It's very hard to make a mechanical watch, says the Bremont cofounder, Mr. Giles English. The same must be true for smartwatches too. However, brands that benefit from horizontal integration do not necessarily face this barrier to entry. Take for instance, OnePlus, a smartphone brand entering smartwatches and other product categories, and now its fork, Nord also replicating the same game. The name of the game is ecosystem-driven growth and the question is how good the Nord Watch is for an entry-level smartwatch.
Here we have with us the OnePlus Nord Watch, which is priced at around ₹5000 in the Indian market. I have been using it for 2 weeks now and this is an account of my experience.
Starting with the —
OnePlus Nord Watch Design and Fit
The OnePlus Nord Watch sports a rectangular design with rounded edges. The screen real estate is larger when compared to some of its counterparts. We will talk more about that later.
The screen is fixed to a zinc-alloy-based case that’s been given a glossy finish. The sheen of the chassis and the display could draw attention but it could come across as a bit gaudy or "attractive" depending on your taste.
Moving to the sides, there is a button on the right that can be used to access the app drawer and return to the home screen. There is nothing on the left-hand side.
The band strapped to the watch is made of silicon and the buckle is stainless steel. Even the buckle shares the colour as the watch. Speaking of which, you can pick the device in two colors — Midnight Black and Deep Blue. Our is, as you can see, blue-colored. The black one seems more subdued in comparison.
While wearing it, even for long hours, the experience is relatively decent as the device is fairly light and the strap material is also of a breathable nature. The pin-and-hole system also ensures a simple and comfortable fit. Even with the slight protrusion at the bottom (within which the optical sensors are housed), the Nord Watch sits flush with the wrist.
Now, if you want to swap the bundled strap, you can do so easily but the replacement will have to be bought separately from 3rd party vendors.
That minor inconvenience and my color preference aside, the thing is decently built and is par for the course. As icing on the cake, you are also getting IP68 water and dust resistance for that extra dose of confidence in terms of its durability.
OnePlus Nord Watch Display and UI
Let’s now raise the wrist and peek at the panel upfront. Do that or click the right-flanking button to turn on the screen. In my experience, the clicks don’t always register. And no there is no always-on display (AoD) which increases the reliance on the button to even take a glance at the time.
OnePlus has fitted the smartwatch with an AMOLED display that is plenty bright (500 nits) and sharp. It is long, coming in at 1.78 inches, sports a 368×448 resolution, and the bezels are bearably big. You can decorate it with watch faces, many of which are cleverly dark in colour to blend in with the borders. You can install them from the Face Gallery section within the N Health app.
The screen experience is complemented by a buttery UI. At a 60Hz refresh rate, every swipe and slide across the screen feels like a breeze. The internal hardware and software too could be playing a key role here. The latter is based on RTOS and the interface is easy to understand.
A swipe down from the main screen brings quick toggles and the settings option. A swipe right from the left corner takes you to the previous screen. A tap on the side button takes you to the home screen. A swipe up from the same screen shows the notification drawer. You get notifications on time. Even iOS system alerts (weekly screen usage time) were delivered by OnePlus Nord Watch faster than the Apple Watch Series 6. That’s something!
Now although you can read messages you won't be able to reply to them. A similar disability is with calls too as you can only reject them.
The built-in apps and features work smoothly. When you swipe right or left on the home screen shows you all the available tiles presenting quick access to important features like health and fitness sensors, activity logs, etc. These tiles and toggles have vibrant UI elements and legible text.
The main menu has various features arranged as a list of bubbles. Again, thanks to the vivid colors and iconography, you can quickly discern what is what. This simplicity extends to the N Health app. The N probably stands for Nord and we don’t mind logging into a new app as there aren’t that many steps involved. Give a few basic permissions and you are good to go. Now, the interface and the number of options may seem barebones to some, but I felt it gets the job done.
Let’s see what you get to tweak and toggle and how it all functions in the next segment.
OnePlus Nord Watch Performance
OnePlus has packed in pretty much everything except for a built-in GPS. So, you will have to carry the connected smartphone along with you if you are on the move, which most of the time you probably are. It counts steps fairly well and there were no false counting during bike rides. When compared to the Apple Watch Series 6, the calorie count and distance measured in a 750m distance came out as comparable.
Similar was the case when I took reads from it and the Apple Watch on a 3-minute indoor cycling as well as an hour of a weightlifting session. The only thing is that extreme cases of heart rate spikes weren’t always captured by the Nord Watch. By the way, when I manually checked heart rate and SpO2, the results were on par with the Apple Watch.
The OnePlus Nord Watch is capable of measuring 105 sports modes. This includes activities like dance, combat sports, and snow sports also. Although I wish there was an all-encompassing weight training option, the horizontal bars and free training got the job done.
When it comes to the wellness side of things, you get rather reliable sleep tracking, and nice-to-haves like stress tracking, breathing suggestions, a menstrual cycle counter (for women), and a nifty One-Tap Measurement for heart, blood oxygen, and stress.
So overall, I am quite impressed with the health and fitness tracking by Nord Watch. The only thing I miss is GPS-based route tracking which would have lent more accuracy to the watch and reduced the dependance on a phone.
OnePlus Nord Watch Power
Partly credited to RTOS and probably to the optimizations by OnePlus, this thing can run for more than a week. Although it is rated to pull through 10 days, your mileage may depend on your usage. In my experience, there have been times when I didn’t use it for several days and the watch would still have the lights on. So, the point is that it won’t die on you easily.
Now, when it drops dead, you can charge it using the magnetic adapter. It takes about 2 hours to fully top it up. However, I won’t complain as it runs for a long time.
And finally…
What do I think of OnePlus Nord Watch?
The OnePlus Nord Watch is amongst the finest smartwatches I have used in this price range. It properly tracks various health and fitness parameters, save for edge cases like measuring high heart rate elevations during workouts. Other positives are its big bright LCD display, long battery life, snappy and easy-to-use interface, and decent design. As I have mentioned in the design section, the glossy finish may not be everyone’s cup of tea. However, the main reason this loses to some of its competition would be because of missing features like an in-built GPS, an always-on display, and Bluetooth calling. So, if you strictly want a smartwatch under ₹5000 that nails the basics, and you don’t care about those omissions, then go for this one. As for the brand, I hope OnePlus doesn’t settle and adds all those absent features in its successor.
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G. S. Vasan
Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile
