Is OnePlus making a smartwatch? Here’s what an ex-employee has revealed

Oppo Watch side profile

Credit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
  • A device called OnePlus Watch was spotted on a regulatory website.
  • A former OnePlus employee has also confirmed the firm’s interest in making a smartwatch.

The “OnePlus Watch” was recently discovered in a listing on a regulatory website. Folks over at 91Mobiles spotted an IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) certification, describing the smartwatch by its name and model number “W301GB.” Now, TechRadar claims to have spoken to a former OnePlus employee who has more or less confirmed that the company is serious about the smartwatch business.

In a one-line statement to the publication, the unnamed source said that OnePlus has “actively been looking into a smartwatch for the last year.” While this doesn’t confirm the existence of the so-called OnePlus Watch, it surely adds some weight to the regulatory listing, which we confirmed on the IMDA website. Check out a screenshot below.

OnePlus watch IMDA listing

Credit: IMDA

Rumors of a OnePlus smartwatch are not all that surprising. Back in 2016, the company confirmed that it didn’t only have plans for a smartwatch, but actually had a completed smartwatch.

Please wait.. Loading poll

“We had completed the design, but we still decided to scrap it. We have to be focused,” OnePlus CEO Pete Lau said at the time. In fact, OnePlus Co-Founder Carl Pei had even put out some scrapped sketches for a OnePlus Watch saying, “What could have been but never will be.”

Carl Pei OnePlus Watch Tweet in 2016

Credit: Carl Pei/OnePlus

Now more than ever seems like a good time for OnePlus to announce a smartwatch. Its sister firm Oppo just debuted its first Wear-OS powered smartwatch — the Oppo Watch — which got full marks in our review. It’s powered by the Snapdragon Wear 3100 which is not the latest and greatest, but if OnePlus could pull off a Snapdragon 4100 + WearOS combo, it might have a hit smartwatch on its hands.

For now, OnePlus is very quiet about its smartwatch plans. We hope to hear something when the company reveals its rumored OnePlus 8T flagships later this year.

Also read: The best smartwatches you can buy right now



from Android Authority https://ift.tt/3gzjarW
via IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

6 investors discuss why AI is more than just a buzzword in biotech

As ChatGPT has so aptly demonstrated, AI is now truly entering the mainstream consciousness. That’s why we weren’t very surprised when a slew of investors told us they rarely see a biotech startup that doesn’t incorporate AI in some form or other these days. “Most of the companies we have seen have an AI component to support the discovery or development processes,” Francisco Dopazo, a general partner at Humboldt Fund told TechCrunch recently. But despite becoming quite the buzzword, AI’s apparent ubiquity in biotech isn’t actually driving deal flow or higher valuations. So to get a better idea of how AI is affecting biotech in 2022, we asked six investors to tell us what they look for in a biotech startup today. For Franck Lescure, a partner at Elaia Partners, in biotech, having an AI component isn’t an automatic deal closer. “We do not favor biotech startups with extant AI over those without: Bio-revolution is not only digital. Digital is one tool; the other major tool is the livin
Read more

Voiceflow, a Canada-based SaaS platform that lets companies launch their own voice and chat bots, raises $20M Series A led by Felicis Ventures (Igor Bosilkovski/Forbes)

Image
Igor Bosilkovski / Forbes : Voiceflow, a Canada-based SaaS platform that lets companies launch their own voice and chat bots, raises $20M Series A led by Felicis Ventures   —  Canadian collaborative conversational AI tool Voiceflow announced today that it has raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Felicis Ventures. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3rFQ9St via IFTTT
Read more

Ex-staffers say Twitter's mass firing of security staff and growing reliance on automation will help China and other authoritarian regimes in silencing critics (Adam Rawnsley/Rolling Stone)

Image
Adam Rawnsley / Rolling Stone : Ex-staffers say Twitter's mass firing of security staff and growing reliance on automation will help China and other authoritarian regimes in silencing critics   —  Elon's mass firing of security staff and increased reliance on automation is going to make it easier for tyrants to shout … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/xQsF2ef via IFTTT
Read more