Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS Smart Watch Men's Wear OS Watch Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 Platform Health Fitness Monitoring 3-45 Days Battery Life Built-in GPS NFC Heart Rate Sleep Tracking IP68 Waterproof

Excellent Watch for Daily, Fitness, and Health Wear

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2020

I purchased the Ticwatch Pro 3 in October of 2020 and have had a month's worth of use. I previously owned their TicWatch 2 (which I loved before it gave up the ghost), via Kickstarter; I currently own the Ticwatch C2, which was my everyday watch. I also have an old Garmin 310XT (for running).

Prior to the Pro 3, I always separated my watch-wear between everyday and fitness use. This is because most fitness watches (circa my Garmin) were ugly. I am not into square-faced watches. The Pro 3 is the first watch I have worn for both fitness and everyday use. It has been an economical game-changer for me. I have no need for a “fitness” watch anymore. I can save my money for other purchases!

Between my three-watch lineup, the Pro 3 excels in:
- Battery life. I went on a 5-day vacation (safe and socially distanced) and forgot my charger. My two other watches would have been dead after two days. The Pro 3’s Essential Mode kept my watch alive and still tracked my step-numbers. After the five days, upon returning and charging, I saw the watch still had 72% of its battery! Awesome and amazing. The dual-display is great for a quick, or longer, look, and helps retain battery life (even when you make the mistake of forgetting your charger).

- Fitness related activities. Outside of battery life, fitness is the reason I purchased the Pro 3. I no longer need a separate watch to track my workouts (e.g. running, walking, etc.). Distance measurements are in-line with my Garmin watch. I gave the watch to my wife to track her laps in the pool and it accurately tracked the number of laps in her workout. I appreciate the all-in-one fitness features. We use a mixture of Google Fit and the Tic fitness apps. Both are good on the watch as well as the phone.

- Waterproof rating. As mentioned above, my wife can use the watch to track her swims. For myself, and my desire to use one watch for daily and fitness use, I can have a workout, go for a run, then rinse the watch of sweat, (I only rinse with water), and continue to wear. If you are worried about waterlogging the watch, it will clear itself of water in its speaker.

- Speed. This watch is faster, more responsive than my C2, and definitely more responsive than my Garmin. I am not an engineer, but I chalk it up to the better processor.

- I am new to the health aspect of smartwatches, i.e. sleep-tracking, HR monitor, daily reminders to walk, breathe, the O2 monitor, etc. I have nothing to verify the monitors against, but the watch definitely knows when I am pushing it. For instance, during my sprint runs, I will receive a notification telling me my HR is high. Makes sense to me. I appreciate the reminder to walk (as I sit all day), and I use the TicBreathe and TicZen apps to remind me to consider my stress levels. It is helpful, especially during these strange times.

The Pro 3 is an excellent everyday watch for fitness/daily use and wear. Its waterproof rating means I can exercise and rinse the watch. It can be taken to the pool and track your laps. The Pro 3 is fast and responsive (better processor). The display is crisp and clear - it can clearly be seen throughout the day, under all conditions I have experienced (sunny/grey/foggy/night). It looks and feels good on the wrist. It helps me with reminders to consider my stress and sleep levels. The Pro 3 is a great watch!

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j.leong

Lots of useful apps, Great battery life, swift and comfortable to wear.

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2020

Verified Purchase

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I’ve owned this watch for 14 days and have enjoyed using this watch all around. It is a very feature rich device and finally a Wear OS that utilizes more modern hardware, is very easy to use, and is priced very nicely. I'm very pleased with the overall performance of this device!

I've owned the Sony Smartwatch 3, LG Watch Sport, Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 4G and now the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3. Of each of these watches, the TicWatch Pro 3 wins the prize for GPS connection speed (and maintaining a connection) and accuracy. Now, since this is not a Garmin tracker watch (I've owned a basic one of those too), the accuracy won't be close to comparison because Garmin's primary purpose is GPS tracking. So, of all the smartwatches I’ve owned, this one is also the best for GPS run tracking. It really wins the prize for just about everything else as you'll soon read...

I'll get the deltas (or the stuff I thought could be improved) out of the way first.

1) Like the Pro 4G, and maybe this is an industry standard going forward, a charger plug would be great to have rather than guessing if the charger I have laying around the house is suitable and won't blow the watch up if it is left plugged in too long. I get that different countries have different plug configurations and for cost consideration, they don't include one. It's just a drag.

