In Spain we have a wide variety of smart watches and each of them is usually specialized in a specific factor. Wear OS has always stood out for notifications and the Google ecosystem, although until recently its lack of technology in its processor or Google’s poor focus on health weighed down the ecosystem.
Mobvoi, one of the best manufacturers of Wear OS watches has created its best watch, a watch that is now finally ready to compete in all aspects against Samsung and Apple. We tell you our impressions.
The TicWatch Pro is a sporty looking watch just like its predecessor. Although the design line follows the same style, we find a much thinner and lighter watch, and it is that although it is a watch for large wrists, its 42 grams make it very comfortable to wear.
The construction of the equipment combines stainless steel with a mixture of nylon and fiberglass. It feels like a premium and resistant equipment next to its strap that, although it simulates leather, is made of rubber.
In the event that you do not like the strap, the TicWatch Pro 3 is compatible with standard 22-millimeter straps, so you can buy straps in stores or use straps that you already have with this standard.
One of the differentiating factors of the TicWatch Pro 3 is its double screen, but what is it about? If you look closely at the clock, you will realize that there is only room for one screen, but between space is shared by two screens that are stacked in layers, one on top of the other.
The screen we interact with when it is a smartwatch is a classic AMOLED panel, with its pure nergros and an adequate level of brightness, although slightly lower than the best screens on the market. This is probably a technical limitation of having two displays one on top of the other.
The one that is most interesting is the screen that will be active most of the time. It is a monochrome and transflective LCD panel, a digital clock display of a lifetime, so that we understand each other better.
The benefit of this screen is that it is capable of showing us the time with an absurd battery consumption, being also perfectly visible in sunlight, and including a basic backlight to be able to see the time in low light situations without activating the mode of smart watch. As additional information, it also integrates with Mobvoi’s sports applications, showing us information about our training.
With this technology, the battery of the TicWatch Pro lasts about 3 continuous days (much less than the simplest sports watches, but in the line of its category) in mixed use, being able to function as a basic watch for several more weeks in the event that we finish exhausting it.
The Ticwatch Pro 3 is the first watch with a Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor, a chip that has made the biggest performance leap ever seen in Wear OS. Perhaps the jump is not so worthwhile considering that all previous Qualcomm chips were based on the 2013 Snapdragon 400, and that it is the first time that the manufacturer creates a chip suitable for premium-class Wear OS watches.
The system responds perfectly and the applications are able to open without any difficulty, as well as the clock settings menu. We also have a new application launcher created by Mobvoi, although if we want we can use the official Wear OS.
One of the best Wear OS additions in recent months are the “tiles”, widgets that we can access by swiping to the right from the clock. These are widgets similar to those we can find in the Galaxy Watch, although the experience has yet to improve. Google has yet to release the API so developers can create their own tiles.
The strength of Wear OS over other systems has always been notifications, and it is an area in which Google’s operating system has always been the undisputed leader. The integration with the actions of each Android notification is, being able to mark messages as read or reply to them, either with predefined responses, on-screen keyboard or voice dictation.
Among other hardware aspects, the watch has NFC and Google Pay payment system, a detail that never hurts to take into account.
Let’s talk about Mobvoi applications, and it is that health monitoring has always been one of the weak points of Wear OS, being the worst smart watch system in this sense. In order to take advantage of them we will need a Mobvoi account, but it is worth it considering how much we earn in the process.
After seeing the opinions in English reviews, the Ticwatch Pro gave the feeling of being the perfect watch for Wear OS, but there was still one aspect in which Mobvoi could click, and that is in the translations. Mobvoi applications have a very improvable Spanish translation.
Keep in mind that bad translations are limited to Mobvoi applications only, and that the rest of the system uses the official Google translation for Wear OS, in the same way that the third-party applications you download will not have translation problems either. However, it is a matter of time before it ends up changing.
When we slide to the left from the clock face we have a panel with some recommendations of the assistant, showing recurring information such as weather information and shortcuts to make requests to the assistant by pressing only one button.
In addition to this panel, we can call the assistant by holding down the upper button. Regarding its operation, it is a joybecause Google Assistant has never worked so well. Not at least since the days of Android Wear 1.5, where Google Now was a reason to choose the Google system.
Except for specific connection problems, voice recognition is agile and requests are resolved quite well. Whether it is asking for the weather, setting an alarm, turning the lights on or off at home and what seems most crucial to us, sending messages.
To date, Wear OS is the only system that allows us to send WhatsApp messages by telling Google to “Send a WhatsApp message” followed by the contact and the message. For it to work, we must have a connection with the linked mobile (either by Bluetooth or Internet) and have an active WhatsApp account on the mobile. It also works with Telegram perfectly, in case you had doubts.
The Ticwatch Pro 3 has rendered virtually every smartwatch in the Wear OS ecosystem obsolete. After trying it, any comparison with the rest of the ecosystem is hateful and makes it clear that, if you want Wear OS, your only option today is the Ticwatch Pro 3.
You don’t like its sporty design or the style of the double screen? Your only option then should bewait for the Snapdragon Wear 4100 to hit more watches. Because the difference is so vast that unless you save a fortune few more Wear OS watches are worth it.
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TicWatch Pro 3 entry, review: now, long live Wear OS appears first in The Free Android.
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