Admittedly: The Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro is no longer completely new. Not only because it has been on the market for a while in its current form, but also because it is a rather restrained upgrade of the 2018 version. After problems with many Wear OS smartwatches, where the battery life predominantly emerged as a dealbreaker among other inconsistencies, we still wanted to give the Ticwatch Pro another go.
It at least wants to solve the problem of the short battery life: On the one hand with a comparatively large battery, and on the other hand with a power-saving LCD that is supposed to provide runtimes of up to 30 days with the right settings. Will this work in the test?
In this article
Technical details
| Size screen | 1.40 inch |
| Size wrist | 22 mm |
| Size watch | 47 x 48 mm |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth, WLAN, NFC |
| GPS | Yes |
| Battery life | up to 45 days |
| Supported systems | AndroidiOS |
| Water resistance | IP68 |
| Display | OLED, LCD, Retina |
| Sensors | Accelerometer ,GPS, Altimeter, Pulse monitor, Pulse monitor without chest strap, Sleep monitoring |
| Microphone included | Yes |
| Speaker included | Yes |
Design
One thing you cannot accuse the Ticwatch Pro (2020 and, due to the identical construction, the 2018 version as well) of is that it is too delicate for a man’s wrist. On the contrary. Because the smartwatch, which is only available as a 45-millimeter version, is inevitably large, but above all thick. A depth of almost 13 millimeters is no mean feat. And it also looks much more like a conventional watch, while the Ticwatch looks more like an electronic gadget. This is supported by the display in Essential Mode, where the LCD is used for the display.
This only handles digital displays of digits and cannot display a conventional watch face – which inevitably looks more technical than the display of a watch face. It looks like an electronic gadget. This is supported by the display in Essential Mode, where the LCD is used for the display. This can only display digits digitally and cannot show a conventional watch face – which inevitably looks more technical than the display of a watch face.
Not the prettiest watch in town
In addition, the angular and angular design language of the Mobvoi watch gives it a rather rough shape, which does not look particularly modern overall. It rather reminds of the first smartwatch attempts. For example, the watch’s display is much lower than the non-rotating bezel, and the majority of the case is made of matte black, nylon-reinforced carbon fiber – that could optically also be plastic and does not fit the price of 260 Euros in the MSRP in our opinion.
However, the watch has other advantages and also scores with good workmanship. There are no uneven gaps and even though the two lateral buttons have slightly different and spongy pressure points, they can still be operated quite well.
The strap of the watch consists of an outer layer of leather with decorative stitching, while silicone is the material of choice on the inside. This has the advantage that sweat does not accumulate in the material, but the wristband still looks higher-quality on the outside. If you don’t like it, you can easily replace it with standard 22-millimeter-wide wristbands from third-party manufacturers.
Display
One of the other advantages of the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro is the display – or more precisely, the fact that the watch has two displays. They are one above the other and are the main reason for the high runtime values of up to 30 days, which the manufacturer claims.
The main display is the 1.39-inch OLED screen, which is usually responsible for the display in smart mode. With its resolution of 400 × 400 pixels, the reproduction of content is nice and sharp, colors are displayed intensely, and the black value and readability are good as usual. Thanks to a brightness sensor, the Ticwatch adjusts the screen’s luminosity to the ambient brightness.
The OLED screen is covered by a transparent LCD that works transreflectively. This means that the stronger a light source shines on the display, the easier it is to read. Thus, users do not have any problems recognizing content even in direct sunlight in midsummer. There is not much more information then – with the date, steps and rough battery display of the watch, that is it.
More values are only available when the watch is lifted to look at it, the display is touched or the upper of the two side buttons is pressed. Then the OLED panel pops up again and displays more information depending on the preset watch face. Depending on the preset watch face, it displays further information.
Battery life depends on usage
The OLED screen can also be activated permanently and then displays a slimmed-down standby screen like in other WearOS watches. However, this costs considerably more power and negates the biggest advantage of the Ticwatch Pro, namely low power consumption due to the additional power-saving display.
