Upcoming OnePlus Watch ditches WearOS in favour of a custom OS based on RTOS, CEO Pete Lau confirms

Upcoming OnePlus Watch ditches WearOS in favour of a custom OS based on RTOS, CEO Pete Lau confirms
HIGHLIGHTS

OnePlus is launching a new smartwatch next week alongside the OnePlus 9 series phones.

OnePlus CEO has confirmed that the watch will not be running WearOS.

The company developed a custom OS based on RTOS instead.

Instead of holding on to some sweet surprises for the launch event like Apple's "One More Thing!", OnePlus has a way of posting elaborate teasers for its upcoming devices leading up to their official unveiling. The company has already showcased a lot about the OnePlus 9 Pro in the name of teasers. We know what it looks like, the kind of camera module it packs, and a lot more.

Now, the company has also decided to tease the OnePlus Watch that's set to debut alongside the new phones. In fact, the company CEO Pete Lau has already given away a crucial piece of info about the watch. In a response to a question from an OnePlus forum member about the Watch's OS, Pete confirmed that it will not be running Google's WearOS.

He confirmed that they chose to go with a smart wear operating system that's developed based on RTOS. "We chose to go with a smart wear operating system developed based on RTOS because we believe it provides you a smooth and reliable experience while offering a great battery life, covering some of the biggest concerns we’ve been hearing from people looking to buy a smartwatch," he said.

This confirms the fact that the upcoming OnePlus Watch will be running an OS that would be more or less similar to the ones running on devices from the companies like Amazfit. The downside to using such an OS is the limited third-party app support. But on the flip side, they tend to have great battery life and faster performance, two things which the WearOS is not popularly known for.

The fact that the OnePlus Watch is not running WearOS may come as a surprise for a few people, but this is something we expected a lot of OEMs to do, especially since WearOS is still rather unstable when it comes to performance and battery life. For now, though, we will just have to watch for OnePlus to showcase what they've been cooking for us behind the scenes. In the meantime, check out these key features that the watch is expected to carry. It's coming from a reliable source, so it does carry some weight.

OnePlus will be unveiling the new OnePlus 9 series as well as the new OnePlus Watch on March 23.

Karthik Iyer

Karthik Iyer

Karthik is the resident laptop expert at Digit. You'll find plenty of reviews, news, how-to, & opinion pieces from him here. When he's not running benchmarks or playing Jenga with laptops, you'll find him in front of his PC, raging over a video game. View Full Profile

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