Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 review: timing is everything

They are saying good issues come to those that wait. So the $349.99 Mobvoi TicWatch Professional 5 ought to be among the finest dang issues to occur to Put on OS 3. It’s sporting the shiny new Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus chip, Mobvoi’s signature battery-saving twin show, and a brand new digital crown, and it’s the primary Put on OS 3 TicWatch. And if this watch had arrived six or seven months in the past, I’d be saying, “Winner winner hen dinner.”

However that’s not what occurred. The TicWatch Professional 5 was imagined to launch final fall, after which over Christmas. As a substitute, after months of silence, the TicWatch Professional 5 arrived two weeks after Put on OS 4 was introduced. And in a number of months, Samsung will possible begin the onslaught of next-gen Android smartwatches. All of this leaves a giant query mark over the TicWatch Professional 5’s place within the Put on OS ecosystem.

In consequence, I’m neither over nor underwhelmed. I’m largely simply whelmed and slightly unhappy at how an in any other case good Android smartwatch obtained shafted by unhealthy timing.

Subtlety is the secret with Mobvoi TicWatches, and the Professional 5 isn’t any exception. That is your typical glossy smartwatch that no person’s going to take a look at twice, particularly if you find yourself with the all-black mannequin like I did. I like a very good pop of shade, in order that was a bummer, however don’t despair. You possibly can decide brighter default silicone straps or extra elegant leather-based straps at checkout. That, plus the colourful watchface choice, helps mitigate the nondescript case design.

This time, Mobvoi has added a textured bezel and changed the Professional 3’s pushers with one flat aspect button and a digital crown. Is it a singular digital crown? Not by a protracted shot, nevertheless it makes navigating menus with sweaty fingers loads simpler. Scrolling with the digital crown can also be extra gratifying due to the haptic suggestions, and boy howdy will you do a number of scrolling. (Extra on that beneath.) The haptics aren’t the strongest, so you might be upset when you favor a extra distinctive buzz. As for the aspect button, I respect that it’s much less susceptible to unintentional presses than the pushers had been.

Total, the Professional 5 has a masculine vibe — partly because of the fashion, partly due to its honking 50mm case, which wears massive even for its dimension. Finish to finish, the lugs are literally wider than my wrist, which suggests I’ve obtained to put on it additional tight in comparison with smaller round watches. (I can stick six chopsticks, three on both sides, via the hole between the lug and my wrist.) That mentioned, it’s not a chore to put on contemplating its dimension. With out the straps, it weighs 44.3g and is 12.2mm thick, and I’ve worn equally sized smartwatches that had been heavier and thicker. For instance, the case alone on the 47mm Garmin Epix 2 is 53g and 14.5mm thick. I can normally really feel larger watches pull on my pores and skin once I swing my arms whereas operating, nevertheless it wasn’t too unhealthy with the Professional 5. It didn’t catch on my hoodies or spring jackets, although it’ll be a tad tougher for petite of us when you like shirts or outerwear with narrower sleeves.

The Professional 5’s best power is its multiday battery life. You may get an estimated 80 hours, with fast charging if you do must prime up. In testing, I’ve gotten fairly near that 80-hour mark — although how Mobvoi achieves this may occasionally or will not be to your liking.

Mobvoi’s secondary ultra-low-power (ULP) show does a number of the heavy lifting right here. Technically, it counts as an always-on show, however not in the identical approach because the always-on shows of different flagship smartwatches, which hold the OLED display screen on however dim the watchface and (normally) drop the refresh price approach down. As a substitute, the TicWatch spends most of its time utilizing the ultra-low-power show, a black on grey segmented LCD like a retro Casio digital watch. There’s no backlight till you increase your arm, and then you definately get a single-color backlight, which modifications relying in your coronary heart price. You gained’t see your shinier Put on OS watchface until you absolutely get up the watch. Mainly, you’re solely making full use of the OLED show a mere fraction of the time. It’s a high quality tradeoff if battery life is your primary precedence, nevertheless it’s meh in order for you all the things an always-on OLED has to supply. Assume enjoyable animated screens, vibrant colours and fairly blacks, higher indoor visibility, or only a extra trendy total expertise.

My solely concern with this compromise is visibility. I’ve tragically unhealthy eyesight, and it’s arduous to see the ULP show in dimmer indoor lighting. The backlight helps, however you need to increase your arm to activate it. I’d have appreciated a handbook backlight button. It’s not a significant concern, nevertheless it’s annoying if you need to shortly look on the time. Outside visibility can also be middling, as you’ll be able to inform by the picture above. We took this on an overcast day, and I needed to maintain my wrist simply so for the digicam to indicate greater than a darkened display screen.

