Oppo has announced that it's bringing its Watch Free smartwatch to the UK after launching the Huawei Watch Fit-lookalike in China first back in 2021.
Unlike the Oppo Watch and the still China-only Oppo Watch 2, the Free is a much cheaper option in the Oppo Watch family, adopting a look that's a cross between a smartwatch and a fitness tracker.
It comes in black and vanilla colors, with a 46mm, slim, rectangular case hosting a 1.64-inch, 280x456 resolution AMOLED display with 2.5d glass. That's partnered up with a silicone strap and as a package, carries a 5ATM waterproof rating making it safe for swimming and being submerged in water up to 50 metres depth.
Sensors-wise, you're getting a 6-axis motion sensor, optical heart rate monitor and SpO2 sensor to continuously track blood oxygen levels. There's notably no sign of any GPS support, so you're going to be sacrificing accuracy when tracking outdoor exercise time. Unlike the version available in China, you don't get NFC to enable payment support.
Oppo has included 100 workout modes including dedicated running courses to help users get to grips with running long distances, HIIT-style running and interval runs. There's automatic exercise tracking for runs, walk, elliptical and indoor rowing too.
It'll also track your daily steps and monitor sleep and promises to analyse sleep disturbances and monitor snoring, though it's not really clear how it does that. It may mean using it in conjunction with a compatible Oppo phone a bit like the way snoring monitoring works on Samsung's Galaxy Watch 4.
Away from the health and fitness realms, there's access to 40 watch faces, notification support (for Android and iOS), the ability to reject phone calls, access music playback controls and there's a find my phone feature.
The 230mAh packed into the Free should deliver up to 14-day battery life with a 5-minute quick charge getting you a day's use. The Honor Band 6 offers the same 14-days, but doesn't include a quick charge feature, while the Huawei Watch Fit offers a shorter 10-day battery life.
In terms of pricing, the Oppo Watch Free will go on sale in the UK on the 24 March priced at £89. There's no details on US pricing, but that would put it at a sub-$120 price point. That's not quite as cheap as the Honor Band 6 ($63.99) while the impressive Huawei Watch Fit can be found for under £70 in the UK. The Watch Fit isn't available to buy from Huawei in the US either.
The Oppo Watch Free in comparison to those other smartwatch/fitness tracker hybrids doesn't seem to offer hugely different features and specs sheets. We did have a surprisingly good experience with the Oppo Watch, so we're hoping it's more of the same with the Free when it lands.
How we test
By Michael Sawh
Michael Sawh has been covering the wearable tech industry since the very first Fitbit landed back in 2011. Previously the resident wearable tech expert at Trusted Reviews, he also marshaled the features section of T3.com.
He also regularly contributed to T3 magazine when they needed someone to talk about fitness trackers, running watches, headphones, tablets, and phones.
Michael writes for GQ, Wired, Coach Mag, Metro, MSN, BBC Focus, Stuff, TechRadar and has made several appearances on the BBC Travel Show to talk all things tech.
Michael is a lover of all things sports and fitness-tech related, clocking up over 15 marathons and has put in serious hours in the pool all in the name of testing every fitness wearable going. Expect to see him with a minimum of two wearables at any given time.