2) The "rubbery" finish of the band seems to be prone to scuffs. The band itself looks great and the scuffing is only visible if you specifically look for it. It is replaceable with a 22mm band of my choosing which is a great plus.

3) I see the blood oxygen sensor is a "bell and whistle" that may be a response to a certain fruity watch including it on their latest watch offering. (The Apple commercial for it even has people in space saying it has a blood oxygen sensor! How many of us are in that situation??) I really don't see the need for it. Maybe the uber athlete has some use for it or those really concerned about COVID... but the average user to me would have little use for it.

4) This is not a knock on the watch or its software.. but a huge negative on Google as Google Play Music no longer is compatible with Wear OS… as it is being moved to the Google cellar of has-been software. What has replaced it in the google-sphere is Youtube Music… but there is no Youtube Music app yet. So, my youtube music subscription is useless for this AND I can’t listen to music without my phone attached to me and use all the extra storage space given to me on this watch. Shame shame google!

5) I'm not happy with the new charger. Wireless would be great, but I think the charger that came with the Pro 4G was better than this one. It comes with a USB-A on one end with a proprietary connector on the other end that magnetically connects to the watch via some pins on the watch. This connection comes off easily if you pick up the watch while it is charging. The charger on the pro 4G was kinda like a case that the whole watch body fit into. That design seems more robust than this one. See the pics. The large rounded one is the Pro 4G charger and the smaller one is the Pro 3 charger.

The Awesomes and Exceptionals!

1) I love that it is lighter, thinner and less intrusive on my wrist compared to the Pro 4G. It is very welcome and comfortable.

2) GPS! GPS! GPS! I use the GNSS app to test this feature and compared to all the previous watches I've used, this one connects the fastest, is the most accurate, and stays connected during my runs. I ran with both the TicWatch 3 and the Pro 4G (without assist from the cellular signal). The Pro 4G lost connection soon after it connected and drained the battery about 20% trying to connect again. The TicWatch Pro 3 stayed connected and only sipped about 2% from the battery during my 1.5 mile run. I used the TicExercise app (that connects directly to Strava btw.. another huge PLUS) to track the run on both watches. The GPS tracking on the Pro3 was right on while the Pro 4G... because it lost connection was way off. See my video of the GPS connection speed on GNSS.

3) Battery Life. Compared to early Wear OS watches, the battery life of this watch is phenomenal.. thanks to the LCD screen that is on all the time and the new processor that is said to be more efficient. I have Wifi, 24 hour pulse tracking, BT, tilt to wake, touch to wake, auto detection of activities enabled. I once had the blood oxygen sensor enabled for all day recording but didn't really see the need for it. What I've found over the last several days is that I can get 2.5 days battery life. I don't plan on testing the "essential mode" battery life.. although my experience with the Pro 4G is that it is phenomenal in that mode.

4) Software. I love the two rows of apps on the app drawer. That is a new thing compared to the Pro 4G. The selection of apps overall is very good for Wear OS.
TicZen-- this is a stress measurement app that can be set to automatically measure stress levels throughout the days and alerts you when your stress is too high… which then sends you to…
TicBreathe-- an app that helps reduce stress with measured breathing exercises. Quite helpful!
TicSleep-- this app uses all the sensors that you let it use to measure things like sleep efficiency, time in each sleep stage, blood oxygen level during sleep (I guess this is useful to see if you stop breathing during sleep… some people do this I hear), pulse during sleep, etc. All the info is then transferred (with your permission, of course), to your mobvoi account and displayed on the Mobvoi app on your phone where you can look at your sleeping history.
TicExercise-- I believe this is the bread and butter of this watch capability… With TicMotion turned on, the watch can detect what kind of exercise you’re doing and start tracking it. I had this on when my son started a tag game in the house. It sensed I was running around the house and started tracking…. and then transferred the activity to Strava. During a road run, time, distance, pulse, calories, speed, pace, # of steps, altitude change, and of course GPS data are tracked. The different exercises available to be tracked are walking, running, swimming, rowing, elliptical, trail running, hiking, and yoga.
TicHearing--it records the decibel level of the noise around you. This is probably used in the ticZen app as well.
VoiceMemo-- This is a handy recording app. It transfers the memo to your phone and provides a transcript of the recording at your request. It doesn’t transcribe automatically.. you have to push a button to make that happen. My test transcription was right on.

