“Those who value all-day fitness” tracking can benefit from the lighter design of the new OnePlus Watch 2R, which is marketed as a sporty, long-lasting Wear OS watch that inspires an active lifestyle. I adore watches that speak directly to my needs, but the OnePlus Watch 2’s health data was criticized by my testing colleagues as being one of its weak points. I therefore made the decision to evaluate the accuracy of the Watch 2R for myself.
Our reviewer Harish stated that the original OnePlus Watch 2 “just isn’t reliable at daily step counts or activity tracking,” that its stress data was artificially inflated, and that it miscalculated the number of calories burned during workouts. In the meantime, my coworker Nick used the OnePlus Watch 2 for a week and reported identical issues with much lower heart rate readings during anaerobic exercises and underestimated steps. It was hypothesized by Nick and Harish that the watch was not accurate or fast enough to obtain readings because it handled health and fitness sampling using its low-power RTOS coprocessor.
This made me leery about testing the OnePlus Watch 2R, a fitness watch that theoretically couldn’t handle fitness all that well. So, just like my Galaxy Watch Ultra fitness test last week, I strapped on two smartwatches to see how the Watch 2R could match up against my Garmin Forerunner 965 for heart rate and dual-band GPS accuracy. OnePlus’ OHealth companion app doesn’t let you export TCX/GPX files like Samsung Health, and I had some issues getting Health Connect to send my data properly, so I couldn’t do my usual HR or GPS charts for a direct comparison; I’ll use tables as an alternative for now.
For my first jog, the OnePlus Watch 2R stayed mostly on track with the Garmin Forerunner 965. I spot-checked heart rates at ten different timestamps, and the 2R matched the 965 four times and was 1 bpm short six times, which dovetails with the 1 bpm-lower average. GPS accuracy mostly remained on point. It’s difficult to say if OnePlus’ dual-band accuracy is more or less reliable than Garmin’s since both maps had me straying off the sidewalk at odd moments, but I appreciated that both fell into the same general ballpark for a run with some signal-blocking foliage. As for running dynamics, the OnePlus Watch 2R synced pretty well for stride length and average vertical ratio, but measured my vertical oscillation as 1 cm shorter and average ground contact time as 18 ms longer.
I ran eight 400 m laps for my second track run, and Garmin predictably stayed on point because it uses saved track maps to judge your likely location. OnePlus had more issues: the Watch 2R buzzed my wrist with lap or mile times at about the 350 m mark, consistently. It was as if the starting point was completely wrong, but then the GPS was pinpoint-accurate when I hit that incorrect spot. Still, it threw my calculated pace off by a decent margin. I figured the heart rate for a hard-paced track workout would be the sticking point, but its HR average was more accurate than the Galaxy Watch Ultra during my track workout last week. It certainly fell short of Garmin’s results — typically 1–3 bpm short at a given moment — but typically leveled out to the correct number given enough time. Certainly, the Watch 2R did much better than the Watch 2 in this area.
Again, OnePlus’ running dynamics data diverged from Garmin in small ways. I don’t quite get how OnePlus said I took more steps per minute while leaving my feet on the ground for longer. However, I realized after my run that OHealth had my height listed as 5’7 (I’m 6’1), so maybe that skewed the results for things like vertical oscillation. Regardless, running form data isn’t worth obsessing over, in my opinion. This might simply be a case of low expectations skewing my impressions, but the OnePlus Watch 2R feels like a strong budget fitness watch. It has a comfortable weight for its display size, three-day battery life with Wear OS 4, Google Assistant, and a $229 price tag that I’d expect from an Amazfit watch — not something with proper app support.
OHealth provides some in-depth and surprisingly accessible data for running, offering detailed context for certain stats like training effect, running dynamics, VO2 Max, and recovery time — though Garmin wants me to rest an extra day and has my VO2 Max slightly lower. That said, it’s still quite basic compared to other tie-in fitness apps. OHealth provides a lot of individual run data, but its long-term training load and workout summary data is on the simplistic side. If I used the Watch 2R long-term, I’d most likely auto-sync the data to Strava and rely on that instead.
In response to the concerns raised by my colleagues on the first OnePlus Watch 2, I completed both runs with a total of 11,670 steps on the Forerunner 965 and 11,560 steps on the Watch 2R. The first number will serve as a trustworthy control group because my first and second step-counting tests using Garmin watches outperformed those with other brands. The latter performs significantly poorer over the same distance (1,860 short) than the OnePlus Watch 2 and Pixel Watch 2, almost rounding error-wise by roughly 100 steps over 11,000 steps. I just tested my Galaxy Watch Ultra after 10,000 steps (348 steps short) and the results are the same as the Forerunner 965.
I’ve never seen two watch brands agree on how many calories you’ve burned. However, OnePlus did underreport my burned calories when compared to Garmin. I have no idea how to determine which ones sell you short or flatter you, or what factors go into that process. Given that it’s only an estimate, I don’t mind if it appears that OnePlus is on the low end.
The absence of a crown is my main grievance with both the OnePlus Watch 2R and the Galaxy Watch Ultra. The Watch 2 features two basic buttons, one of which automatically brings up exercises until you modify the shortcut. In contrast, OnePlus gave the Watch 2 an inactive crown that spins and does nothing. Though the sweaty, discolored screens in the images above should explain why I prefer not to rely on swipes when working out, I do appreciate that. Give me a crown or up/down buttons, please.
To write a comprehensive evaluation of the OnePlus Watch 2R that covers the health and sleep aspects in greater detail, I will need more time. However, I have a lot more faith now than I had a week ago that it would be valuable for recreational athletes and that its quality will be on par with the finest low-cost Android watches.
With its 1.43-inch display, 500 mAh battery, dual-band GPS, NFC tap-to-pay, Google Assistant, and comprehensive post-run analytics, the OnePlus Watch 2R is equipped with a Snapdragon W5 CPU. It is lighter, more reasonably priced, and doesn’t seem to have the same HR problems as the original Watch 2, but it isn’t as tough or fashionable either.
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