OnePlus Watch 3 Could Come In A New Size With LTE This Year

OnePlus introduced its latest smartwatch dubbed the Watch 3. The company’s latest wearable offering offers impressive upgrades in the health-tracking and battery departments. The new OnePlus smartwatch is available only in a single-size variant and doesn’t support LTE connectivity outside of China. However, soon after launching the wearable, OnePlus announced that it is already developing a new Watch 3 model that will come in a different size. Furthermore, the new model will also address the lack of LTE support in most markets.

A new OnePlus Watch 3 small-sized variant is coming this year

In an interview with Wareable, Dr. Leo Zhang, the Head of R&D at the OnePlus Health Lab, confirmed that the brand could launch new Watch 3 models as early as this year. Zhang acknowledged that the OnePlus Watch 3 “remains heavy for a small wrist and that this typically affects women, but we will fix that this year”. So, we can expect the Watch 3’s new variant to weigh less than the current 50g model.

Furthermore, Zhang hinted that a small-sized variant of the OnePlus Watch 3 could launch this year. The company could call it the OnePlus Watch 3R, a successor to the sporty Watch 2R. As much as the OnePlus Watch 3 improved on its predecessor, a smaller variant was one of the few requested changes that the company didn’t deliver this year.

OnePlus is “working on” adding LTE by speaking with carriers

Zhang also said that the company is also “working on” adding LTE to its smartwatches by speaking with carriers. He explained that the technology isn’t an issue as it already offers an LTE version of the Watch 3 in China. However, to offer the same feature in an overseas market, it’ll need to work with the carriers, which it finds to be “a big hurdle”.

“We need to work with carriers so users can put in an eSIM and have a data plan”, Zhang added further. Unfortunately, unlike his promise about a smaller OnePlus Watch, he didn’t provide an exact timetable for adding LTE, whether to the Watch 3, Watch 4, or a later model.

In the meantime, OnePlus has acknowledged the “Meda in China” typo on the backplate of the Watch 3, which has affected several units of the device. Late last week, the company said that it’s fixing the typo on the wearable and is accepting a return for the device “no questions asked.” The brand will start selling the new Watch 3 stock with the correct engravings on the backplate very soon.