OnePlus Watch 3 appears on FCC, hinting OnePlus is about to outdo itself in one key area

With its dual-architecture system and hefty battery, the Watch 2 can last about three days in Smart Mode – possibly four if you're careful – and up to 12 days in Power Save mode. With an even larger battery on the Watch 3, we could see those numbers climb even higher.

Wonder what a dual-architecture system is? The OnePlus Watch 2 features a unique dual-chipset, dual-OS design. It runs Google's Wear OS on the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen chip, while OnePlus' own RTOS (Real-Time Operating System) operates on the power-efficient BES2700 chip. Core smartwatch tasks, like the always-on display, are handled by the low-power chip, while more demanding functions, like navigation, are taken care of by the performance-focused chip and OS combo.

Moving on. According to the FCC listing, the OnePlus Watch 3 will support:

• Bluetooth (BR+EDR+BLE)
• GNSS
• NFC
• both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi

Beyond that, there's not much else confirmed. That said, it's pretty likely the smartwatch will stick with Google's Wear OS, just like previous models. It might also run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear W5 SoC, which powered its predecessor.

The upcoming OnePlus smartwatch is expected to keep the premium build quality that made the previous model so popular. After learning from its missteps with the first-gen watch, OnePlus delivered a solid upgrade with the second generation, and now the bar is set even higher. Based on the FCC listing, especially the battery specs, it looks like the company is on track to outdo itself once again.

That said, I really hope OnePlus has tackled some lingering issues from the second-gen model. For instance, the way switching between power modes requires a full restart is more frustrating than it should be. Hopefully, this is one quirk they've left behind in the new watch.