Not having to charge a smartwatch every night is so nice. After wearing it for over a month, that's my number one takeaway with the OnePlus Watch 2. This is the company's first Wear OS-powered smartwatch, the operating system managed by Google. The name indicates it's a successor to the original OnePlus Watch, but these two smartwatches are nothing alike.
The OnePlus Watch 2 ingeniously runs two operating systems with two different processors. Wear OS 4 is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chipset, handling more intensive tasks like Google Maps and music playback. Then there's the Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), driven by a low-power BES2700 chip tasked with things like the always-on display and background activity. Google even retooled Wear OS to enable this dual-chipset architecture for OnePlus (and presumably other companies that want to follow this approach in the future).
The best benefit of all this work? Battery life. Smartwatches like Google's Pixel Watch 2 and the Apple Watch require daily recharging; Samsung's Galaxy Watch series can go up to two days on a single charge. But the OnePlus Watch 2 routinely sustained three full days of use with the always-on display turned off, and two and a half days with it on. It's solving a common complaint with these wearables, but unfortunately, you'll have to compromise on some features.
Big Watch
An easy way to stuff a big battery into a smartwatch is to make a big watch. At 46 millimeters, the OnePlus Watch 2 sits on the Very Large side of the wearable spectrum. I am a 6'4" guy with big palms, and it still looks a little large on my thick wrist. Like how the Pixel Watch 2 might be too small for some folks, this smartwatch will be too big for many, and there are no other size options.
Thankfully, it's comfortable to wear. The 22-mm fluoro-rubber strap is soft and doesn't attract dirt or lint, and it's easy to adjust the tightness quickly. I've had no problems falling asleep with it on my wrist, but this might not be the case for people with daintier hands. The rest of the watch's build materials are top-end, with a stainless steel case and a sapphire crystal protecting the 1.43-inch AMOLED display, which is sharp and gets plenty bright. It's IP68 water resistant too, so it can survive submersions in water (avoid salt water).
There are two pushers on the right side of the watch. The top opens your app drawer, a double tap opens the last-used app, and a long press triggers Google Assistant. The bottom opens the Workouts app and a double-tap opens Google Wallet, but all of this is customizable in the settings. The only weird thing here is that the top button rotates like the digital crown on many other smartwatches. However, the OnePlus Watch 2 doesn't support any scrolling. It's a shame too, because the button's position makes for a more natural access to the scrolling function than the typical centered crown, but alas, there's just no functionality there.