Oppo next smartwatch reportedly mixes Apple Watch looks with ECG app

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo teased its first smartwatch late in 2019, and now we’ve learned a bit more about what to expect.

After hearing the watch will likely employ a square display similar to that of the Apple Watch - and unlike much of the competition - we now hear the Oppo will have an ECG app, too.

A major feature of the Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5, the ECG app uses the Watch’s heart rate monitor and metal Digital Crown to create a circuit and measure the electrical activity of the wearer’s heart.

• Best smartwatch
• Best Apple Watch
• Oppo's first smartwatch design revealed

The Apple Watch then analyses this activity and can alert the wearer to possible signs of atrial fibrillation, which could in turn be connected to more serious heart conditions.

Now, according to a since-deleted post on Chinese social media platform Weibo, first spotted by GizmoChina, it is claimed Oppo’s first smartwatch will also be able to perform an ECG, or electrocardiogram.

This would make it one of the first smartwatches to do so, along with the Apple Watch Series 4 and 5, plus the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2, and well as the ScanWatch and Move ECG by Withings. It isn’t clear when exactly the Oppo watch will go on sale, and if the company will have gained certification to offer the ECG app in every country the wearable is sold in.

This certification process takes time and was why the Apple Watch Series 4 had its ECG app switched on in the US before the UK and Europe, as certification here took longer.

Oppo might get certification for the ECG app in its native China first, but buyers elsewhere may have to do without the app until it has been approved locally. For British customers, Brexit could also have an effect, as certification of a wearable with ECG capabilities in an EU country is unlikely to mean automatic certification in the UK after January 31.

Oppo hasn’t said when the smartwatch will go on sale, but announcing it alongside the company’s next flagship phone, the Find X2 due this quarter, would make sense.

Liked this?

• Best Apple Watch deals