4) Watch faces. There are MANY MANY to choose from that are free. And there are MANY MANY MANY more to choose from if you want to pay for them. Some pay watch faces were designed by Mobvoi specifically for the Ticwatches.

5) Phone calls on the watch- When it is connected via Blue Tooth to your phone, you can answer calls while speaking into the watch and hearing the caller on it. Very nice to not have to reach for my phone. The normal notifications and ability to accept or reject calls via the phone work flawlessly.

6) Customer Service... this isn't part of the watch itself but it helps to know that an email to customer service is responded to in a very timely manner. This is my experience anyways. They are very responsive.

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Eilanthe

Very Solid product with a few rough edges

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have a positive overall impression of the new Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS. Some of what follows, compares it to the 2020 version.

The watch is thinner and lighter than the 2020 version, but keeps the same 1.4" crisp and clean screen. The 22mm band can pass as shiny stitched leather from a distance, but touch and a closer inspection reveals its silicon roots. It can be easily swapped if needed. The performance is a bit snappier, as expected. Compared to the 2020 version, it is noticeable but not jaw droppingly so. It is definitely worth the price difference though.

The battery life is improved with the new 4100 Snapdragon processor. I think I have the same/similar monitoring tools active and I get another 12 hours of life pushing it to a reliable 2 days for my medium use. If I turned off some monitoring and notifications, maybe I could squeeze more out to hit the claimed 3 days.

The dual layered display is fantastic. The time/date basics are always available and one can configure the amoled display to come on with a tap, a wrist flip, or keep it always on (which of course will draw the battery down faster).

When setting the watch up, the watch automatically linked to Google Fit (presumably since I had a 2020 on the account). This allows the various Tic-exercise apps to upload info to the Google fit service. I did notice that the data isn't exactly the same from a session. Say I run 3.59 miles in Tic-excerise in 30 minutes, when it gets uploaded to Google Fit, it turns to 3.96 miles and 31 minutes. So, on this watch, I've just decided to use the Tic* apps and not worry about the difference. Doing so is quite rewarding. The data that can be reviewed on the phone from a session is very detailed (at least for a run): distance, duration, heart rate, pace, step frequency, step length, and a captured GPS route. The charts and graphs are all colorful and easy to interpret. So one has no real need to mess with Google's duplicate apps.

Additional apps or improvements over the 2020 watch: oxygen saturation, better sleep tracking, a stress tracker (not sure this will get much use) and a noise detector to measure ambient noise. The last seems like a neat tool to check how loud say your lawn mower is while in use.

The Google assistant works 'mostly' well, though sometimes it is a tad sluggish. Routines are not supported, but I'm wondering if some devices define routines different than others. For example I can open my smart garage door with it, but I cannot run my smart sprinkler. I tried to make a call to someone with a hyphenated name, and it didn't take, but using a just a first name and the first of the last names worked. So you'll run into some quirks. Sometimes if the microphone doesn't quite catch what I am saying, I found myself trying to angle my voice into the pickup on the right side of the watch to make sure it caught what I was saying correctly over any background noise.

One issue that I hope will get resolved. I frequently use the "Bring" app for shopping. If I navigate away from the app, but then go back by hitting the lower right button twice to recall the last used app (being Bring), then the app freezes. I can hit the upper right button and go back to the scrolling app list and reselect/relaunch "Bring" ..... and it then works fine. So, I'm not sure what the issue is.

'Single click' of the lower right button is customizable. By default, mine showed all the 13 odd Tic exercise routine choices. I was going to convert it to a Google Pay button, but decided to leave it as I use the exercise apps more than the Pay app.

I noticed a google translate app was added (or I just never tried it on the 2020 watch), presumably since the watch now has extra horsepower to bring to the table. It has some neat features. Select English <-> French and then say "hello" .. just underneath it spits back "bonjour".... but then tilt the watch away from you and towards someone in front of you, and the watch display flips and shows "bonjour" to the person in front of you. Nice!

The watch also holds onto a bluetooth connection better for making and receiving calls. My 2020, would sometimes forget that it 'could' answer calls, but a reboot would fix it. This one remembers more reliably.

I didn't submerge the watch (apparently one can do light swimming), but no issues with running water over it to rinse of sweat from a run.

