UPDATE: OnePlus reached out to clarify the whole situation. The company wants everyone to understand that Wear OS hasn’t been confirmed. Pete Lau did say that the company is working on a smartwatch. He also said that OnePlus is working with Google to improve Wear OS. He did not, however, flat out say that the upcoming smartwatch is coming with Wear OS. That seems like a given considering that he talked about both, but OnePlus doesn’t want everyone to be so sure of it. While the company’s spokesperson did not confirm it’s not coming with Wear OS, he did want everyone to understand that Pete Lau’s interview is not a confirmation that the watch is coming with Wear OS. It would be very odd to see that smartwatch ship with anything other than Wear OS considering that the company is already cooperating with Google on improving Wear OS. Whatever the case may be, we’ll know more next year.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE: The OnePlus smartwatch has been officially confirmed by the company’s CEO, Pete Lau. Well, its existence has been. Pete Lau got interviewed by InputMag, and in that interview, he shared the information. Do note that the featured image does not represent the product, though, that’s just a third-party concept image.
Wear OS-powered OnePlus smartwatch has been officially confirmed
In the aforementioned interview, Mr. Lau also confirmed that the watch is coming with Wear OS. A recent report suggested that it won’t ship with Wear OS, but that’s not the case. It will include Wear OS, and Google’s OS is also the reason it’s taking so long for the watch to arrive.
OnePlus’ CEO said that Wear OS has a lot of room to improve, and that the company is working with Google to try to improve the connectivity between Wear OS, Android TV, and Android smartphones.
This smartwatch is expected to arrive next year, but we don’t know when exactly. It is reported to feature a round body and display, but we don’t really have much information other than that. Chances are it will be made out of metal, though.
That smartwatch may arrive alongside the OnePlus 9, 9 Pro, and 9E in March. All those three phones are expected to launch in March, though nothing has been confirmed. On the flip side, we may have to wait longer for this watch.
OnePlus is not rushing to make a foldable handset
Now, during that very same interview, Pete Lau once again reiterated that OnePlus is not rushing towards foldables. He said that “the software experience is not yet mature enough to take full advantage of the foldable form factor”.
He did not rule out foldables for the future, though. The company is keeping a close eye on what is happening in the industry, and may take advantage of the form factor somewhere down the line.
So, it may happen at some point, but we got the feeling it’s not coming soon. OnePlus, first and foremost, wants to offer a proper software experience on its devices, and that seems to be preventing the creation of a foldable handset at the moment.