Oppo is rumored to be working on its first smartwatch, which will apparently be able to recharge in just five minutes, making frustrations about short battery life a thing of the past. The news comes from a posting on the social network Weibo, showing a possible picture of the watch, and revealing the incredible-sounding recharge time.
The post says the “configuration is unknown,” meaning the specs are still undecided, and it’s not clear whether the Oppo watch will run Android Wear, or a proprietary operating system. It could go either way. Oppo uses Android on its smartphones, but it modifies it to become Color OS, a hybrid of its own creation.
If it is Android Wear, battery life on existing smartwatches running the OS ranges from less than a day to two at the most. Even if it’s a single day for the Oppo’s watch, a five minute recharge time would make it irrelevant. It wouldn’t matter if you forgot to charge the watch the night before, as it could be ready in the time it takes to brush your teeth.
The question is, can Oppo really produce a smartwatch with a five minute recharge time? Possibly, yes. When Oppo released the Find 7 and N3 smartphones, it incorporated a clever fast charging feature which pushed around 70% worth of energy into the battery after just 30 minutes. A full charge takes an hour.
The Find 7 has a 3000mAh battery, while most smartwatches have a 250mAh to 400mAh battery inside. Even if the five minute time turns out to be for a 70% capacity charge, that would still be very helpful. There’s no indication when we could see the Oppo smartwatch announced, but according to GizChina.com, anonymous sources say it’s coming soon. The company told us earlier this year we should look out for wearable hardware in the future, but didn’t have anything solid to share at the time.