The sleep tracker isn't super accurate in determining if you are actually asleep. I was watching a movie and perhaps the evening time and my inaction made the watch conclude I was taking a snooze. I noticed it in the phone app the next day.

Finally, like anything new, you'll have to just get used to the interface: what swipe right does in an app, how to return to home, etc, but the tutorial is pretty good for a new WearOS user.

So overall, a very solid product with a few rough edges that can be polished out with updates. An Android phone user would be very happy.

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Nick Wiggs

The Most Impressive TicWatch To Date

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2020

Verified Purchase

First off - we as a family have gone through many smart watches in the past few years. This watch is the best we've used, and it's not even close.

Battery Life
For some, this is the most important aspect of a smart watch (myself included). I want a watch that "does it all" without having to stop to charge it daily. I've had a first-gen TicWatch Pro for years now, and while it did everything fairly well, my battery life suffered to the point of having to charge it every night - and missing out on the sleep monitoring functions in the process. As advertised, the TicWatch Pro 3 is said to last 3-45 days based on mode of use. I couldn't imagine a smartwatch doing this, BUT I have found that this watch easily lasts 3 days, and does so while every possible 24 hour monitoring system is on (heart rate, oxygen saturation sensor, noise level, and stress level). Not only does the battery last impressively long, but it recharges in a matter of 2-3 hours to a full 100% level. While I have not used the Essential mode, I have no doubts that it would last well over 30 days.

Performance
If battery life isn't your #1 priority when buying a new smartwatch, then performance of it has to be! Again, coming from the Gen 1 TicWatch Pro, I simply cannot believe how incredibly responsive this new TicWatch Pro 3 GPS is! The excellent new processor manages to be extremely fast, while conserving battery life. Apps open instantaneously, menus scroll smoothly, and with no input lag that I'd gotten adjusted to. Monitoring seamlessly integrates to your phone for more in-depth data, if you're looking for that.

Display
The TicWatch Pro 3 is a large-faced watch. There's no doubt about that. But for people with large wrists, or for those that like a large watch face, this one is fantastic. The "always on" screen is a bit dimmer than on the TicWatch Pro, but is assisted by the tilt-to-wake that adds a backlight to it. Once fully woken, the fully customizable watch face can do anything you'd want it to.

Water Resistance
While it's not been the best weather to try swimming with this watch, I've only taken it off to charge it since receiving it, and it's been in every shower I've taken since. I've experienced zero issues, and am fully confident in wearing it into the pool, the pond, or the river.

Preinstalled Apps
To compare this to my Gen 1 TicWatch Pro again, I'd need to stress that with the older watch, I used Google Fit exclusively. For heart rate monitoring, for workouts, for walks with the family and dogs. Upon receiving the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, I decided to try Mobvoi's apps instead, and have been VERY pleased with what I've seen out of them! Their TicHealth, TicExercise, TicPulse, and TicOxygen apps have proven consistent, accurate, and useful daily to my routine. Since I can now wear my watch to sleep, I've really been digging into TicSleep a lot, analyzing my own sleeping patterns. TicBreathe and TicZen don't fit my particular usage as well at this time, but I can't discount that they may be exactly what others are looking for.
Over on your phone, the Mobvoi app shows you data from ALL of these sources in an easy to digest manner that's constantly updated by the watch's tracking. It's my one-stop-shop for all of the data gathered by my watch, and it's ease of use makes it an invaluable tool daily.

Conclusion
If you've stayed with me this long, thank you! To sum all of this up, the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS is more than just an upgrade from previous models - I truly believe this may be the flagship of all Wear OS devices on the market. If you're looking to get a smartwatch that should last you for years, this is the one!

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The GarShow

Great concept. Poor execution. ⚠️DO NOT BUY!⚠️

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2021

Verified Purchase

Today was an exciting day! For months I've been considering purchasing a smart watch. I've watched and read so many reviews. The watch that seemed to constantly impress me from the reviews was the TicWatch Pro 3. It seemed to have everything going for it. The fastest chip set on the market, the Snapdragon 4100. The largest battery on the market and the amazing duel layer display! All of these features made for a smoother UI and a longer battery life. I just wanted to be sure it was worth the $299 investment. Was it an item that would add convenience to my life.

