The Oppo Watch X2 represents a gentle evolution of Oppo’s flagship smartwatch design — but that’s not always a great way to stand out.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Good battery life | Only one size available |
| Wide array of WearOS apps for customisation | Doesn’t hugely stand out against other WearOS choices |
| Bright display makes it good for outdoor exercise | No eSIM support |
Score: 3.5/5
In this review
Oppo Watch X2 Specifications
Oppo Watch X2 Design
Oppo Watch X2 Performance
Oppo Watch X2 Battery
Oppo Watch X2 Conclusion
Ethical disclaimer: The Oppo Watch X2 used in this review was loaned to me by Oppo Australia; it will be returned to them as is the case for 95% of everything I review is. Why tell you this? It’s because I’m keen to point out that whether a product stays or goes has no influence on my reviews – and indeed, Oppo has had no input into this review beyond loaning me the device for a short period. That’s as it should be, but far too many sites and reviewers omit this kind of disclosure, and I don’t think that’s a transparent and ethical way to deal with your readership. For more on ART’s Ethical position, see here.
Design
The Oppo Watch X2 looks like… a watch. That’s very much the point.
To the surprise of absolutely nobody who understands how numbers work, the Oppo Watch X2 is the successor to the Oppo Watch X that I reviewed last year.
Also read:
Oppo Watch X Review
Many wearables manufacturers find a design and largely stick to it, which is why it can be so hard to work out which generation an Apple Watch (or certain Samsung Galaxy Watches) are, and Oppo’s guilty of much the same thing when it comes to the Oppo Watch X2.
Its design is very much classical timepiece, with a numbered ring that’s purely ornamental built around a 1.5 inch 466×466 pixel LTPO AMOLED display. The Oppo Watch X2 comes in only the one size, but you do get a colour choice, with either Summit Blue or Lava Black case bodies; it’s the latter than Oppo loaned me for this review.
Controls are kept simple with a rotating dial for quick settings access if not pressed, or a cloud of rather Apple Watch style icons for app access sitting above a more conventional button that leads to a quick workouts launcher.
In terms of durability, it is rated at IP68 and for up to 5ATM, which should in theory make it workable for diving as deep as 50 metres, though as always I’ll point out that water resistance is not water proofing.
Also read:
Why your waterproof phone isn’t actually waterproof the way you think it is
Performance
My heart is still beating. That’s… good to know.
Setting up the Oppo Watch X2 is via Oppo’s own “OHealth” app, which tracks a number of variables and sports modes in much the same way as everyone else’s in-house apps do. The Oppo Watch X2 is compatible only with Android devices, and specifically Android 9.0 and better, excluding Android Go variants.
This isn’t a purely in-house Oppo play, however, because like its predecessor, this is a WearOS device underneath its Oppo visual skin, which means you do get access to the wider array of WearOS apps to install on the device.
The Oppo Watch X ran on a Snapdragon W5 Gen processor, so you might expect its successor to run on something a little faster… but you’d be wrong. The reality for smart wearables is that the movement in processor development is a lot more glacial than it is in, say, smartphones, and basically every WearOS device worth buying runs on the same underlying hardware. This does mean that there’s a certain “sameness” to the experience of running apps on the Oppo Watch X2 as a result.
In day to day use, the one factor that did strike me about using the Oppo Watch X2 was that this is a larger timepiece, for better and worse. If you like having a large, bold and fairly bright watchface, this will be ideal for you, but it also means that you’ve got a heftier chunk of watch on your wrist while (for example) exercising or sleeping.
I’m not a big personal fan of wearing a watch to bed in any case, and I did find the Oppo Watch X2 to be tricky to comfortably balance while I was trying to catch some much needed rest. For running, my primary exercise activity it was better, and the brighter display on the watch face did help with visibility in direct sunlight
The Oppo Watch X2 also rather curiously omits eSIM, which means that it’s not going to be your best choice if you favour heading out with just your watch on your wrist and not your phone. There is support for Google Wallet, but you’d need your phone in your pocket to use it due to that lack of eSIM support.
Telcos do still tend to charge extra for accessing eSIM features on compatible smartwatches, but at this kind of price it might still have been nice to see as an included feature.
Battery
The Oppo Watch X2 bumps up its internal battery from its predecessor’s 500mAh battery up to a typically rated 631mAh battery, with the promise of “up to” 16 days of battery life, though that’s with the caveat that you’ve got to apply the most severe battery life saving features to potentially get anywhere near that.
I can’t see the appeal in picking up a smart watch and not using its features in the most smart way possible – frankly, you’d be better off with a simpler fitness tracker in that case, leaving the apps aside – so my own testing has been more with the Oppo Watch X2 in full power mode until it complained about low battery status.
That was a status I tended to hit within 3-4 days of usage, though I could have extended that by disabling the always-on display. That’s basically the same as I saw from the Oppo Watch X, which means that it’s simultaneously good for a WearOS device in comparative terms, but also kind of disappointing given that it’s a newer device with a bigger battery. You do at least get a lot of tweaking options to extend out that battery life if you can do without an always-on display, for example.
Recharging is via USB-C with a supplied magnetic pogo pin cable in the box – but no charger. Oppo’s claim here is that you can get up to 24 hours of battery life from just a 10 minute charge, though that’s really only true in its most lobotomised, battery saving configuration.
Here I did hit an issue that I’ve had with Oppo’s devices over the years, with the Oppo Watch X being sometimes a little fussy about its charging, even from quite good USB-PD chargers. It outright hated the Belkin Boostcharge 140W Pro beyond taking 1% of power from it, but it was happy to rapidly charge from a competing brand’s 67W charger. If you’re relying on a single charger to power all your devices, you may hit the same kinds of issues, at least based on my own testing.
Oppo Watch X2: Alex’s Verdict
The original Oppo Watch X stood out for its exceptional battery life, and in real terms that’s the best feature of the Oppo Watch X2 as well.
The issue here is that while the design has been lightly refined, with a larger display in a slightly thinner body, there’s just not a whole lot else that makes the Oppo Watch X2 stand out from the rest of the smart wearables market.
While that does somewhat speak to the fact that there’s a whole lot of sameness in the WearOS space specifically, which isn’t Oppo’s fault, it’s also slightly problematic if you want a unique selling proposition. The original cracked good battery life, and I really wanted just a little more than that out of the Oppo Watch X2.
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Oppo Watch X2: Pricing and availability
The Oppo Watch X2 retails in Australia for $699.
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