it out of the park with their OnePlus Watch 2 – it was a genuinely good watch.
Moving on to 2025, OnePlus Watch 3 is here and I have been using it for a couple of days now. Its battery is 43% left and I don’t think I would be able to kill it in the next two days. Putting it simply, the battery life is amazing on the OnePlus Watch 3.
But what about the rest of the features like health and sleep tracking, watch faces, and calling? They are good enough to be relied on.
Join me as I unfold the details about the OnePlus Watch 3, and whether you should swipe your credit card for that or not. Let’s dive right into it.
The Display is Bright Enough for Outdoors
Let me compare it to the OnePlus Watch 2. It is slightly bigger at 1.5-inch compared to the 1.43-inch Watch 2. It is an LTPO AMOLED that can shift between 1-60Hz depending on the situation. The bezels are thinner on the newer iteration.
As for the outdoor viewing experience, it is fantastic. The brightness of that LTPO display is crazy, peaking up to 2200 nits. You can easily view it from almost every angle in the great outdoors.
Since it is a bigger display with thinner bezels, the pixel density is slightly reduced at 310ppi as compared to the older 326ppi, but I am just nitpicking. You won’t even notice the drop in the pixel quantity. The front glass is sapphire crystal, which makes it less prone to scratches, but inversely more prone to shattering. Top it off with a screen protector and you will be fine with the display.
All in all, the display of this watch is great and it won’t feel outdated for at least a couple of more years.
Calling is High-Definition Even Though There is Noise Around
I was heading to work when my wife reminded me to pay our internet bill (I am a Spectrum customer, and paying bills via its customer support is super easy, so I always call them).
It was a loud environment with the honks of cars and engine sounds. I didn’t want to pull my phone out, and it what better of a place to test out calling on the Watch 3, than a place where I couldn’t use my phone?
So I used it to dial numero de Spectrum to pay the bill. The result? The sound quality to and from the Watch 3 was good enough. I didn’t have any trouble communicating with the customer support team of my ISP. The watch left a great first impression on me.
However, after some regular testing, the only problem I faced was the weaker connectivity when I switched rooms from my bedroom to the bathroom, while my phone was near my bed.
I Did the Cardio Almost Everywhere and Here is What I Found
OnePlus is marketing this watch as your sports partner. But does it really do that?
Well, the short answer is yes. I wore Apple Watch Series 10 in one hand and the OnePlus Watch 3 in the other, which certainly made me look like an idiot. The results were comparable and almost the same.
The pedometer worked accurately in counting the total number of steps. There was about a 2% difference between OnePlus Watch 3 and the Apple Watch Series 10. As for sleep tracking and everything else, the Watch 3 provided a detailed and precise outlook on my sleep.
I was sleeping constantly for seven hours and around thirty minutes. The Watch 3 never went above or beyond my manual calculations. So, I guess it was accurate.
The Battery is the Best of the Best
I haven’t had a smartwatch that can keep going for as long as this OnePlus Watch 3. It’s been three and a half days since I have been wearing it, and today was the day I managed to drain the battery to zero. I started the intro of this post at 43% battery and it is still 43%. It is straight-up amazing.
OnePlus has managed to increase the battery capacity to 640mAh up from 500mAh. The watch remains pleasingly efficient through a dual-chip system (note that it is not dual-core, it is two different processors inside). One chip is for heavy-duty tasks like calling and replying to messages straight from the watch. The other one is just for static tasks like displaying information.
OnePlus claims that the device can last up to five days on a single charge, and I think it can last more with appropriate settings. It is a watch that you can just strap on and forget that it existed for days.
My Complaints
I don’t like the fact that it is available in just one bulky size. I mean I have an average-sized wrist and with the watch on, it seems like I am weightlifting. There should have been a variable size option for the OnePlus Watch 3. Apart from that, I am pretty satisfied with my purchase.