Well. This morning my decision became easier. I went on Amazon to look at the watch again and low and behold, it was on sale for $239! To sweeten the deal it said it would arrive between 10am - 3pm! I placed my order around 9am this morning, and received the watch at around 12:30pm! I was so exited! I was now the proud owner of one of the greatest smart watches on the planet! I immediately set it up, connecting it the the Wear OS and Mobvoi apps. Everything seemed to be working great. The magical secondary LCD looked amazing!

Fast forward about 2 hours later...

I was out at the store with my daughter. I had been talking about how nice this watch was and how it has so many stellar reviews. I looked down to check the time...

The secondary LCD was not displaying numbers correctly. It was 2:16pm, but on the display it read "02 6". The 1 was nowhere to be seen! As the minutes advanced I noticed other numbers only partially displayed. The LCD was failing! I had only just received it 2 hours before! Like seriously! HOW?!?!

When I got home, I immediately started searching online to see if this was an issue others were experiencing. I quickly discovered I was not alone. Many people were having issues with the display. I discovered that this was only one of several major issues that people were having with this watch.

Needless to say, I'm very disappointed with this whole situation. I was so excited to finally buy it! On paper it seemed like it was an amazing product!
It is now going on 9pm, July 5th. I've owned the watch for a little over 8 hours. I've already started the return process. All I need to do is take it to my local Kohls, show then my scan code and let them ship it back for a full refund. Thankfully I purchased it on Amazon! They have a great return policy. I've read that people who purchased directly from Mobvoi have a tougher time.

See my photo for a perfect example of an imperfect display. The time should read "09 10"...

Where did the 1 go? Other numbers in that part of the display are only partially displayed. DEFECTIVE!

Save yourself the technological heartbreak and steer clear of this watch. I know it looks tempting, but trust me. Looks and reviews can be deceiving.

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hyberian

Ticwatch Pro 3 – Finally: a Wear OS that works…

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

This watch is a significant upgrade from the last (Ticwatch Pro 2020) version. The main upgrade is of course, the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 chip. In fact, I think this is the first watch to use this new chip and it speeds up the navigation as well as the battery life from the previous version. The memory is also updated to 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM, the latter allowing more storage for many more watch faces or even audio files.

The immediate difference I noticed is how comparatively slim the watch now appears compared to the 2020 version (although it’s only 0.4 mm slimmer). The watch bezel is also less thick giving a more up-market look.

The watch maintains (and improves on) the ‘duel screen’ mode from the other versions. This is one of the main unique aspects of the Ticwatch Pro line. I like you have an automatic ‘always on’ option that does not burn through the battery. In fact, using the ‘essential’ mode you can get up to 45 days of continuous use.

The regular ‘smart’ mode AMOLED hi-res screen (which most people will be using on a regular basis) is projected to last 3 days. I’ve only had the watch less than a week, and so far, I can reach 2 days of use, but I’ve been constantly downloading new watch faces, checking out all the apps and generally using the watch non-stop. Once the novelty wears off and I’m using the watch in a ‘normal’ way, I hope to hit that 3-day mark.

Everything I’ve tried is working as expected. The only minor issue I’ve noticed is that the ‘Hey Google’ does not seem to function, although Google assistant works fine by simply swiping left from the main screen. You can ask questions verbally and get instant replies via the watch’s speaker. The ‘Hey Google’ issue may be an issue with the Wear OS rather than the watch itself and this feature will hopefully work once the new Wear OS is released later this fall. The new Wear OS will increase speed and battery life even further as it’s gradually released during 2020 (it specifically supports the new Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip-set). The Ticwatch Pro 3 will definitely get this update.

There are a ton of new and updated features on the watch itself including:

TicHealth – a summary of all heath metrics: heart, stress levels, steps, calories etc.
TicZen – monitors stress level using heart rate variability (HRV).
TicBreathe - tracks heart rate and helps you relax with breath training sessions.
TicSleep - a comprehensive sleep tracking app that seems to be pretty accurate. Includes deep sleep, light sleep and REM.
TicHearing – which measures the environmental noise level up to 120 dB.

You can also use the equivalent apps from Google Fit if you prefer. They are pre-loaded on the watch in addition to the native Mobvoi apps mentioned above.

Also new to the watch are the Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) sensors which record the SpO2 every hour both day and night. This can be useful for detecting sleep apnea and even possibly COVID-19.

It also has NFC for Google Pay. I’ve not had a chance to test this yet, but I have credit cards loaded and ready to go.

