Ever since receiving the Ticwatch Pro 3, I have always been deeply enamoured with it. It’s just such a fantastic smartwatch that I think if you are going to give Google’s Wear OS a second shot, this is what you want for the best possible experience.
Mobvoi makes a bunch of smartwatches but all of its Wear OS smartwatches use pretty outdated hardware which makes the performance of those smartwatches quite lacklustre. Nonetheless, I still strongly recommend the Ticwatch E2 to people looking for an entry level smartwatch.
But when it comes to the Ticwatch Pro, it became increasingly untenable as time passed and watches started getting better and better. That’s a bit of a problem.
The latest release from Mobvoi is the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS. It really puts Mobvoi on a new level.
FYI, thanks to AI imagery software, we’re able to create very specific fashion and hairstyle examples to illustrate the points being made. In some cases, imagery is exaggerated to hammer home the point.
Appearance
Both smartwatches really give off a different vibe and it starts with the materials chosen for the strap and watch case.
The original Ticwatch Pro uses a good amount of stainless steel on the watch case. The bezel, buttons and the rear of the watch case are all silvery and shiny. It comes with a strap that has a leather texture on top and a treaded silicone strap behind. It’s also a bit thicker and significantly heavier than the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS.
Whereas the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS is much more calm and stealthy. It’s black all over and has a bezel that’s more or less flush with the screen. The rear is black plastic. The compact design, thinner bezel and black strap
Performance
The performance of the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS vs the original Ticwatch Pro is major. The Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 and 1GB RAM while the Ticwatch Pro has the really old Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 and 512MB RAM (although the newer refreshes have more).
The difference is immediately apparent when there’s some really intense background task such as the periodic updates that come to the Wear OS. The original Ticwatch Pro suffers greatly in performance while the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS handles it without a hitch.
Battery Life
Both smartwatches really pride themselves on the battery life they have. But the reality is that in my tests, the Ticwatch Pro 3 proves to be a real trailblazer for Wear OS smartwatches but the Ticwatch Pro is quite average.
Common to both the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS and the original Ticwatch Pro is the dual screen feature that really defines the difference between the Ticwatch Pro line and all other Wear OS smartwatches.
What Mobvoi has done is to put an monochrome LCD screen on top of an full colour AMOLED display. This results in big battery savings, especially when you’re out in the sun and a typical smartwatch would have to crank up the brightness and cause drain on the battery.
The battery life on the Ticwatch Pro 3 lasts a few days even when worn 24/7 (for sleep tracking). I was thoroughly impressed by this because no Wear OS smartwatch that I own can claim the same battery life. The Ticwatch Pro is a bit more typical. It will last a full day and then some, worn only during awake hours.
Another key to the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS’s very good battery life is its backlit LCD screen. In the original Ticwatch Pro, if you ever tilt your wrist to see the watch face, the Ticwatch Pro will turn on the full colour LCD screen, whereas with the Ticwatch Pro 3, the smartwatch turns on a backlight to illuminate the LCD screen. This ensures you can always see the screen regardless of ambient lighting conditions.
However, if you do use the integrated GPS on both watches, the battery life of the Ticwatch Pro greatly suffers. The Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS manages a lot better with its longer battery life.
Both smartwatches also have an Essential Mode which allows you to shut down most of the smartwatch features on both smartwatches and only use the LCD screen for a longer battery life.
Health tracking tools
The Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS has the latest health tracking tools available.
It’s helped by the fact that the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS has new and improved sensors on the rear of the smartwatch.
Holy moly, they really amped it up here.
Both Ticwatch smartwatches have an app for general health tracking, TicHealth, then you get another for tracking exercise, TicExercise and the TicPulse app for tracking your heart rate.
Then, the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS augments this by adding the TicSleep, TicOxygen, TicHearing, TicZen and TicBreathe. Respectively, they are for tracking sleep, blood oxygen saturation, noise levels, stress levels and a breathing timer.
If any of these tools help you, that’s great, but I find that I never use some of these tools like TicHearing.
Google Assistant
Both smartwatches have Google Assistant, which is great. This is one of the best smartwatch voice assistants out there. The only difference between the two is that the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS is able to activate Google Assistant immediately, while the original Ticwatch Pro has to take a few seconds before Google Assistant is able to receive your query.
Texting and emails
There’s little difference here between the two smartwatches. When you receive emails and notifications on your phone, you will be able to see them on both Ticwatch Pro smartwatches. If you are paired to an Android phone, you can reply to them using the speech to text system or through a keyboard or handwritten text. I personally never use the latter two, especially because the speech to text system is excellent and backed by Google.
Speaker
Both smartwatches have a speaker and can therefore accept and make phone calls. This is a really great convenience to have because it will allow you to answer a call regardless of where your phone is.
Verdict
I think everyone should just go for the Ticwatch Pro 3 rather than buying the Ticwatch Pro. The reason for this really just lie in the fact that the Ticwatch Pro 3 is a much more advanced and futureproof smartwatch with the latest hardware and software.
Its excellent battery life is also one that causes awe in me. I can’t think of another smartwatch that has so many features and can last multiple days with 24/7 usage, although the new Fitbit Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense really come close since they unlocked phone calls and Google Assistant.