The first batch of OnePlus Watch 3s have shipped several days ago, and I was lucky enough to have my boyfriend gift me one! Farewell my OnePlus Watch 2. This batch of OnePlus Watch 3s is limited edition, as the backside of the watches contain a typo: Meda in China. It was significant enough to where the next batch of Watch 3s have been delayed by a little over a month, and all Watch 3s that made it to consumers shipped with an apology letter regarding the typo. It’s almost impossible to find the typo unless you know it exists, as the text on the underside of the watch has very low contrast and is quite small.
The Watch 3 maintains much of its appearance from the Watch 2, with a few notable changes: A functional crown (digital crown), which is now more ergonomic since it is actually functional, and a titanium bezel. The Watch 3 is also slightly larger, but it’s almost imposible to tell side by side with the Watch 2. The titanium bezel looks nice, but sadly, it compromises the look of the watch if worn in southpaw mode: upside-down on the right wrist. The numbers on the titanium bezel are consequently upside down, so it is a detail that bothers me just a bit. The Watch 3 maintains the same charging base, as well as the 22mm wristband standard, making it compatible with any bands that fit the OnePlus Watch 2, which is innumerable.
The Watch 3 features a slightly larger battery, enabling it to have up to 5 days of battery life in smart mode (compared to 4 days for the Watch 2), and most significantly, ECG and arterial stiffness (erroneously reported as blood pressure by many headlines) sensors. Arterial stiffness still indicates the health of your blood vessels, which is somewhat tied to blood pressure. The ECG feature however, is not yet enabled anywhere yet, but is expected sometime this March for many EU countries, Q3 of 2025 for the UK, and no ETA for several other countries, including America.
While we’re waiting for the ECG to officially drop for the countries that are supposed to get it soon, there’s still but more upgrades with the OnePlus Watch 3 I have yet to discuss. There are new watch faces, with the default watch face being Metric Matrix, which is an analog watch face that sports 8 customizable complications (4 full sized and 4 arc complications). Of course, the Watch 3 launched with Wear OS 5, and has an upgraded low power processor, which seems to make the watch feel even snappier than the Watch 2. The display also boasts a peak brightness of 2200 nits, not like I thought once that the Watch 2 wasn’t bright enough, with its peak of 1000 nits.
To conclude, the Watch 3 is a fantastic watch, with up to 5 days of battery life (which is absolutely stellar, as other Wear OS based watches can barely get to last a day), still has yet to see its ECG functionality launch, and will be available again in less than 40 days from now.
