Later but fitter

Almost every tech brand worth its salt had a fitness band, except OnePlus, until now. Simply called the Band, does it have enough to impress after all?

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OnePlus hasn’t pushed boundaries on its first wearable outing. But it’s a no-nonsense fitness band that covers the basics for a price that doesn’t raise expectations. Available in three different band shades, the core can be easily detached for charging.

Battery life is claimed to be a couple of weeks but this really depends on the use case scenario, activities that you monitor continuously including heart rate and SpO2 etc. The SpO2 measurement takes almost twice as long as higher-end smartwatches, but it’s in line with the competition of similar value.

Where the Band scores high are its 13 workout routines that also include Cricket to add the Indian touch. Metrics like real-time heart rate, duration and calories burnt are presented in an easy to read manner and the accompanying Health app on OnePlus phones is elegantly designed too.

Additional tools to interact with your phone include a camera shutter button, alarm, stopwatch, find your phone and music controls. For the music controls, you have to multitap your way to volume up or down, which can be a bit of a chore.

It’s efficacy with other phones beyond OnePlus devices is of course reduced but not unuseable. You miss out on Zen sync and other nuances of the OxygenOS.

Tech specs

Display 1.1in AMOLED