Oppo has unveiled a new budget fitness tracker that seems to be taking on the big players Garmin and Fitbit, at a much lower price. The watch face leaked a few days ago (as reported by Wareable), but now we know its full specs, and they're impressive. The Oppo Watch Free, unveiled on September 26, has the usual array of workout tracking modes, but it's its sleep tracking that really stands out. The watch will monitor SpO2 levels and heart rate variability throughout the night, which it will use for sleep phases. In the morning, you can check your sleep stats right on your wrist, without opening the smartphone app. However, this is not all. Fitbit has just started rolling out snore detection to the Fitbit Sense and Versa 3, but the Oppo Watch Free will offer the same functionality at launch, albeit implemented slightly differently. While the Sense and Versa 3 listen for snoring with its built-in microphone, the Oppo Watch Free bases its judgments on variations in SpO2, as well as heart rate variability and sound levels detected by your smartphone. We haven't compared the two yet, but it will be interesting to see which turns out to be more accurate. If you wake up groggy in the morning and snoring isn't to blame, the Oppo Watch Free can give you more information. Like a watchful parent, it will track how much time you spend playing on your phone after settling in for the night and encourage you to cut down on the time you spend browsing Twitter in bed. However, this feature will only work with Android phones; iPhone users will need to exercise self-control.
E-sport mode
The Oppo Watch Free offers over 100 sports tracking modes, though we suspect most of them will be very similar, just tracking heart rate and time under different names. However, it also has an esports mode, an area Garmin ventured into with the Garmin Instinct Esports Edition in September 2020, but has received little attention since. Like the Garmin Instinct Special Edition, the Oppo Watch Free will monitor your heart rate during intense gaming sessions. However, while Garmin can broadcast this data to its Twitch subscribers, Oppo Free will only let you see the stats yourself. However, Oppo's Game Mode has a few more tricks up its sleeve, including the ability to send all notifications from your phone to your wrist so you don't miss a thing and send regular reminders when it's time to do something.
Like the Garmin Instinct Esports Edition, the Oppo Watch Free can monitor your heart rate during intense gaming sessions, though only the Instinct can broadcast these stats on Twitch (Image credit: Garmin) The Oppo Watch Free also looks the part, with a 1,63-inch AMOLED screen and a pixel density of 326PPI (slightly less than the Apple Watch 7). You can even generate a custom watch face based on the colors of your outfit. There's even the NFC option for contactless payments, which rivals Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay. The watch will cost 599 Yuan (around €90 / £70 / AU$130) for the version with NFC, or 549 Yuan (around €85 / £60 / AU$120) for the model without it. That makes it cheaper than any Fitbit or Garmin device currently on sale, though Oppo has yet to announce details of an international launch. We will keep you informed as soon as we know more. Today's best Garmin Instinct Esports Edition deals