The OnePlus Band is the company's first fitness tracker and while not a full-fledged smartwatch, is a decently featured fitness band. Its design differs from the rest in the form of a nicely contoured silicone band, which offers a dual-tone finish. The OnePlus Band is extremely light and comfortable to wear, whether it's through the day or while sleeping. The Band has decent accuracy with respect to tracking your heart-rate and steps, but is definitely not ideal for high-intensity interval training type of workouts. The Health app by OnePlus definitely needs tweaking to make access to important health data and workout metrics easier.
One thing about it that caught my attention immediately is the presence of SpO2 tracking. This is a helpful health metric to track, especially with the current global situation. The OnePlus Band is priced at Rs. 2,499, which pits it against the Xiaomi Mi Band 5. So, can the OnePlus Band help you with your resolutions? I put it to the test to find out.
This is the first
fitness band from Oneplus, and it looks like the company has taken some
help from its friends over at sister brand Oppo. The OnePlus Band looks
identical to the Oppo Band which was launched in China back in June
2020. The Oppo Band hasn't gone on sale in India, so the similarity might not
be recognised by many people.
When you get yourself the OnePlus Band, there’s a sense of familiarity to it, and then there’s something that sets it apart from the likes of the Mi Smart Band 5 and others. The actual silicon band on the OnePlus Band has a nice ribbed finish to it and has a dual-tone colour treatment. It's grey on the bottom side and black on the top. You could get yours in a grey-orange colour or the simple blue colour. There are no physical buttons on the band for navigation and such, but the 1.1” AMOLED panel offers a fully touch-sensitive area, allowing you to navigate through the band and its functions with swipes and taps. Charging is done by removing the core from the silicon strap and placing it on its dedicated charger. Honestly, for bands, there really isn’t a perfect charging solution. A built-in USB port wouldn’t make a lot of sense due to water and dust resistance concerns, so we’re stuck with an imperfect charging solution for now. What I also found a little annoying is the clasp. In order to get the right fit around the wrist, you’re going to need someone to hold the band in place, so that it doesn’t move while you pull the strap in order to fasten it. It's not a perfect mechanism, but it is neat.
The OnePlus Band definitely looks better than most others in this segment. This is also a band that offers a minimal but well-thought-out feature set. It is, however, lacking in some regards. The OnePlus Health App isn’t as polished as, say, the Mi Fit app or the Xiaomi Wear app. The OnePlus Band is also missing the stress tracking feature, which is weird since it has all the right sensors. I do believe that OnePlus has the engineering chops to refine the app and the software of the Band further. While the experience isn’t poor out of the box, the OnePlus Band does feel like a first-generation device that needs some time to get better.
ONEPLUS BAND KEY SPECS, PRICE AND LAUNCH DATE
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Price: |
₹2499 |
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Release Date: |
11 Jan 2021 |
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Variant: |
None |
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Market Status: |
Launched |
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