"The Oppo Band goes the same well-known route as many other low-cost fitness wearables and is therefore difficult to stand out."
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Heart rate and blood oxygen tracking
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Accuracy does not match with other devices
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No automatic screen brightness
The Oppo Band is the first fitness tracker from Oppo, a company better known for its smartphones like the Find X3 Pro than for wearables, although it has recently attracted attention with the Apple Watch-like Oppo Watch. Given that the basic fitness tracker is such a well-established piece of tech these days, what can Oppo bring to the genre to highlight its maiden voyage? Unfortunately, the answer is not very much.
design
The Oppo band has a 40mm main body that is attached to a thick rubber band that is secured with a plastic pin. You have to take the sensor out of the bracelet when it needs to be charged, which reveals a plastic bezel piece like a bezel on the bracelet itself, giving it a classier, more coherent look than old Xiaomi Mi Band models that used the same charging method . It's the only design element that sets the Oppo Band apart from most of its competitors.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The strap has a lot of holes so it will fit most wrist sizes, although it was difficult for me to get the fit just right as it was either a little too loose or a little too tight. This will of course vary from person to person. I wear the Oppo band 24 hours a day and haven't noticed any skin irritation, but it does get a little hot at night when worn.
What I have noticed is that the plastic bezel that surrounds the module on the bracelet is worn out slightly and has picked up a few small notches after only a short period of wear. I haven't climbed any mountains or actually gone through any activity that could be described as "tough". So if you take part in activities that break things, the Oppo Band may not look good for long.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The AMOLED screen measures 1.1 inches and is very colorful but does not have automatic brightness adjustment so you can choose the right setting for you. With the default setting of 20%, it cannot be seen in sunlight and ideally needs to be increased to 80%, which has an impact on battery life.
Health tracking
On the back of the main module of the Oppo Band there is an optical heart rate sensor and a blood oxygen sensor (SPo2), while inside there is a 3-axis gyroscope. It doesn't have a built-in GPS or electrocardiogram that you'd likely find on more expensive fitness tracking wearables. It records a range of activities including indoor and outdoor walks, running and biking, and swimming (it has a water resistance of 5 ATM), yoga, cricket, and a few others. Sleep tracking is also an option.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
It connects to the HeyTap app that I used on an iPhone 12 Pro during my test. The app contains settings and adjustments for the band itself, as well as historical activity data. The daily calendar view is relatively simple, with daily overviews showing the number of steps, exercise time, calories burned, and active hours. To view individual workouts, you must select another option that includes a real-time heart rate graph. Finding these different sections is a bit confusing at first.
The accuracy of the Oppo Band is not as good as that of many other fitness wearables.
Sleep tracking breaks down sleep stages, assigns a sleep score, and uses the SPo2 sensor to provide breath analysis. Oppo gives some information on where to improve, but nothing that you won't find on any other fitness tracker. All data is presented simply and clearly, but without much depth. The Oppo Band is suitable for people who want to know more about their health and want to follow regular exercise sessions, but it does not provide detailed data and advice for people who are serious about fitness or a specific sport.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The accuracy of the Oppo Band is not as good as that of many other fitness wearables. At night, the SPo2 sensor often showed sudden, dramatic drops that were not registered by other models or recorded by the Withings Sleep Analyzer. The number of steps was also usually significantly lower than with other wearables. In a single day the Xiaomi Mi Band 6 and Honor Band 6 were worn, it recorded 4148 steps while the Mi Band 6 displayed 5645 and the Honor Band 6 5565. On another occasion when it was tested against the Fitbit Versa 3, it showed 225 steps versus the Versa 3's 467. When comparing the heart rate monitor, the Oppo Band's results were consistent with other wearables.
software
Oppo's software is a simple swipe-and-tap proposition, with a swipe up or down to scroll through the menu and a swipe left to right to change the watch face. This is an unusual choice and quite frustrating. I almost never want to change a watch face once one has been selected, so this gesture feels like a waste. It would have been preferable to show notifications or have quick access to exercise tracking.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
The screen is very responsive – sometimes it reacts a little too quickly, which can lead to errors – but the software is quite lengthy and most functions take longer than they should to perform. Would you like to start a workout? Tap the screen to wake it up, swipe up twice, tap again, select a workout, and tap again. Again, these actions would be minimized with a more sensibly designed gesture control system.
Notifications are reliable and while they cannot be interacted with, the text is clear and properly formatted. Music can be controlled but not saved from the Oppo Band, and there are a few other simple features like a stopwatch, weather screen (but only if you give it access to your location at all times), and a phone finder.
battery
It takes about an hour to fully charge the Oppo Band's battery, and although Oppo claims it will last for 12 days, it will depend a lot on the features you are using.
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends
With the screen brighter and sleep monitoring, heart rate monitoring, and notifications turned on, the battery lasted eight days before I had to recharge it. It would have taken nine if I'd left it flat.
Price and availability
The Oppo Band is available now in the UK and costs £ 40 or about $ 56 from Oppo and Amazon. It wasn't officially released in the US, although imports will be available from outlets like Amazon and AliExpress. If you choose to get one this way, make sure it is the "global" version as the Oppo tape was previously available in China and functionality may be different from the UK / global model.
Our opinion
Oppo enters a very crowded room with the Oppo Band. There are several inexpensive fitness trackers out there, and while perfectly acceptable in terms of design and software, the accuracy issues are less acceptable, battery life is no better than its competitors, and the accompanying app doesn't have enough in-depth features to appeal to serious fitness fans . The Oppo Band does not attract attention.
Is there a better alternative?
Yes. The Honor Band 6 can be purchased for roughly the same price and has better smartwatch functionality, more style, and a beautiful screen. The Xiaomi Mi Band 6 is even cheaper than the Oppo Band and fulfills the same functions. The Samsung Galaxy Fit 2 is slightly more expensive but more readily available, and while it doesn't quite offer the same functionality, it's more than enough for the casual trainer. If you're keen to spend more, we recommend the Fitbit Charge 4, which benefits from a better app experience, rich data, and good battery life.
How long it will take?
Apart from the easily scratchable plastic cover around the main module, the thick rubber band feels strong and the whole thing is waterproof up to 5ATM. No software update has come in for the Oppo Band during the time I had it that I was hoping would fix the accuracy issues. If you're happy to accept that it may provide data that is different from other models, the general functionality of the Oppo Band means it will last for several years, provided your own use doesn't change.
Should you buy it?
No, there are better and more accurate fitness trackers.
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