Vivo Watch 2 with e-SIM support is official
Vivo Watch 2 has launched today at an event in China alongside the Vivo S12 smartphone series. The timepiece comes with one important upgrade over the original – eSim support. This is coupled with an excellent display, long battery life and a plethora of fitness and health features.
It has been more than a year since the first-ever Vivo Watch was released. The device came packing two different size options (a 42 and 46mm diameter), and a bunch of fitness sensors. All things considered, this is a fairly decent looking timepiece, that reminds a bit of the Samsung Galaxy Watch. In any case, not a bad effort from a smartphone maker.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
You do get a lot for the $190 price-tag. Mind you, this is what the watch costs in China. It is yet to be made available internationally.
To remind, Vivo is part of BKK Electronics. This is the parent company which also has under its umbrella Oppo, Realme and One Plus. Vivo is currently one of the 10 largest smartphone makers in the world.
Vivo Watch 2 – it’s official
We’ve picked up on a few regulatory filings in recent months so were anticipating the launch of the device today. That was made definite when the company released a few promotional posters in the run-up to today’s event.
The Vivo Watch 2 novelty is the inclusion of e-SIM support for making calls and sending SMS messages without a smartphone nearby. There’s also a quick emergency call feature that allows you to reach the likes of fire services, police and paramedics. Other functionality that (optionally) taps into e-SIM is Himalaya FM and Netease Cloud Music. This makes it possible to stream audio without a smartphone nearby.
Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets
Other than that, its pretty standard stuff. The device monitors health and fitness around the clock. This includes heart rate, automatic measurements of blood oxygen levels, a plethora of sports modes, built-in GPS and more.
Sleep stats, in particular, should be accurate. Vivo says its new timepiece utilizes advanced CPC cardiopulmonary in its sleep analysis algorithms which should spit out better sleep stage info. This includes capturing short naps.
It was also revealed that the timepiece will have support for more apps on its proprietary FunTouch operating system. The software is essentially a skinned interface that utilizes the Andoroid operating system.
Despite e-SIM support, the watch has excellent battery life. You can expect about a week with e-SIM switched on and about twice that amount with it switched off.
As far as design, the 5 ATM rated device adopts a bezel-less aesthetic. The one size fits all 46mm stainless-steel case houses a 1.43-inch OLED display. This offers a high 60Hz refresh rate.
The case is attached to a standard fluorine rubber strap with a Japanese-shaped buckle. The other option is a Nappa leather strap. The bull-headed leather has undergone a special tanning process so we suggest using the rubber strap for exercies.
Three color options are available for the frame – black, white and silver. These can be picked up for 1,299 yuan (just over $200), only in China for now.
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