There’s additionally an upgraded Important mode, which extends battery by limiting you to the ULP show. Now, you’ll be able to schedule when the watch enters Important mode or use a sensible Important mode, which routinely switches the watch to Important mode whilst you sleep or when you take off the look ahead to greater than half-hour throughout your scheduled timeframe.

It’s additionally arduous to inform how a lot the W5 Plus chip performs into the Professional 5’s battery life. Many months in the past, Qualcomm instructed me that the chip’s hybrid structure leads to 50 p.c longer battery life whereas additionally doubling efficiency, decreasing dimension, and enabling multiday battery life. There’s a noticeable enchancment in battery life in comparison with the 4100-powered TicWatch Professional 3 Extremely GPS I examined final 12 months, nevertheless it’s extra possible a mix of the brand new chip, plus the ULP show, Important mode, and the Professional 5’s massive-for-a-smartwatch 628mAh battery.

So yeah, the Professional 5 can final you a number of days. However as at all times, battery life will depend on your particular person utilization, and your mileage will differ as to how many days. I used Important mode solely whereas sleeping, had notifications on, recorded 45–60 minutes of GPS exercise per day, and obtained round 48–60 hours. I’ve but to hit 80 hours, however that is nonetheless spectacular for any full-featured smartwatch. Particularly on Put on OS.

The shiny new Snapdragon W5 Plus chip was a giant motive why I waited for the Professional 5 with bated breath. Not solely is it the primary smartwatch to function the chip within the US however Qualcomm additionally promised vital positive factors over its earlier wearable chips. I don’t know what I anticipated, however thus far, I haven’t seen an enormous efficiency increase over 4100-powered Put on OS watches.

On the one hand, apps launch shortly, and navigating via menus is zippy. That is additionally true of Put on OS 3 on 4100 watches. All the hassle Mobvoi places into extending battery life can result in pointless latency as nicely. As an example, within the morning, once I’m exiting Important mode, it takes some time for Put on OS 3 besides up once more. It’s not egregiously sluggish, however I dunno, of us. While you say the W5 Plus brings double the efficiency, that form of noticeable lag is the very last thing I need to see. This could be a Professional 5 concern, nonetheless, as Important mode is a Mobvoi-exclusive — I can’t recall anybody else sticking an old-school segmented show and an OLED in the identical area.

It’s potential we’ll see an even bigger efficiency distinction when Put on OS 4 launches later this 12 months. In that sense, having the W5 Plus chip at the very least helps to futureproof the Professional 5. (Particularly since we have now no clue but whether or not 4100-powered watches will even help Put on OS 4.) So sure, the shortage of noticeable W5 Plus oomph is disappointing, however for now, I’ll reserve judgment till I can check another W5 Plus smartwatches.

So far as the general smartwatch expertise, the Professional 5 shares the identical strengths and pitfalls as different Put on OS 3 watches not made by Samsung or Google. It handles the fundamentals — like calls, notifications, and contactless funds — with aplomb, however there are quirks to be aware of.

The large one is that there’s no Google Assistant — or any digital assistant for that matter. Google hasn’t mentioned Assistant is a Samsung or Google unique, nevertheless it’s not on some other Put on OS 3 watch but, and who is aware of if and when Google will get round to together with it. As with different Put on OS 3 watches, you’ll additionally need to obtain a separate app to pair the watch — on this case, the Mobvoi Well being cell app. The very last thing I need is one other app on my telephone, however that’s simply how Put on OS 3 works. At the very least you get entry to Google’s suite of providers (i.e., Google Pockets, Google Maps, YouTube Music, and many others.) and third-party apps by way of Google Play.

Not like Fossil’s and Montblanc’s Put on OS 3 watches, the Professional 5 gained’t be appropriate with iOS at launch, and Mobvoi declined to say whether or not that will change down the road. Am I peeved that Put on OS is more and more Android-only? Yeah, however iOS customers flock to the Apple Watch, and you may’t blame Mobvoi for specializing in someplace it may well truly develop its enterprise.

