Rumours have been circling for a while suggesting that OnePlus are working on a smartwatch. Today OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed not just the existence of the OnePlus watch but also that it will run WearOS.
In an interview with Input Mag Pete Lau revealed some smartwatch tidbits not heard officially before. OnePlus apparently had a smartwatch in development back in 2015 but cancelled it a year later deciding instead to remain focused on their core business — smartphones.
More things are coming to the OnePlus ecosystem. It's just a matter of time🧐 pic.twitter.com/r6RIILU8AQ
— OnePlus (@oneplus) October 14, 2020
Pete Lau admitted something that we all know, that Wear OS has a lot of room for improvement:
Wear OS definitely has room to improve. What we’re trying to do is work with Google to try to improve the connectivity between the Wear OS ecosystem, Android TV, and Android smartphones to create this ability for better device interoperability across the ecosystems. This has been something looked at very positively from Google’s side as well, so this is the direction that we’re trying to develop, but we don’t have more than we can share on that right now.
Little else was said about the OnePlus smartwatch and Input Mag note that Pete did not once mention fitness as part of the smartwatch discussion, nor did he mention any timeframe for a release. They speculate that 2021 will be the year OnePlus release said smartwatch and while we hope that is true we find it unlikely given the lack of information gathered on it around the Internet.
Other things the OnePlus CEO touches on were the OnePlus 8 Pro and how they had finally managed to bring a flagship-quality camera to their flagship smartphone although he did — in a round-about-way — say that there will always be a difference in image quality from their various devices. Although Input Mag were not happy with this answer it does not surprise us — do Samsung produce the same quality camera experience in their A-series to that on the S21 Ultra? High end sensors cost money so you cannot expect the cheaper devices to be able to arrive with these high quality sensors.
If you would like to read the entire interview you can check it out over at Input Mag. As for the OnePlus smartwatch, we have been calling for Google to release a Pixel smartwatch for a long time. Given how the experience of OnePlus smartphones rivals that of Pixel smartphones it is entirely possible that a OnePlus smartwat4ch is the next best thing to a Pixel smartwatch.
Only time will tell and we hope it tells next year — I for one would love to check out a OnePlus smartwatch (hopefully one that is not yet another rectangular clone).
Considering the current trade disputes between China and Australia, I’d have to guess that there’s now less than Buckley’s for this device or any other from that mob to ever make it here.