OPPO Watch X3 review: A luxurious premium smartwatch experience

It’s not often that we see a brand get a new product right on the second try, but OPPO managed it with the Watch X2 back in 2025. Now, the OPPO Watch X3 is here, and even though the actual improvements are minor, it all comes together for a more luxurious, premium smartwatch experience.

With a reduction in weight, an improved water and dust resistance rating, a brighter display, and a seemingly perpetual discount that brings the starting price down to the same S$499 as its predecessor, is the OPPO Watch X3 a worthwhile purchase?

More understated, much more appealing

This time around, OPPO has gone with a design that builds on the Watch X2’s but tones down the masculine aspects. Gone is the thick, marked bezel, which is now replaced by a slimmer design with exposed screws that is vaguely reminiscent of an AP Royal Oak. 

In fact, the entire watch has been slimmed down to just 11mm, with a smaller rotating crown and slimmer side button. Thanks to this, the 47mm watch size doesn’t feel as big as it sounds, and it sits nicely on the wrist – even one as delicate as mine.

The watch case is now made out of titanium alloy, which helps to reduce the weight down to just 43g while offering better durability against dents compared to the old stainless steel material. Most of the metal is now a brushed matte finish, so oily fingerprint marks are reduced. 

The IP68 dust and water resistance rating is now improved to IP69. It’s a small change, but a nice upgrade nonetheless. Water resistance rating is unchanged at 50m, which means a casual swim is fine, but you can’t go diving with it.

The 1.5-inch LTPO AMOLED display can get up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness in official sports modes, so you’ll be able to read the watch face even under strong sunlight when you’re out exercising. The typical peak brightness of 1,500 nits isn’t too shabby either, and is more than enough for most situations.

The watch keeps the dual-chip, dual-architecture design from before, with the same Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and BES2800BP processors. Therefore, we see the same excellent battery life out of the Watch X3 thanks to automatic switching between Wear OS 5.0 and a less power-hungry real-time operating system (RTOS). 

I managed to get around 5 days of use from a single charge, and that’s with every health tracking metric (sleep, blood oxygen, heart rate, SpO2, wrist temperature, etc) turned on all the time. A full charge from 0% with the proprietary charging puck took just 66 minutes, which isn’t too bad at all.

Same same, but different

Software-wise, there’s very little that’s changed. Just like last year, we get the advanced multi-path PPG (photoplethysmography) sensor, a skin temperature sensor, ECG sensor, and the OPPO Sense algorithm to take your metrics. 

All the data is collated in the OHealth app, so you’ll want to make sure you download it to get the most out of the watch.

The OPPO website states Singapore is on the list of supported countries for the ECG feature, but…

Photo: HWZ

It’s actually not.

Photo: HWZ

According to OPPO’s website, the ECG Analyser feature is supposed to be available in Singapore, but we couldn’t get it activated through the app. It’s still utilised in the 60s Wellness Overview feature, but you don’t get any results from it, even though you can see your ECG and PPG being measured in real time. This means the Arterial Stiffness and Vascular Age metrics are also gone, which is a shame.

Additionally, what’s also worth mentioning is that while there are over 100 sports modes available, not all of them are quite as fleshed out as they could be. 

After noticing a Forum member’s post on how strength workouts can’t track sets or reps, we dove into the different workout types to see if it was true. And it is. The strength training, shoulder exercises, back exercises, core exercises and such all only track time, heart rate and calories, with only duration and calories burnt available as goals. 

However, this is consistent across other big smartwatch brands as well. Samsung and Apple smartwatches are unable to automatically count reps, so if you do a lot of strength training, you might want to look at another smartwatch brand like Garmin or Amazfit that can do automatic rep counting, or look for a third-party app to help you track more accurately.

Just like before, your insights reset if you forget to wear the watch to sleep, since you require at least four consecutive days of sleep records and 10 consecutive days of sleep and resting heart rate data for trends. 

Is it still worth the purchase?

OPPO has increased the price of the Watch X3 to start at S$529, but before any of us get our knickers in a twist over the increased price for such minor upgrades, we have to point out that there seems to be a perpetual discount (171 days remaining at the time of writing) that drops the starting price down to S$499. 

That means you’re getting a material upgrade, a brighter screen and better water resistance while paying the same price as the Watch X2. 

The long-lasting battery life and pleasant user experience are some of the best things about the Watch X3, and when facing competitors like the Google Pixel Watch 4, Samsung Galaxy Watch8 or even the Apple Watch Series 11, it puts up a serious fight on both the hardware and value proposition fronts. 

However, there are some cons. The ECG feature remains unavailable to us, and even the Arterial Stiffness and Vascular Health metrics have been removed. Additionally, it would have been nice if OPPO had given us an update to Wear OS 6, especially since the system optimisations and increased battery efficiency mean the watch might have been able to last for a few hours more. 

But we’ll cut OPPO some slack, since the price has effectively stayed the same as last year while still giving us small upgrades. Well done, OPPO, you’ve managed to continue making one of the best Android smartwatches around.

Pricing and availability

The OPPO Watch X3 retails from S$529 for the Obsidian Black colourway and S$569 for the Misty Titanium option. Both models are on a 5% discount until the end of 2026, and are available at OPPO’s online store, as well as the brand’s Shopee and Lazada shopfronts.