The Ticwatch E3 is a high performance, budget-ish smartwatch while the Ticwatch GTH is an affordable semi-smartwatch.
Mobvoi produces products with great value and they have come up with two really great smartwatches in 2021.
The Ticwatch E3 is a really good smartwatch because it follows all the best practices for a good Wear OS smartwatch.
The Ticwatch GTH, however, is a unique smartwatch that goes its own way. It doesn’t use any mainstream operating system.
In reality, though, these two new Ticwatch wearables are meant for people with different needs.
Let’s establish this…
Everything that the Ticwatch GTH can do, the Ticwatch GTH can probably do it too.
Except maybe… uh… tracking your respiration rate and skin temperature.
But it’s true. The new Ticwatch E3 is a superior smartwatch.
You get better features. You get more convenience. You get all the health and wellness features. You get an AI transcription service for entering texts.
Performance
I’d have to say that both smartwatches are pretty good in terms of the responsiveness and performance.
I don’t experience lag with either smartwatch.
This is particularly commendable on the Ticwatch E3, which uses the Wear OS platform.
Specs wise, the Ticwatch E3 uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor which is the fastest processor available for Wear OS users. It also has 1GB RAM which is the standard for modern Wear OS smartwatches.
The Wear OS platform was a laggy mess just one generation ago, which plagued the previous models from Mobvoi. The Ticwatch E2 was OK, but sometimes Google pushes updates to its Wear OS in the background and then the smartwatch becomes unuseable.
It’s pretty horrible. But not anymore.
Everything is fast and fantastic.
Design
These two smartwatches look quite different.
At the most fundamental, the Ticwatch GTH is rectangular while the Ticwatch E3 is circular.
The Ticwatch GTH looks like an Apple Watch. It’s appealing. I love the curved screen and rounded edges. I love the button.
The Ticwatch E3 has a more classic smartwatch look. It’s round, has two round buttons and has a thin bezel.
Both smartwatches are mostly black, with the Ticwatch E3 have some grey colour around it’s watch case.
All in all, I prefer the Ticwatch GTH’s style. But that’s because I prefer compact smartwatches.
Display
I found both watches’ display to be sharp and vivid.
That’s great and is a great improvement over the previous generation of Ticwatches which had low-pixel count screens (like a smartphone of 10 years ago).
No complaints here.
Someone’s calling. Two actions happen.
If someone calls, you’ll notice very quickly you will have two different outcomes based on the watch you’re wearing.
If you are wearing the Ticwatch GTH, you’ll get a notification that someone is calling. You can answer it, but you’ll have to pick up your phone to talk.
Not so with the Ticwatch E3. You can answer and talk directly on the smartwatch. This is great.
Sound quality on the Ticwatch E3 is good and so is the microphone quality. I mean, nobody complained and they understood what I was saying.
Messages, emails, text
Uh, it’s the same story with the Ticwatch GTH and the Ticwatch E3. You’re going to receive notifications on both smartwatches when you get a text or some other notification.
You can’t reply on the Ticwatch GTH. Sad but true.
However, on the Ticwatch E3, you can reply using the speech to text function or some other manual input.
The speech to text function really makes life easier.
When you get a text, you can trust your message will be accurately transcribed.
This saves you time from pulling out your phone. It’s great and it usually works.
Voice assistant
The Ticwatch E3 has Google Assistant which can really help you with menial, tedious tasks.
For example, if you don’t feel like tapping and swiping to set a timer, you can ask Google Assistant to set it for you.
Or if you want to check tomorrow’s weather.
Or if you want to do some math.
It’s great and really saves a lot of time.
The Ticwatch GTH doesn’t have a voice assistant.
Battery Life
You get much better battery life with the Ticwatch GTH. I imagine it’s because the smartwatch avoids all sorts of baggage like an internal GPS, always on screen and it also has a smaller screen.
On a single charge, you can get at max two days of battery life with the Ticwatch E3 but at least double that with the Ticwatch GTH.
Internal GPS
Let’s just start by getting an important note out of the way: the Ticwatch GTH does not have an internal GPS.
This means that you must bring your smartphone if you want location data.
I don’t particularly like this because it means you’re always chained to your smartphone if you want location data.
Thankfully, the Ticwatch E3 has an internal GPS.
Just like how all modern cars have a backup camera, I consider having an internal GPS to be a necessary modern standard for smartwatches.
Workout choices
While other watch manufacturers are happy with whatever Google includes in their smartwatches (i.e. Google Fit Workout, Breathe and Goals), Mobvoi has consistently created a parallel version of their own sports and wellness apps.
As such, both Ticwatches have the TicExercise app with all the same benefits and downsides.
What I have found is that if you’re a person who likes the typical sports and workouts like running, biking and swimming, you will do well with what the TicExercise provides.
However, I am a person who enjoys watersports like kayaking and paddle boarding. I couldn’t find any relevant to use.
Quality of information
THe TIcwatch GTH is extremely rudimentary in its features as compared to the Ticwatch E3.
For example, when biking, you get much better information with the Ticwatch E3 than with the Ticwatch GTH.
Information such as distance, pace and speed.
I’m not sure if this is because the Ticwatch GTH wasn’t connected to my smartphone and therefore can’t get GPS data.
Health metrics
I guess one reason why people buy the Ticwatch GTH is because they want to know about their body.
Both smartwatches can tell you a bit about what’s happening in your body.
The Ticwatch GTH and the Ticwatch E3 can both give you a reading of your blood oxygen saturation level. Measuing blood oxygen level and having a SpO2 sensor is a pretty typical feature in all smartwatches these days.
The Ticwatch E3 can tell you about the ambient noise you’re hearing.
If you are stressed, you can use TicZen to measure your stress levels and then use TicBreathe to release your stress.The TicBreathe is a breathing timer.
The Ticwatch GTH can tell you about your body temperature and your respiration rate.
These are really good metrics to have, but I haven’t found them incredibly useful.
In my opinion, smartwatch manufacturers were hustling to find some innovation in 2020 and they came up with a bunch of health metrics that would rarely be used (and often you won’t find any concrete examples of how to use the data on their websites).
There are some pretty useful metrics that you can gather from these two smartwatches. For example, sleep tracking is available on both smartwatches and it’s pretty good. They are also pretty comfortable to wear to sleep.
Verdict
Uh, you are gonna be really happy with the Ticwatch E3.
I think it’s one of the best smartwatches out there if you don’t want to buy the Ticwatch Pro 3.
The Ticwatch Pro 3 is Mobvoi’s flagship smartwattch but the Ticwatch E3 is a very good smartwatch with similar levels of speed, performance and features.
So, if we’re comparing a sub-flagship smartwatch (Ticwatch E3) to a entry-level semi-smartwatch (Ticwatch GTH), it’s easy to make the conclusion for yourself.
While you’ll do better with the Ticwatch E3, if you are primarily looking for a watch that has some notification abiliites, some health and wellness abilities and a step counter, you can find them all on the Ticwatch GTH.
The truth is, between the GTH and E3, you get what you pay for. But both watches are great.
I wouldn’t say they’re both budget smartwatches, but they’re both great value for the features you get. In fact, if you view the Ticwatch GTH as a fitness tracker, you’d have a better appreciation of the niche the Ticwatch GTH is trying to fill.