You only have to take one look at T3's OnePlus Watch review to see that I was impressed by the Chinese smartphone maker's first proper foray into world of smartwatches.
But, equally, you only have to take on look at T3's best smartwatch buying guide to see that the Apple Watch is still king of the wrist-based wearables world, with the Apple Watch Series 6 sitting on the smartwatch throne.
That said, though, the OnePlus Watch didn't fall short due to lack of features, with the watch delivering a very wide-range of features that more-or-less matched the Apple Watch. And, despite a few misgivings, it was easy for an Android user like myself to point at the OnePlus Watch's price point, which is half that of the Apple Watch Series 6, as to why it is was the better buy for me.
However, after catching the latest leak about tech that could be debuting in the Apple Watch Series 7, it looks like that value proposition is about to get a lot weaker for the OnePlus Watch, for as T3 reported yesterday an incoming Apple Watch is set to come with blood pressure, blood glucose and blood alcohol monitoring features.
The news comes courtesy of the fact that it has been revealed that Apple is the largest new customer of Rockley Photonics, which is a company famous for developing non-invasive optical sensors for detecting blood-related health metrics. These health metrics include the measuring of blood pressure, blood glucose and blood alcohol levels.
And, when you consider that no other Apple device other the Apple Watch could make use of such sensors, it seems to point towards them making their way into the incoming Apple Watch Series 7 or Apple Watch Series 8.
The quantity of business that Apple has given Rockley Photonics would indicate that is true, too, with its recent company filings (posted in advance to it going public) showing that Apple was responsible for the vast majority of its revenue over the past 24 months. That filing also showed that Apple has an ongoing "supply and development agreement" in place with the company – all of which points to sustained supply for the Apple Watch.
All this disclosed information tallies perfectly with the rumors we've been reporting on over the past few months, which pointed to blood health metric monitoring as the big new thing coming to smartwatches from both Apple and Samsung.
And now this latest information seems to confirm that – Apple Watch looks set to offer blood pressure, blood glucose and blood alcohol monitoring. It will be like having a portable doctor on your wrist and will take tracking health fundamentals to a whole new level.
And, well, that is simply something that the OnePlus Watch can't do, and that has got me envious already as it appears to be a genuine game-changer. As such, if this new functionality does come to Apple Watch Series 7, which is slated for a September launch right now, it could lead to a lot of green-eyed OnePlus Watch users.
Here's hoping that OnePlus is already working on incorporating such blood monitoring tech into a OnePlus Watch sequel, even if it involves the price creeping up a bit. I for one would be more than happy to pay an extra $50/£50 or even $100/£100 to get access to that functionality, and even if it were the latter figure, that would still mean the OnePlus Watch Series 2 would ring in for less than Apple Watch.
