OnePlus Band review: OnePlus' first fitness band gets its features and price right but wish it had more finesse

• The OnePlus Band is the first wearable device to come out of OnePlus, offering important features like SpO2 and heart rate monitoring.
• OnePlus’ first wearable sports an unassuming design and effortlessly integrates in your daily routine, weighing in at just 23 grams.
• While the OnePlus Band comes with plenty of features, it stands apart thanks to the SpO2 tracking option.
• To find out how the OnePlus Band fares in real life, read our detailed review.

OnePlus Band is the first fitness tracker to come out of the company known for its flagship smartphones. While OnePlus smartphones stand apart, the OnePlus Band is an unassuming, simple gadget that integrates in your daily routine effortlessly.

The OnePlus Band stands out for a feature that has gained importance over the last year – blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring. This feature is usually not available in some other fitness trackers, so the OnePlus Band becomes a compelling option for that reason alone.

But the OnePlus Band has its task cut out, since it’s competing with Xiaomi’s Mi Band 5 which is available at the same price.

I have been testing the OnePlus Band for the last few days and here’s my detailed review.

OnePlus Band price and availability

The OnePlus Band has been priced at ₹2,499 and will be available from Amazon India, Flipkart, OnePlus online store and OnePlus retail stores across the country from January 13.

The fitness band will be available with a Black colour strap and users can purchase the Navy and Tangerine Gray colour straps for ₹399.

OnePlus Band design

Fitness trackers usually sport simple designs since the focus is on making them as lightweight as possible while offering a wide range of tracking features.

This is true for the OnePlus Band as well. It comes with a pill-shaped activity tracker with the display on the front and the sensors on the back. The tracker snaps into a silicone strap plastic strap that uses snap locks for the perfect grip. Overall, the band weighs 23 gram and in my experience, it’s not noticeable even if worn throughout the day.

The silicone strap is sturdy and of good quality, allowing you to wear it for long hours without any itching or irritation.

OnePlus Band features and performance

The OnePlus Band has a 1.1-inch display and comes with five brightness levels that can be set according to the ambient lighting conditions. It gets bright enough to be readable under direct sunlight on most occasions. The display is responsive as well, so navigating the interface is easy.

Other features include Bluetooth 5.0, 100mAh battery and 5ATM water resistance which allows you to wear it while swimming.

Pairing the OnePlus Band is easy, too. It works with Android devices and can be paired with the OnePlus Health app. The app will also be launched for iOS device in the coming days.

Once you get going, all you need to do is wear the OnePlus Band. It will start monitoring your heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, activities such as walking and running and calories burnt.

While sleeping, it monitors different sleep stages and your blood oxygen saturation levels. It shows the total sleep time, deep sleep time, light sleep time, awake time, interruptions while sleeping and wakeup time. It offers insights based on your sleeping habits and provides recommendations.

In our usage, we found that the OnePlus Band accurately monitors heart rate and blood oxygen saturation levels. The sleep monitoring was also accurate and offered good insights.

OnePlus Band battery life

The OnePlus Band is slated to offer 14 days of battery life. The main tracker needs to be detached from the band to charge it. The band’s battery life will vary depending on your settings.

You get the option to choose heart rate monitoring from every second to 2 minutes and every 6 minutes. Similarly, you can choose to monitor your SpO2 levels at intervals and in real time while sleeping. The battery life will increase or decrease based on these settings.

In my experience, the OnePlus Band lasted for 6-7 days on a single charge, with the band worn for a majority of this period. It’s possible to eke out more battery life by turning off some features, but one week of battery life is good enough.

Should you buy the OnePlus Band?

The OnePlus Band is a great option if you want a quality fitness tracker that can also monitor your SpO2 levels. It is also feature-rich and can monitor a wide range of statistics. If SpO2 monitoring is your primary need, the OnePlus Band is worth considering.

However, the user interface needs some polishing. Additionally, if you want really long battery life and don’t need SpO2 monitoring, the Xiaomi Mi Band 5 is a good alternative at the same price.

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