Oppo Kenya is following in the footsteps of local rivals Huawei and Xiaomi by unveiling its own smart band in the local market.
The Oppo Band, as it is called, will start selling in the country on May 20th.
According to Oppo Kenya, the first 100 people to order the Oppo Band on Jumia Kenya, one of the places where it can be bought (the other being Oppo brand stores countrywide), between the launch day (May 20th) and May 23rd, will get it for just Kshs 4,000. The retail price for the Oppo Band, sans any deals, is Kshs 6,000.
The Oppo Band’s launch and availability in the Kenyan market follows the launch and availability of the Oppo Watch, Oppo’s first smartwatch, last year. Unlike the band, the Oppo Watch is powered by Wear OS, Google’s Android-based platform for wearables.
The Oppo Band comes in Basic Sport and Style variations. Oppo Kenya will be selling the black colour variant of the Basic Sport model at the above-stated price.
The Oppo Band features a 1.1-inch full-colour AMOLED display. Being a smart band, its core area of focus is definitely health and fitness and this is cemented by the 12 workout modes it has (including running, walking, cycling, swimming, badminton, cricket, yoga, etc), continuous blood Oxygen saturation monitoring (it conducts non-stop SpO2 monitoring 28,800 times—fully measuring the user’s body oxygen saturation, according to Oppo), sleep monitoring and heart rate monitoring thanks to its built-in optical heart rate sensor.
For those keen on the aesthetic appeal of the device, there are over 40 watch face designs to choose from.
Being a smart device, “The Oppo Band can also work as an extension of the user’s smartphone. Users can receive messaging and call notifications, control music playback, and even find their mobile phones through the band.”
A low-power (but high-performance) processor and a 100mAh battery combine to give users up to 12 days of usage, according to Oppo.
Like other Oppo wearables, the Oppo Band can be paired with compatible smartphones (running Android 6 or later versions) through the HeyTap application which can be downloaded from the Play Store for syncing and further management of its features and functionality.
