Launching for $299, the OnePlus Watch 2 has killer battery life and the long-awaited arrival of Wear OS for the brand, but the smartwatch will ditch a beloved feature by not supporting the ability to interact with Wear OS through a rotating button.
For quite some time now, a common feature among smartwatches has been the ability to spin the side button, the “crown,” to scroll through the interface and control certain UI elements. The rotating crown has appeared on several Wear OS watches over the years, but was mainly popularized by the Apple Watch lineup.
The OnePlus Watch 2, though, doesn’t support a rotating button.
The crown on the right side of the watch is a multi-function button that can launch Google Assistant or pull up the app drawer, but that’s all. The button does spin, but it just doesn’t do anything within Wear OS. Whether it’s the app drawer, an app like Google Maps, or anything else, you won’t find the spinning action controlling any part of the OS.
Speaking to 9to5Google, OnePlus explained that the rotating motion of the Watch 2’s crown “does not have any function,” and is rather a durability play. According to OnePlus, a rotating button is more durable in a drop compared to one that is rigid.
Notably, the OnePlus Watch 2’s default app drawer is a pretty close copy to what’s on the Apple Watch. For anyone who’s used the latter, the rotating crown is a huge boost to that experience, so it’s rather surprising to see OnePlus adopt that UI while only letting users zoom in and out using a pinch-to-zoom gesture.
The OnePlus Watch 2 is available for pre-order now starting at $299. Stay tuned for our full review, coming soon.
More on OnePlus:
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- OnePlus says 7 years of Android updates ‘completely misses the point’ – does it?
- You can officially buy the OnePlus 12R starting at $499
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