I've seen video reviews that say the sensors are accurate compared to 'medical' grade devices. This is for heartbeat and SpO2 readings and the step counting is thought to be accurate as well. The GPS connects with 5 different satellite system including GPS (US), BEIDOU (China), GALILEO (EU), GLONASS (Russia) and QZSS(Japan). The watch connects almost instantly when you start activity tracking outdoors.

The watch is also rated at IP68 and can be used for tracking your swimming. It also has a barometer if you’re into climbing or even just hitting the trails.

I’m sure there are other features that I’ve missed, but so far, I’m really happy with this watch! I’ll update if there are any changes, especially after the new Wear OS is rolled out.

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Ryan Arjune

The first “Great” Wear OS wearable.

Reviewed in the United States on October 7, 2020

Verified Purchase

I previously owned the Tic Watch Pro 4G. It was a good Wear OS, but it was not the “Best.” After the 2020 pandemic started, I started to learn and realize how crucial monitoring your vitals were. While the Tic Watch 4G had a variety of sensors to measure heart rate and more, other watches in this segment had more sensors and better tracking. When the Apple Watch Series 6 was announced, I looked to see if I could find a Wear OS that was comparable to it. Luckily, the Tic Watch 3 was announced with all the features I was looking for and more.

FIT AND FINISH:

I received the Tic Watch 3 not too long after release and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was thinner than the Tic Watch 4G. The thinness makes a significant difference as I used to hit the Tic Watch 4G against stuff all the time due to me not giving my arm enough clearance. With the Tic Watch 3, I have not had that problem at all. The Tic Watch 4G’s included watchband was extremely elastic and worried me that it would snap easily. The new Tic Watch 3’s band is far better and seems more durable. I was disappointed to see that the holder-shaped charger from the Tic Watch 4G did not make a return. Instead, a new clip-on-shaped charger with an inset head was included. The pinout for the two watches looks the same, but the chargers are incompatible with one another.

BATTERY LIFE:

During my first few days of use, where I was using all the features often, I got an extended 2-day battery life with enough charge left to take me into the morning of the third day. Under my normal “stop-and-go” usage, I was able to achieve 4-days with still a 50% charge at the beginning of day 4. My Tic Watch 4G would get 1-day under the “frequent use” and 3-days under my typical use, where it would barely last the third day. I would not be surprised if I only needed to charge my Tic Watch 3 once or twice a week. The sensors do use more power, so it will vary depending on how often you use those sensors.

ESSENTIAL MODE / LCD MODE:

The most notable feature of the Tic Watch Pro series, the LCD is one of the reasons why I recommend this watch over the competitors. While it does offer the benefit of saving power, I find it to be ‘essential’ for students and test-takers. While the rules are changing to prohibit watches during an exam, the ability to have a “dumb” watch on-demand is essential. One edge that the Tic Watch 4G has over the 3 is the fact that the 4G’s LCD had a brighter background. While the Tic Watch 3 now has a backlight to make up for its darkness, the old watch was more readable, and that I now must use the light during the day. I have included pictures so you can see the difference. The design of the new LCD is also far more attractive and includes more measurements that were usually unavailable on the old Tic Watch 4G.

WEAR OS / SCREEN:

The screen on the new Tic Watch 3 is brighter and more vivid. The improvements make daytime readability better than before, which was already great. Wear OS feels fast, and notifications synchronization is much better. My Tic Watch 4G had problems where it would not like to connect to Wi-Fi. The new watch has no issues connecting to Wi-Fi. The new launcher for the watch is better than the stock Wear OS launcher, but you can still revert to the earlier version if you prefer. I am disappointed to see that a scrolling crown still has not been implemented, but the touch screen works fine. The speaker is loud and clear and sounds as good as my phone speaker. The microphone is also better, and phone calls are well received. I have had no issues or glitches with the interface yet.

