Ticwatch E2 vs Ticwatch Pro - Which is Better?

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In my review of the Ticwatch E2, I gave it the thumbs up for its affordability, features and comfort. In essence, I really liked it.

The Ticwatch Pro is Mobvoi’s flagship smartwatch with all the features you’d expect from a high-end watch.

The Ticwatch E2 is quite typical in the features that you’d expect from a Wear OS watch, whereas the Ticwatch Pro offers some unique features as well as some things that bewilder me.

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.

Comfort and size

The first major impression you get from picking up both watches is that the Ticwatch E2 is very, very light while the Ticwatch Pro is significantly heavier.

It becomes obvious when you observe the materials used for the watch cases. The Ticwatch E2 is fully plastic, whereas the Ticwatch Pro has a metal bottom and top.

I’m not sure what I think. I find the Ticwatch E2 to be very comfortable because it’s light. Light watches are great because you won’t have to strap them in too tightly and that means it’s much more comfortable over a day’s wear.

At the same time, the Ticwatch Pro feels much more durable. The metal casing really adds an element of ruggedness to the watch. It feels much more professional.

Hardware

The Ticwatch E2 has features that parallel those watches in its class while the Ticwatch Pro is full-fledged in terms of hardware.

The Ticwatch E2 has some notable features including an integrated GPS, a heart rate sensor and a 1.4 inch screen.

The Ticwatch Pro has all of those and a dual-layer screen, NFC for Google Pay and a speaker.

While generally you get what you pay for, the Ticwatch E2 puts a dent in that argument because it offers waterproofing for swimming which the Ticwatch Pro does not. This is most confusing.

The Ticwatch Pro has two buttons while the Ticwatch E2 has one. I prefer the single button system of the Ticwatch E2.

Otherwise, their specifications are very similar. Same Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor. Same 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage space.

Battery Life

One of the most amazing features of the Ticwatch Pro is its dual-layer display. On the bottom, you get the typical full-colour LED display, that is also on the Ticwatch E2, but layered above it, you get a LCD screen that displays the time, date, steps and battery life.

This is an ingenious way to save battery life. So while the Ticwatch E2 will go into screensaver mode, the Ticwatch Pro will completely switch off its LED display and turn on the LCD screen to prolong its battery life.

You can also put it into Essential Mode which is really a fancy name for battery-saving mode. What this does is that it turns off most smartphone-smartwatch functions and uses only the LCD screen.

The Ticwatch E2 can last up to two days while the Ticwatch Pro can last more than two days. This depends on what you’re using the watch for but the Ticwatch Pro has much more latitude in terms of battery life flexibility.

Wear OS

I really like the Wear OS for certain features — breadth of apps, Google Assistant and fantastic input options.

Detractors would point out that Wear OS watches can be sluggish and that the platform can feel quite neglected. I think it’s a fair argument because the Ticwatch Pro has sometimes proven to be very slow and sluggish. Oddly enough, I haven’t found the Ticwatch E2 to suffer from so many slowdowns, even though the hardware they use is similar.

So yes, you will have to get used to it being slow sometimes.

Google Assistant

In return, you get access to Google Assistant, which is my favourite voice assistant among all smartwatches. Its closest competitor is Siri, which is only available for Apple users.

I also put a lot of weight into the quality of the voice assistant because there are many tasks that can be tedious if you had to use the touchscreen to activate.

Say you want a timer for 24 minutes. If you used the touchscreen, it would mean finding the app, swiping until you get the right time and activating it.

Whereas with Google Assistant, you can just say “timer for 24 minutes” and it will activate it for you. All you have to do is to long-press a button on either watch.

Emails and text

Since both watches are Wear OS watches, they are almost identical in user experience.

Unlike Samsung phones paired to Samsung watches or iPhones with Apple Watches, Wear OS watches do not allow you to natively read your past emails or messages.

However, you can interact with incoming notifications when paired to an Android. Pairing with an iPhone makes this read-only.

You can reply to emails and messages using a myriad of ways. My favourite way to input a reply is to use the speech-to-text method.

The great thing here is that the transcription is excellent. More often than not, the speech-to-text system will be able to predict what you’re trying to say.

There are other ways you can input text including using a keyboard, drawing letters to form words and to use pre-composed replies. All of them are inferior to the speech-to-text system but sometimes can come in handy when you are writing something very technical or when you cannot speak.

Calls

You can’t make phone calls on the Ticwatch E2, but you can on the Ticwatch Pro.

Some people find the idea of chatting on a smartwatch to be a weird idea, but I really like it because it means I don’t have to find my phone in order to answer the calls.

The call quality on the Ticwatch Pro is good for both the caller and the person being called.

Sports

The Ticwatch E2 is waterproof for swimming purposes and that’s a major advantage over the Ticwatch Pro.

I just can’t believe that the top-of-the-line watch is not waterproof but its little cousin is.

The Ticwatch E2 has a Pool Swim mode that you can use to track your swimming stats, but the Ticwatch Pro doesn’t.

That said, both watches have the default Google Fit fitness tracker and also Mobvoi’s line of health apps including TicHealth, TicPulse and TicExercise.

There’s quite a bit of overlap between Google’s and Mobvoi’s apps. Suffice to say, it’s nice to have Mobvoi’s apps because you can track your heart rate with TicPulse and TicHealth also reminds you periodically to get active when you’ve been idle for too long.

But these two apps, running in parallel in the background, can also come at a cost of performance.

Verdict

Both watches are great and what you buy really comes down to what you need.

If you are OK with paying more and not concerned with waterproofing, then the Ticwatch Pro offers great hardware and features.

The Ticwatch E2 is a really good entry-level watch. I would highly recommend it if you don’t want the Ticwatch Pro. It’s lightweight, comfortable and affordable.

I personally like the Ticwatch E2 a lot because it is one of the best entry-level watches I have tested.