so after having the upper watch slapped on my phd wrist for the best part of the last fortnight i’ve gotta say i’m really really enjoying it in fact it’s probably one of the best wear or wear smart watches of 2020 although that’s not to say it isn’t without its weird ass quirks and this beefy 46 millimeter version will cost you a whopping 369 quid as well so it sure ain’t cheap either although oppo has launched a slightly smaller 41 millimeter version that’ll cost you 219 quid which calls some of the features that are slightly less essential but it is the mil version that i’ve been testing and the question is is it worth that extra cash to upgrade well here’s my full apple watch review and from all the latest greatest tech please do plug subscribe and ding that notifications bell cheers so what you get here is a square aluminium casing topped by a 1.9 inch display that curves gently around the left and the right edges yes it does look remarkably similar to an apple watch but to be fair if you get a crib off a rival you might as well pinch ideas from one of the best looking wearables around that aluminum casing has proven itself tough enough over the last couple of weeks no worries but
sadly the screen is susceptible to scratch and in fact i’ve got a pretty nasty one down here at the bottom so i’d definitely say be careful with the upper watch and you might want to take it off entirely if you’re gonna indulge in any outdoor activity shenanigans although at least you do have the added reassurance of the 50 meter water resistance and the upper watch is also light and super comfortable to rock on your wrist indefinitely that’s definitely helped along by the soft rubber strap and those traps are swappable as well they just pop right off like so to be able to change up the look and feel of your wearable once oppo actually starts offering a range of different straps here in blighty you can also personalize the upper watch with a small but pretty decent selection of faces most of which are customizable although often only as far as the colors go there is a good variety on offer and of course you can download a shed load more from the google play store if you get bored of that selection and each of these watch faces has its own always on display option as well which sports a similar design this didn’t work at all in my unboxing video but thankfully it sprang to life magically after an update now this 46 millimeter watch model busts a flipping huge 1.91 inch amoled screen and it is an absolute beaut those visuals are sharp so lots of tiny text can be packed onto the display at once while the colors smack you in the face with their poppy awesomeness on the maximum brightness levels i had no trouble seeing the screen outdoors
either although the always on display clock face is far too faint to see in direct sunlight so you will need to wake the watch to check the time or whatever the upper watch was actually powered by the snapdragon where 3100 chipset not the 3300 or even the fresh new 4100 plus but that wasn’t really an issue i found that it wasn’t lethargic at all even when operating apps flicking through menus whatever and the upper watch is absolutely rammed full of features too all of the stuff you’d expect from a more premium smartwatch is present and correct with this 46mm version of the upper watch you do have the option of lte connectivity via a built-in e-sim although you will of course have to stump up a bit of extra cash each month for a separate data contract sadly i did not have the chance to test out that feature on the oppo watch but the built-in wi-fi worked absolutely no problem whatsoever means you can actually download apps direct through the watch without having to go through your smartphone first things like that and the upper watch actually has a built-in mic and speaker here on the side as well so you can actually use it to take calls if you like and that worked absolutely fine as well it’s not the greatest quality speaker in the
world but you know what i could hold a phone call they could hear what i was talking about i could hear what they were banging on about job done they used to look like a plunker talking at a watch on your wrist as you’re walking down the street yes you very much do but it’s handy if you can’t be bothered to fumble around in your bag or whatever for your phone and you should also be able to use the mic to call up the google assistant with an okay google but i’ll be buggered if i can actually get the bloody thing to ever work okay google okay google okay i swear i’ve got all capital detection activated on this thing it just appears even less attention to me than my bloody five-year-old okay google and when i do inevitably eventually give up and just tap the assistant microphone instead it still either just completely ignores what i’m asking it or else it just comes up with an error message it’s about as much use as a chocolate shotgun and i’ve definitely seen a few other bits of quirky behavior on top of that as well so for instance the upper watch absolutely loves deactivated features that you’ve turned on countless times before like the rays to wake it loves turning that off pretty much every single freaking day and it doesn’t wreck the overall experience but it’s definitely not the kind of behavior you would expect from a 300 pound plus smart watch so here’s hoping that these little episodes are sorted out in an update very very shortly indeed thankfully i
had no such trouble when i was using the nfc for a bit google pay action or when i was using any of those fitness tracking features on the fitness side of things you’ve got gps built in here as well as 24 hour heart rate tracking and that heart rate monitor can also be used for a bit of sleep tracking as well if that’s your bag i’m not really bothered about it either way it could basically differentiate between light and deep sleep but it can’t actually tell you anything about your sleeping habits what you need to do to improve them anything like that very few exercise types are actually offered by oppos on tracking out but you do have the google fit on board with dozens of options to suit almost all tastes you got five minute workouts option here as well which is actually pretty good if you can’t be asked with a proper session to at least partly justify that pint and pack of pork scratchings you got saved for later unlike most premium wearables the upper watch’s battery life is a bit pants to say the least it’ll basically last you the day no problem i found that when i was using the notifications the fitness track and i had everything activated basically i would have about sort of 10 to 20 battery life remaining at the end of a busy day of course quite often i forgot to charge it overnight and so i just bunged it in the charger for about an hour or so in the morning
while i made myself look and smell vaguely presentable and that was enough to power it up pretty much to full and if you find that you are going to be away from civilization for a while you can get days and days of battery life if you use the power saver mode and this uses a secondary apollo 3 chipset and limits you to read only notifications step tracking and that heart rate monitor it definitely works a charm and it’s a very good feature to have on board and that right there is my final review of the upper watch have to use it as my full-time wearable for a couple of weeks and of course i do have my reservations recommending it but there is a lot to love here and i reckon that a second generation upper watch could really be a killer apple watch rival if you want a closer in-depth tour of some of the software and the other features as well go check out my full unboxing which is live right now and let me know your thoughts down in the comments below be great to hear what you think please do poke subscribe and hitting that notifications bell if you haven’t already and have yourselves a lovely rest of the week cheers everyone love you
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