This also applies the other way around when a wearer of the watch switches to Essential Mode. In this case, the LCD is permanently activated and the power-intensive OLED screen is deactivated. This even requires a restart of the watch. At the same time, the smartwatch becomes a simple watch without smart functions. Even the steps that are still counted are no longer transmitted to Google Fit, which means that the great advantage of a smartwatch is abandoned and its actual purpose is reduced to absurdity. After all, conventional wristwatches can simply display the time better or at least longer without an external power supply.
The Hardware
It has already been mentioned: The current 2020 version of the Ticwatch Pro from Mobvoi is a revised version of the Ticwatch Pro from 2018, although “revised” is actually already too big a word, because the changes are limited. They neither affect the outer appearance nor the basic technology with the now clearly aging Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100. Instead, only the working memory has been doubled from 512 MByte to 1 GByte and the watch now fulfills components of the MIL-STD 810G certification and is protected against splash water and dust according to IP-68. ATM-5 protection is still missing, so it is not suitable for swimmers.
Otherwise, it comes with what all high-end WearOS watches offer today: 4 GB of internal memory, so that the watch can be used as a music player without a smartphone, GPS, pedometer and heart rate monitor – for jogging with music, but without a heavy phone. NFC for contactless payment is also included, as well as a microphone and speaker for making calls. Depending on the version, however, only with a connected smartphone, since our Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro (2020) review sample does not offer LTE functionality despite the watch’s thickness. Connection is via Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz band – so far, so normal.
A few technical problems
The Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro (2020) clearly feels the doubling of the working memory: Commands are executed more directly, scrolling in the watch’s menus runs smoothly and apps are opened faster. Thus, the Ticwatch cuts a very good figure in everyday use. However, we again noticed a problem that all WearOS watches had despite using different smartphones: Despite an existing connection to the smartphone and constantly arriving messages on the watch, the Ticwatch also refused to send messages – such as WhatsApps or SMSs – via voice command.
Calling up messages via the OK Google command worked just as well as the correct recognition of the dictated text – only sending was rejected with the indication that there was no connection to the watch. Simple queries, which the Google Assistant can answer with a short quote from Wikipedia, on the other hand, work. Reminders or verbal setting of wake-up times also work flawlessly. A corresponding request to Google could not be answered at the time of testing.
Battery life
The biggest plus point of the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro should actually be the battery life. However, those who are blinded by the manufacturer’s claims of up to 30 days with only one battery charge will be disappointed. This is not only accompanied by the loss of all smart functions, as already described, but might also be exaggerated from experience. In fact, the watch simply lasted too long in the – poorly translated into German – “necessity mode” to be able to fully utilize it during the test. Estimated and extrapolated, a good 20 days should actually be realistically feasible, even if you’re really into sports and fitness and using it on a daily basis.
However, a higher suitability for everyday use in normal mode is probably much more important for most users – because almost all other WearOS watches fail here. Depending on how they are used, they barely last through the day and often run out of power in the evening. Mobvoi wants to do better – and manages to do so, even though the promised 5 days are unsurprisingly not reached.
On the one hand, this is due to the comparatively large battery of 415 mAh and the additional and energy-saving LCD. The Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro lasted a good two to three days in the test. It even lasted four days with moderate use – no other smartwatch with WearOS can manage that. By the way, charging is done via Pogo PINs, not via induction.
Conclusion
The design of the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro (check out the Mobvoi shop) was what bothered us the most. Of course, this is always a matter of taste, but it can also be determined by values and tangible observations. The Ticwatch is simply too thick and clunky to be considered chic. In our opinion, a sturdy metal strap would have been better than the leather-silicone strap that is made to look elegant. Apart from that, the WearOS smartwatch is convincing all along the line, as long as you can accept the LCD’s restriction to digital time display. A classic wristwatch cannot be imitated in this way.
Technically, the watch has a lot to offer; it can handle everything that is currently standard. Only the chipset is rather outdated; the successor will probably use the much more modern Snapdragon Wear 4100. The biggest plus point is the second display, which finally helps the smartwatch achieve acceptable runtimes. Currently, no other WearOS watch can run for three days, but at least two full days – which currently makes it the best WearOS smartwatch on the market. That also justifies the stably high price.
