All major Chinese smartphone manufactures such as Xiami, Huawei, Vivo, Oppo and Realme have long been producing fitness bands under their name. So why should OnePlus miss out from the fray?
Well, this is why the Shenzhen-headquartered brand has finally launched their very first wearable in India called the OnePlus Band which is priced at ₹2,499. Now, let’s dig in and find out how it stacks up in the budget-friendly segment.
Design
OnePlus Band, when first looked at, gives the impression that it is a close cousin of the FitBit Charge. It fashions a square fob along with a 1.1 inch AMOLED display and a silicone-based rubber band with markings.
Features
The OnePlus Band comes with all the essentials that make a good fitness band. It has an optical heart rate sensor, 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope in order to track your movements. What more? There’s an optical bloody oxygen sensor which helps you measure your SPO2 levels and track sleep quality.
The budget-friendly fitness band comes with 13 workout modes which include, walking, cycling, cricket and yoga. One needs to launch them manually in order for the band to start recording the chosen activity.
Besides this, the OnePlus Band, much like all others in the same segment, is capable of doing everything a basic fitness device should do – mirror notifications, control music, and act as a remote camera button.
Performance
Now, when it comes to performance, this is where the cracks start to appear for the OnePlus Band. According to the company, this band is supposed to last its user over 14 days on a single charge but many initial reviews tend to claim that it’s simply not true.
According to initial reviewers of the device, the fitness band stays charged up to 2-3 days only – way lesser than what is being advertised. Also, the fitness band doesn’t have an ambient light sensor and thus at default brightness, it becomes very hard to read the stats in outdoors.
Lastly, OnePlus made a rather odd choice for the band’s UI as when one taps on the watch, it doesn’t take them to a respective screen such as activities but instead chooses to show the status of connection and battery life.
OnePlus Band Vs Mi Band 5
All, in all, there is no doubt OnePlus Band has been launched to compete with Mi Band 5. According to data collected from IDC, in Q3 2020, Xiaomi captured a 24.5% share of the worldwide wrist-wearable market and came out at the top.
Xiaomi has been dominating the wearables market with its fitness bands which come with superior hardware design and software integrations. The Mi Band 5 has a 1.1-inch AMOLED panel and a battery that lasts 10 days, way more than the OnePlus Band.
Therefore, considering how both the devices are priced similarly, one needn’t think twice before opting for Mi over OnePlus’s fitness band as battery life is a big determinant for every smart device wearer.
OnePlus Band has decent hardware and checks all the basic requirements but its software integration is far from refined. Hopefully, the brand will take note of these shortcomings and improve on the same in the future releases.