I’ve no drawback with Mobvoi attempting to develop its enterprise, however you already know what I want it might shrink? Its listing of native apps. There’s TicBreathe, TicBarometer, TicCare (a way to share well being knowledge with individuals by way of QR code), TicCompass, TicExercise, TicHealth, TicOxygen, TicPulse, TicSleep, TicZen (stress monitoring), One-tap measurement, Media Controls, Mobvoi Privateness, and Mobvoi Treadmill. They’re comparatively self-explanatory, with the exceptions being One-tap measurement and Mobvoi Treadmill. The previous measures 5 metrics directly (e.g., stress, coronary heart price, respiratory price, blood oxygen, and an total coronary heart well being rating), whereas the latter is that will help you pair with Mobvoi’s treadmill when you occur to purchase one. They’re all high quality and useful, however I may do with much less scrolling.

Regardless of the bloatware, Mobvoi’s new well being and health monitoring options are broadly on level and nicely suited to newbie to intermediate-level athletes. For sleep monitoring, the Professional 5 can measure respiratory price, blood oxygen, and pores and skin temperature monitoring. It was broadly correct in comparison with my Oura Ring so far as period and coronary heart price, nevertheless it wasn’t fairly nearly as good at figuring out sleep levels. Mobvoi not too long ago launched a $2.99 / month VIP sleep subscription for historic sleep knowledge, sleep songs, and extra superior sleep metrics like minimal and most coronary heart price. Personally, I didn’t discover it definitely worth the worth when there are such a lot of third-party sleep monitoring apps on your telephone which can be simply nearly as good or higher.

For outside actions, the Professional 5 isn’t the quickest at buying a GPS sign, however even once I was too impatient to attend, the ultimate recorded distance and tempo had been on par with my Apple Watch Extremely. Coronary heart price was additionally inside 5 beats per minute of my Polar H10 chest strap, although there was an occasional lag in comparison with the Extremely. That’s in all probability as a result of the ULP show takes a bit longer to replace.

Mobvoi’s additionally added extra coaching metrics, like restoration and VO2 Max. These metrics are arduous to match between platforms since algorithms can wildly differ, however I by no means obtained outcomes that I knew to be egregiously fallacious. I’d simply take them with a heavy grain of salt.

What I liked most, nonetheless, was the ULP show throughout my runs. While you look at your wrist, the backlight modifications colours primarily based in your coronary heart price zone. That is genius since you immediately know what to do with out having to scan the show for a specific metric. Is the backlight purple throughout my straightforward run? Oh, I’m within the anaerobic zone, and I ought to sluggish my roll till the backlight is yellow (fats burn) or orange (cardio). Aquamarine (warm-up) on my morning stroll? Time to hustle till it’s yellow or orange. You can even use the digital crown to scroll via “tiles” on the ULP to view completely different metrics, however that was extra cumbersome than it was value.

The mixture of an inoffensive design, stable well being options, Put on OS 3, and the W5 Plus chip makes the TicWatch Professional 5 among the many greatest Android smartwatches proper now. That’s nice, apart from the truth that its thunder is (in all probability) about to be stolen.

I discussed this earlier, however the next-gen of Android flagship watches is correct across the nook. Samsung usually launches its new Galaxy Watches at its Unpacked occasion in August. Barring manufacturing points, I’d count on to see the Fossil Gen 7 in early fall. If rumors a couple of Pixel Watch 2 are to be believed, it’ll show up alongside the Pixel 8 in October. It’s potential that each one three of those will launch with Put on OS 4 — did I point out Google says Put on OS 4 will carry prolonged battery life, too, which cuts into the Professional 5’s largest benefit over different Put on OS watches? Additionally, who is aware of when the Professional 5 will get Put on OS 4? Mobvoi’s 4100-powered TicWatches nonetheless don’t have Put on OS 3, and rumor has it that customers won’t get that upgrade until Q3. That’s almost a 12 months after Fossil began rolling out its Put on OS 3 upgrades. I empathize with TicWatch followers given how frustrating this whole experience has been, particularly since it is a loyal and passionate bunch.

For those who don’t want a brand new Put on OS watch this second, I’d wait and see the place the mud settles. I really feel responsible recommending that on condition that the TicWatch Professional 5 is an efficient Android smartwatch whose largest sin is having unhealthy timing. I additionally wouldn’t be shocked if a TicWatch Professional 6 or a TicWatch Professional 5 Extremely GPS had been to come back out sooner quite than later to make up for it.

Mainly, the Professional 5 was so late that it’s now paradoxically too early. If that’s not a Shakespearean smartwatch tragedy, I don’t know what’s.