OnePlus launches its first fitness band with SpO2 sensor, heart rate tracker and more

OnePlus recently announced its first fitness tracker, the OnePlus Band, in India on January 11. Priced at ₹2,499, the OnePlus Band falls in the affordable bracket of fitness trackers but packs in a whole bunch of features that are super useful including the SpO2 tracker.

We all the know importance of being able to track your heart rare, however, being able to track and monitor blood oxygen levels is vital as well, particularly now as Covid-19 continues to be a threat. Thus, the continuous SpO2 monitoring feature of this fitness band is a great boon.

Tracking your blood oxygen levels can be useful for a number of reasons. You can know if someone needs assistance in breathing (low oxygen levels) via external devices, such as a ventilator. It can also measure the user’s ability to tackle physical activities, and tell you about your surroundings whilst you sleep and whether they are indicative of a good night's rest.

In fact, fitness trackers with SpO2 sensors can come in handy for detecting sleep apnea. Sleep apnea can cause an increase in high blood pressure or even cause a sudden heart attack. If you’re a fan of hiking at high altitudes, then you’d want to monitor your blood oxygen levels constantly.

And it was in 2020 when COVID-19 came to light and forced us all to sit up and take notice of our health. The disease can impact the oxygen flow into the bloodstream and having a fitness tracker that can detect low levels of oxygen early on can be really useful.

Not many fitness bands, particularly budget ones, come with this continuous SpO2 monitoring feature, which gives the OnePlus Band a one-up over the rest.

The OnePlus Band measures 40.4mm x 17.8mm x 11.95mm and comes with a 1.1-inch colour touch display, 5ATM and IP68 sweat and water resistance, an optical heart-rate sensor and up to 14-days of battery life (100mAh battery). There are sensors on the back of the OnePlus Band to measure blood oxygen levels and also track your heart rate.

The OnePlus Band can track 13 exercise modes and these include two of India’s favourite modes of yoga and cricket.

The OnePlus Band also allows you to receive notifications from your smartphone and control your music, camera shutter, view incoming calls (reject calls), start/stop a stopwatch, set a timer and alarm and more. It also can relay the weather forecast.

Tying the fitness band to your smartphone is the new OnePlus Health app. The app helps you set the band up and also control your notifications, change watch faces etc.

The OnePlus Band will go on open sale from January 13, across OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store app, Flipkart, Amazon India, OnePlus exclusive offline stores and all partner outlets. The band comes with a black strap in the box while the tangerine gray and navy dual-coloured straps are available separately for ₹399 each.