GOOGLE FIT / TIC HEALTH / SENSORS:

With the Tic Watch 4G, I preferred to use Google Fit over Tic Health, since both had supplied the same benefits, and Google Fit was more informative. Mobvoi has improved Tic Health significantly. Tic Pulse is a wonderful way to get your heart rate and see a graph without having to look for it. Tic Sleep is interesting. It can monitor how you sleep, analyzing the times you were lightly sleeping, in a deep sleep, in the REM state, or were awake. It also graphs your pulse and blood oxygen over your rest. The information was surprising to see. I believe it is a great app to use if you struggle to get a good rest. Tic Zen analyzes a variety of health data to give you a stress level. It is a little slow but informative. This feature will be useful for those who struggle with stress and want to see how they can improve their mental and physical health. Tic Oxygen is the Blood Oxygen Monitoring app. It takes like 10-20 seconds per reading, but it gives you a confident measurement. As we have seen from the COVID-19 outbreak, we must keep our Blood Oxygen Level above 94%. This sensor is the most useful sensor on any health wearable during this time. With consistent tracking, you can learn the warning signs early. Tic Hearing tracks noise level. I am not entirely sure that it is a needed tracking feature, but it exists and reports accurately. Tic Exercise is a great tool to help you record exercises and get relevant health data based on the activity selected. Tic Breathe is a breathing app that is comparable to the one available in Google Fit. It works well.

Overall, I am impressed with the improvements that the Tic Watch 3 GPS brings! It does everything one could think of and more. In the past, I could only recommend Wear OS watches to those who were technical or could deal with small inconsistencies. I can now recommend a Wear OS watch to everyone and feel good knowing that it is just as good, if not better than the Apple Watch Series 6. I know this was a long review, but this watch deserves all the praise.

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Jimi

I wanted to like this watch.

Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2021

Verified Purchase

My first smart watch was a Ticwatch E and I really enjoyed it. I recall now that the Tic apps didn't work very well and I ended up using Fit.
Then I got a Fossil Gen 5 Garrett. I loved that watch! Everything just worked. After a while though, the battery life got so bad that after about 8 hours, not even enough time for me to make it back to my house, it dropped below 30% and switched to battery saver mode.
So, I was on the lookout for a new watch and had heard about the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS and how it used the new Snapdragon 4100 processor. When it came on sale on Prime day, I just had to have it.
I've worn the watch for about a week straight now and I have to say it's been a little bit of a disappointment.
The watch is significantly lighter than my Fossil, which is nice. The battery has performed really well so far. That's about all the good news I have to share, though.
The band isn't too bad, but it barely fits around my wrist (I'm 6'4" and about 200 lbs).
I've found the touchscreen to be a little insensitive. I often have to tap several times to get a response or bring up a menu.
Most of the time, I don't get notifications from my phone. I've tried playing with the settings several times, but it's been very sporadic.
The TN panel isn't too bad. I'm sure it saves battery life and it's not hard to read in sunlight. I turned off Tilt-to-wake and set it for Touch-to-wake, but apparently this just applies to the AMOLED display. The TN panel is normally off but turns on just about every time I move my arm. It can be rather bright and a little jarring at night. I know I could use theater mode, but that's just another setting to remember to turn on and off every day.
Speaking of night, I normally wouldn't wear a watch to bed, but I wanted to try out Ticsleep for sleep tracking. It's only worked about half the time. Out of the times it has worked, it is wrong half the time. It's frustrating to get a message that I only slept from 1 AM 'til 6 AM and the message "Is this right?" That was off by 2 - 3 hours, but there seems to be no way to correct it. Why ask then? Trying to review my sleep data is frustrating too. It doen't transfer data to Fit, and I haven't found any good instructions for using this software yet.
There's more, but this review is turning into an epic. I haven't given up yet. I'm probably going to try deleting the Tic apps and get back to using Fit. I find myself really missing my Fossil, though. This Ticwatch may just end up in a box in the closet.

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Jeff Gomske

FINALLY! A Wear OS Device I Can Recommend

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2020

Verified Purchase

I've been a fan of wearables since the original Moto 360 was introduced many years ago. Unfortunately, it was great on paper, but the execution was, well, less than stellar. One area in which Wear OS has suffered has been battery life. Prior to the Ticwatch 3, I have owned 6 different Wear OS devices (back when they were known as Android Wear) and battery life has slowly improved, but was never very good. The other area where it lacked was simple fluid operation. The lagging. Glitches. Stuttering. That was one area that never improved. Not even a little bit. It blew me away that Wear OS was as popular as it was considering how issue-prone every model I had owned seemed to be. It wasn't the problem of the watch manufacturers, it was all due to the OS. Not sure why it took so long to finally accept that it NEEDED at least 1GB of RAM in order to function properly, but thank heaven someone finally figured it out. In the meantime, I switched over to Samsungs Tizen watches-which I absolutely LOVE. They did everything I wanted my Wear OS watches to do, and without the stuttering and glitches...but with a couple of notable exceptions. Those included app selection, notifications weren't as slick and Google Assistant was and still remains head and shoulders above anything Bixby offers.

