What it’s good to know
- OnePlus rolled out Put on OS 5 to Watch 2 and 2R items within the final week of December 2025, although solely in some territories like India.
- Customers who acquired the replace have reported critical battery drain, slicing the 3-day estimate right down to 1–2 days.
- OnePlus initially promised the replace in Q3 2025 earlier than shifting its window to This fall 2025.
- OnePlus’s model of Put on OS 5 largely consists of inventory updates like Google app enhancements and animation modifications.
Like a school scholar emailing their task to the professor at 11:59 p.m., OnePlus rolled out its Put on OS 5 replace to some OnePlus Watch 2 and 2R customers on December 29, sneaking beneath their self-imposed end-of-year deadline. And as you would possibly count on, this last-minute replace has been inflicting issues since then.
The OnePlus Watch 2 and Watch 2R, each launched in 2024 working Put on OS 4, had been initially presupposed to obtain Put on OS 5 between July and September 2025; solely after Android Authority requested concerning the delay in October did the corporate say the replace would arrive “within the close to future.”
Now, some OnePlus Watch house owners have acquired the replace, although not everybody; my U.S.-based OnePlus Watch 2R, for instance, nonetheless exhibits Put on OS 4 and the Might 2025 safety replace. However this could be a blessing in disguise, given the replace’s impact.
This Reddit thread and several other OnePlus discussion board posts (right here, right here, and right here) have talked about that the replace is inflicting extreme battery drain. The Watch 2 and 2R commonly lasted about three days in good mode earlier than the replace; now, some customers say it will not final a full day, even after attempting manufacturing unit resets and different fixes.
“I am totally heartbroken and pissed off with the drastic battery drain difficulty plaguing my OnePlus Watch 2 following the Put on OS 5 replace,” says one person. “My OnePlus Watch 2 now plummets from full cost at 1:00 PM to a vital 10% by 11:00 PM on gentle utilization.”
“Earlier I used to get 2.5 days simply with most settings on (at the very least 2 days)… Now barely getting 1 day,” says one other person. Somebody responded that his drain wasn’t fairly as dangerous, however that he’d gone from 3–4 days earlier than to “a strict 2 days” now.
A number of customers level to particular apps inflicting the drain, just like the Climate app, Play Retailer, or “Put on OS” itself, however the selection suggests it is a system-wide difficulty quite than one app inflicting issues.
What makes this replace particularly irritating to customers is that inventory Put on OS 5 is (A) a really delicate replace with few notable modifications and (B) presupposed to make Put on OS run extra effectively, because it did on Pixel and Galaxy Watches. The OnePlus Watch 3 has run this model since April with no points, making this unoptimized replace on last-gen fashions disappointing to see.
Any model can push a buggy replace, however two weeks later, I might have anticipated OnePlus to both roll it again or announce a timetable for fixes. As a substitute, OnePlus hasn’t made any official announcement, from what we have seen. My colleague reached out to OnePlus concerning the replace just a few days in the past, however we have but to listen to again.
Having really useful the OnePlus Watch 2R as my finest finances Android smartwatch decide, totally on the energy of its battery life, this replace is deeply regarding to me. OnePlus must show that its promise of two Put on OS updates and three years of safety updates is not simply empty rhetoric, and that it will correctly help these watches.
As it’s, it is notable that the latest OnePlus Watch Lite skipped Put on OS completely, utilizing a proprietary RTOS like the unique OnePlus Watch.
