- Lawrence Ng
The Oppo Watch X Review: Made to Last
The Oppo Watch X's design may not immediately stand out from the crowd. However, Oppo's main selling point for this smartwatch is its long battery life and durable design. Powered by a 500mAh battery and Qualcomm's efficient Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 CPU, we got slightly more than three days of daily use from a fully charged watch. It outperforms most Wear OS and Watch OS smartwatches.
Design and Display: Rugged and Bright
Measuring in at 49g and sporting a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels, the Oppo Watch X isn't the smallest or lightest smartwatch on the market. However, it makes up for its size with ruggedness. The watch features a Sapphire Crystal front and stainless steel frame, giving it scratch resistance. There are claims that although the Sapphire Crystal is less prone to scratches, it does shatters much more easily than the Gorilla Glasses. It also carries an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance up to 1.5 meters for 30 minutes. Further reinforcing its durability is the military grade certification, MIL-STD-810H compliance. The 466ppi AMOLED screen also feels pretty bright under daylight, reaching up to 1000 nits.
Hardware Specifications: Powerful Processor and Storage
Under the hood, the Oppo Watch X packs some respectable specs, starting with the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 processor - one of the most powerful chips currently available for wearables. It's paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. While storage size and RAM are decent compared to peers, the processor is on par with Oppo's last year's Watch 4 Pro, so performance gains may be incremental.
Health and Fitness Tracking: Basic
For health and fitness tracking, the Oppo Watch X includes the basics like a heart rate sensor, SpO2 sensor for blood oxygen levels, plus an accelerometer and gyroscope for activity/sleep tracking. However, it lacks more advanced sensors like ECG or fall detection. In testing, heart rate and SpO2 measurements seemed reasonably accurate compared to dedicated fitness trackers when exercising or at rest. Oppo also claims that it has over 100 different types of workout it can track. It claims to tracks sports like badminton, golf, rugby, tennis and even soccer. But don't expect comprehensive tracking for all the sports. For example, soccer only tracks duration, heart rate and calories burnt, which we find it a little too basic. Sleep tracking is also available and it tracks breathing, respiratory rate and REM sleep.
Wear OS: Tons of Apps
Wear OS, like Android, gives choice first. The hardware can differ greatly, but the software is the same on all devices. It also offers tons of Apps choices and works extremely with Google made apps. Messaging Apps like Whatsapp, Kakao Talk & Line also works seamlessly with their own dedicated app. You can even send and receive voice recordings, and even get a preview of the pictures sent to you.
Sound Quality and Connectivity: Room for Improvement
While the Oppo Watch X includes a loudspeaker and microphone for calls, audio quality leaves something to be desired. The speaker volume is quite soft, requiring the watch to be held up to one's ear. It also lacks music playback support from apps like Spotify. Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity worked well for notifications and calls, though not the snappiest. NFC works well. Especially when paired with Google Wallet, paying for public transport is a breeze. However it is a pity doesn't support eSIM or any type of cellular connectivity. So it does need to be close to your smartphone to have it worked. Specifically, android phones only as it does not work with iPhones.
Battery Life: A Clear Strength
As advertised, the battery life of the Oppo Watch X is excellent. Not 4 days but closer to 3 days. During our tests with typical usage including hourly heart rate tracking, notifications, and max 30 minutes of GPS-tracked walking daily, the watch easily lasted 3 full days on a charge. This is significantly better than most Wear OS or Watch OS devices. Fast charging of 7W also tops the battery up quickly which Oppo claims that a 1 to 100% charge takes only about 60mins. We took about 30min to charge the watch from 35% to 100%. The large 500mAh battery, efficient Snapdragon W5 chipset and low powered SOC by Betechnics clearly work well together. Oh and did we mentioned that we like the detachable tiny magnetic charger that comes with it. Seems more convenient that you can just bring it around without the cables.
Conclusion
For its price of S$499, the Oppo Watch X delivers strong battery life and durable design which does provides more options for premium smartwatch users. However, the lack of advanced health sensors like ECG and fall detection, and no cellular support mean it falls short in challenging for the top spots in the premium smartwatches ranking. Still, if long battery life above all else is a priority for your smartwatch needs, the Watch X certainly deserves consideration.