OPPO Band 2
RM249.00
Pros
- 5 ATM water resistant
- Simple yet fully featured
- Lightweight
- Good battery life
- Very affordable
Cons
- Not enough colour option
It’s not often that I come across an affordable fitness band or smartwatch that does (almost) everything a flagship fitness band can do. In my experience, there are bound to be one or two missing features. But let me tell you one thing, the new OPPO Band 2 is exactly that. It comes with all the bells and whistles of a flagship packed into an affordable wearable device. And I like it.
The new OPPO Band 2 doesn’t need all the fancy stainless steel frame or a special dial to select a function from the menu. The OPPO Band 2 is made simple, but works like a charm.
The first time I slapped the band on my wrist, it felt like it belonged there. The lightweight materials used for the frame and hardware doesn’t look cheap. This is due to the seamless transition in the frame towards the strap along the top and bottom edges. It does feel plastic-ky but at this price point, it’s forgivable.
I love the simple design. A few of the OPPO bands that I have reviewed are buttonless. No buttons to press on either side to execute any quick functions. Navigations are done by tapping and swiping only. It’s fine by me. Navigating through the menu in the UI is quite smooth and responsive. The larger than usual 1.57” display at 302ppi pixel density is just awesome. At that ratio and density, colours and clarity on the watch faces are top notch. It just looks so good.
Even the silicone strap feels nice. If or when I’m bored with the strap colour, I can always detach the strap quickly and swap it with another colour to suit my mood on that day. Right now I only have the black strap attached to the grey coloured frame. Speaking of colours, the OPPO Band 2 comes with two colour variants – Baby Blue and Midnight Black. Interestingly, the Baby Blue variant comes with two separate strap colours, one side being light blue and the other being white. And it comes with a silver coloured frame.
Both colours look good. Only that the Baby Blue variant looks and feels more feminine. I reckon it would appeal more to the ladies. Don’t get me wrong, it does look good and it is a great colour option to have. But it’s not the colour that matters. It is what’s inside it.
The “vital” sensors are located at the back of the watch. I said vital because this is the sensor that detects and calculates your vital signs such as heart rate and blood oxygen level. Right above the sensor are the positive and negative charging pin terminals. Charging up the 200mAh battery only takes about an hour but most of the time it hits 100% earlier than that. At 100% capacity, the OPPO Band 2 can last me about a week before running out of juice. On paper, it says that it can go up to 14 days on full charge. And then I found out why it didn’t last that long.
The reason is because I set the SpO2 sensor to periodically track my blood oxygen level and assess my breathing problems (if any) during my sleep. Not only that, I also set it to monitor my heart rate once every six minutes. With all those tracking and monitoring turned on, it is no wonder the battery can only last about 7 days. But on the other hand, lasting 7 days with most of the sensors turned on is not bad at all. That is one of the reasons why I love the OPPO Band 2.
Navigating through the menu is super easy and effortless. A tap on the screen will wake the band up and a swipe to the right will show all the activities including your steps, sleep, heart rate monitor and blood oxygen level. Swiping to the left will bring up all the other features. From here, you can choose your fitness program or routine, calculate your stress level, daily activities, alarm, timer, stopwatch, weather forecast, hydration reminder, flashlight and the watch settings.
A simple tap on any of the menu items will open up to more options. To go back a page, simply swipe inwards from the left side. When you’re back to the home screen where the time is shown, swipe up to open up the notification section. Here you can see all the notifications that have come in. Lastly, swiping down will reveal the quick settings.
Other than accessing all the features from the watch itself, it can also be accessed and configured from within the phone app called Hey Tap Health. It is available on both Google PlayStore and Apple AppStore. From the Hey Tap Health app, you can keep track of your daily activities and health conditions as well. At the same time, it can also be automatically synced with Apple health or Google Fit app for better enhanced tracking.
The most interesting thing that I notice on the OPPO Band 2 is the wide selection of new watch faces. I also have the OPPO Watch Free with me but it doesn’t come with the new set of watch faces. And none of them are as interesting as the one on the OPPO Band 2. The overall design and features on each watch face is simply awesome. Most importantly, it has gorgeous watch face designs with versatile selection to suit your daily mood. You can also customise the watch face to match your current outfit, thanks to the upgraded AI Outfit Watch Face 2.0 software.
What you do is take a photo of your current outfit, and the AI will “design” a watch face for you based on the colour and pattern of your t-shirt or dress. That is absolutely awesome in my opinion. That saved me lots of time choosing a suitable watch face for the day. And best of all, I have tons of design options to play with. Two thumbs up for this one.
I often forget that I have a fitness band strapped on my wrist. But when notifications come in, the OPPO Band 2 gives enough vibration to notify me of any incoming calls or messages. And since I have the band on me 24/7, I keep my phone on silent mode all the time. You can say that I never liked loud ringing or message tones on my phone. I prefer to be under the radar and receive any messages quietly. That’s just me.
However, I didn’t get to go out for a walk or exercise because I was down with Covid19 a few weeks back. But the OPPO Band 2 does help with tracking my hourly blood oxygen (SpO2) level, which is a good thing for those who are C19 positive. Don’t worry, I’m all good now.
Conclusion
There you have it. There are so many reasons why I think the new OPPO Band 2 is worth the purchase. It is very affordable, very well designed, lightweight, very user friendly and it does almost everything a flagship fitness band can do. I highly recommend this fitness band to any of my friends or readers if they are looking for one.
At a low price point of only RM249.00, it will be a good long term fitness band that you can use. Consider this as one of your options. But in my experience of using it, it just works like a charm. You can now get one for yourself at OPPO’s official Shopee page. I think it’s on discount now. Thank me later.
For more information on the OPPO Band 2, you can check it out here: https://www.oppo.com/my/accessories/band2/
