OnePlus has been touted to launch a smartwatch for several years – the original plan being scrapped two years ago. The company’s CEO has now confirmed that they will launch their first smartwatch sometime in early 2021.
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Pete Lau has confirmed reports that OnePlus has revived its smartwatch project several years after the first attempt for abandoned. At the time, the manufacturer decided to focus its efforts on smartphones after its initial success, with many more great phones launching in the interim.
It revived its non-smartphone division in recently and launched its first product, the OnePlus Buds, a couple of months ago. This division may have other projects in the works as well, not just a smartwatch. Lau didn’t share any details about the upcoming wearable, so it’s unclear if it will keep the old circular design, from their original designs.
A remaining question is what the operating system will look like on the upcoming smartwatch. It is assumed that it will be running on Google’s Wear OS, as Lau previously said that OnePlus is working with Google to optimise certain parts of the OS. OnePlus’ smartphones delivers great performance because of limited bloat and skinning on Android, and it would want a smartwatch to perform exceptionally as well. The company didn’t want to confirm that this is the case however, as it was still exploring options at the time.
The new smartwatch may be launched alongside its latest flagship smartphones in 2021. OnePlus is expected to launch the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro in March 2021; an additional smartwatch launch could round out the event like many of its competitors chooses to do.
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