OPPO Watch Free Review: Good Compromise Between Smartwatch & Fitness Band
June 8, 2022Sensors: Six-axis acceleration & gyroscope sensor, optical heart rate sensor, optical blood oxygen sensor, and ambient light sensor
OS/Software: Android 6.0 or later, iOS 10.0 or later
Display: 1.64-inch, AMOLED screen, 280×456 resolution
Body: 46.0 mm x 29.7 mm x 10.6 mm (with a 11.4 mm raised section for measuring the heartbeat), AMOLED
Battery : 230mAh, Magnetic charging
Weight: 32.6g
Rating: 8/10
Price: RM439.00
Wrist watches are not just for telling time. The advent of the smartwatch introduced “smartphone-like” features to the humble chronometer. The purpose is to offload basic tasks to the watch, sparing you the inconvenience of having to glance at your phone screen every few seconds. This is in addition to the plethora of fitness metrics that it records throughout the day.
But all this comes at a cost – battery life. This is where the OPPO’s Watch Free comes into play. It aims to offer the best bits of a smartwatch but minus the horrendous battery life. Theoretical battery life is pegged at 14 days but our real world tests netted close to 10 days of continuous use.
It runs on ColorOS, but can be used with any smartphone running on Android 6.0, iOS 10.0 or later.
This is what it’s equipped to handle:
*Body sensors: Six-axis acceleration & gyroscope sensor, optical heart rate sensor, optical blood oxygen sensor, and ambient light sensor
*Health management: Constant blood oxygen level and snoring monitoring, sleep disturbance analysis, 24-hour heart rate, Daily Activity, and Stand-up Reminder.
Basic Features:
Message Notification
Incoming Call Notification
Call Rejection
Timer
Alarm Clock
Weather
Music Playback Control
Find My Phone
Stand-up Reminder
Instead of the traditional circular dimensions the Watch Free adopts an oblong shape, which is similar in appearance to fitness bands. It is meant to serve as a bridge between smartwatch and dedicated fitness band. Though dumber than your average smartwatch, it’s still “smarter” than most fitness bands.
For starters, it has a 1.64-inch AMOLED screen, which is substantially large for fitness bands but considered dainty for an actual watch. Measuring 46.0 mm x 29.7 mm x 10.6 mm, it reminds me of the antiquated time pieces of a bygone era – form following function. The Watch Free is built to be minimalistic but without seeming inconvenient.
What’s It Like?
That’s why its display is large enough to make text and graphics legible yet is compact enough to pass off as a thick bracelet. There are over 40 different watch faces to choose from, which can be accessed via the HeyTap Health app on your smartphone. It’s what you’ll use to pair the Watch Free to your phone and access the plethora of health and operating functions.
It also offers a summary of your daily activities, quality of sleep, blood oxygen levels, heart rate and other health related metrics. The app also lets you record your workout regiments and paths taken via its maps functionality. Meant for fitness buffs who want to record and review their performance each day – it’s the health app that can do it all.
The OPPO Watch Free user interface is extremely straight forward:
Double tap to wake the screen, swipe down from the top to access the quick panel, swipe left to right for watch functions, swipe from right to left for activity summary and swipe from the bottom to the top to access notifications. But sadly, there isn’t a single gesture that can be used to take you back to the home screen.
And the absence of physical buttons, concludes that the only way out of a menu or app is to arbitrarily swipe left or right, depending on where you are, to return to the home screen. Alternatively, you could wait for the screen time-out, which then brings you back to the main menu – but sometimes that isn’t a guarantee either.
Adding insult to injury, when the watch is shut down for whatever reason, the only way to turn it back on again is by connecting it to its magnetic charger (needs to be connected to the power socket). It’s a problem OPPO invented for itself much to the chagrin of its users. But there’s a silver lining though. Lack of protruding buttons make for a more compact device.
It’s this slender profile that prevents it from getting snagged on apparel or backpacks, reducing discomfort when wearing it throughout the day. Weighing just 32.6g, the Watch Free is extremely light to wear on one’s wrist, because it doesn’t weigh you down nor cause excessive skin irritation.
The band is made of a silicone material meant to resemble leather – so getting it wet is not a problem. However, if it isn’t to your taste, the band can be swapped out for a plethora of alternative options made by the manufacturer or third party vendors. The quick release spring bars are extremely easy to access and remove the attached bands.
Best Features
Besides being able to measure heart beats per minute, the Watch Free also has all-day sleep monitoring, blood oxygen and snoring monitoring. It automatically measures the quality of sleep, phases of light, deep and REM sleep as well as detects when you wake up. Using this data it will be able to tell you how well you sleep at night as well as highlight potential health problems.
Your smartphone works as the watch’s recorder for snore detection. It records incidences of snoring that can be analyzed later on to help figure out if you suffer from any breathing related problems.
That said, the Watch Free isn’t a health tool to rely on for actual sleep or health related diagnosis. It’s meant to give you a rough idea of your quality of sleep. For all health related matters, please seek the advice of a qualified healthcare practitioner or specialist.
Besides being able to automatically record sleep patterns, it is also able to detect when you’re working out or engaged in a strenuous activity, then logs it in the health summary. OPPO says that the watch can record over 100 exercise modes, and though we can’t verify this, it can detect brisk walking, jogging or running accurately.
Step count and average distance covered are somewhat accurate, but the lack of actual GPS functionality means that the data collected won’t be as precise as that of a dedicated fitness tracker. But it’s more than good enough for the vast majority of fitness users.
Don’t worry about getting the watch drenched in sweat or have water splashed all over it. OPPO says that the Watch Free offers 5 ATM water resistance which means it’s good enough to use for swimming or diving in shallow waters.
The screen is protected by reinforced 2.5D scratch resistant glass, so it should be able to endure light bumps or grazes against hard objects. That said, I wouldn’t exert it to extreme punishments because the glass will get scuffed as is the case with most smartwatches and fitness bands.
Besides the plethora of fitness features, the OPPO Watch Free also has the basic smartwatch functions like alarm clock, Stopwatch, Timer, Flashlight, Camera Control, Find My Phone, bedtime alert, reminder to drink water.
How’s The Performance?
The Watch Free has an extremely responsive touchscreen and UI. In my entire time with the device, I didn’t encounter an instance of lag, app crash or freezing. It identified every input with ease and breezed through every app menu or setting. This smoothness can be attributed to its minimalistic OS functionality.
This isn’t a smartwatch, which means there’s no chance of installing apps or sideloading them into the device. This limitation is akin to that of most fitness bands. Admittedly, this “dumbed down” version of ColorOS reduces the clutter that bogs down most smartwatches, and instead offers a trouble-free user experience.
Battery capacity is 230mAh, which on average can last for about 10 – 11 days. It supports quick charging technology and can only be charged with the proprietary magnetic charger. With 5 minutes spent on the charger, it will give you a full day’s worth of use out of it. Charge it for 20 minutes and it should last close to a week but a full charge requires 75 minutes to complete.
Should You Buy This?
If you are looking for a fitness band that you can live with on a daily basis, this is what you want. The screen is large and pretty enough to pass off as an actual smartwatch. But it’s small enough to fit just about any wrist without being bothersome.
This is a good option for someone who wants something more than a fitness band but isn’t willing to splurge on a full fledged smartwatch. It offers a good blend of features to make it a bridge between said devices. It’s a darn good device, period.