I had the Gear S2, the S3, the Gear Sport, the Galaxy Watch and now the Galaxy Watch 3. Another area that Tizen ruled was battery life. Especially the original Galaxy Watch. But when I got the GW3 I discovered instead of a bigger battery - or even the same size - they down-sized it. Samsung INSISTED with optimizations I should expect about the same battery life with the Watch 3 as I had with my original GW. I'm sorry, but I don't want "about the same" with a watch that is at least 2 years NEWER. I wanted better and I don't think it was remotely unreasonable to expect that. Well battery life with the Ticwatch 3 has managed to surpass the Galaxy Watch 3, and not by just a little, either.

Whoever came up with the idea of the layered screen is just genius. An LCD panel built on top of an OLED panel offers some truly significant advantages of needing to turn on the watch in order to check the time. That LCD screen just barely sips the battery and still allows an always on display, which is absolutely fantastic. I WILL stipulate that due to that extra layer, the OLED display is slightly affected. Holding it directly next to my GW3, you could plainly see a difference, even though the pixel density is notably better on the Ticwatch. The Samsung is clearer and noticeably brighter, too. I say this full well knowing that it is a trade-off I am absolutely willing to make to enjoy the better battery life. Your needs may vary, so keep that in mind before making your purchase.

I was impressed with how sleek and thin the Ticwatch was. It would be nice to have a rotating crown, though. That is the one thing I believe the watch needs in order to truly be improved. I keep hearing people mention how the silicone band really looks like a leather band with the colored stitching, and I have to echo that. Without touching it, you wouldn't know. I have noticed many reviewers post about how the Ticwatch is mostly unremarkable in looks...and I can't disagree. It doesn't stand out like the Galaxy Watch or the apple watch, but it more than makes up for that by simply WORKING well.

Since I received mine, I have paid extra attention to how well the overall functionality has performed. I am absolutely stunned to say the 1GB of RAM and the Snapdragon 4100 Wearable chip make a formidable combination. I have yet to notice a single hiccup in performance. Apps open quickly. Everything runs fluidly and as expected...in short, the performance is exactly everything I have always wanted out of Wear OS but never could seem to actually find. Kudos to Mobvoi for whatever optimizations they have included to make this experience one that is truly enjoyable. If anything, I would even say it is snappier than the Galaxy Watch 3 has been...which is saying a lot.

The LCD always on display is quite dark, but VERY easily read in direct sunlight...but new to the Ticwatch 3 is a backlight that works quickly each time you tilt your wrist to view the time. Interesting enough though, you have to turn that tilt to wake feature off for the OLED panel in order for this to work with the always on LCD display. But it DOES work quite well.

Mobvoi and the recent Oppo Watch have showed that some specializing in the optimization of Wear OS along with that 1GB RAM can actually make Google's Wearable not just a great platform, but one that rivals apple in virtually all aspects. No, the Ticwatch does not come with an ECG monitor, which I was a little sad to discover, but the addition to the SPO2 reading was a nice addition. From what I gather, the watch has received several updates since initially being released which have helped improve a great deal of problems that apparently were missed at release. Some of those include better and more accurate heart rate monitoring, especially during exercising. Better overall exercising functionality along with a few other tweaks. So far I haven't noticed any glaring problems with mine, which is good to know.

Oh, and one more thing: I can't tell you how nice it is to have Google functionality back after suffering through Bixby for so long. Finally an assistant that actually WORKS, and pretty snappily, too. Absolutely leapfrogging ahead of Samsung in actual functionality by comparison.

While Wear OS has a ridiculous number of apps to choose from, especially when compared to Samsung's Tizen, I have to say that aside from a very small number of apps, this really isn't a big deal to me. Let me explain: While having a large number of apps to choose from is nice in theory, actually using an app on a watch that has such a small screen is not quite the same thing as using your phone. The screen real estate just isn't all that big enough to make the use of very many apps plausible to use regularly. Sure, there are a few notable exceptions, but for the most part, Samsung still has almost all of those necessary apps, too. So claiming a larger app selection is one thing, but in actual implementation, at least for ME, having a hundred thousand apps vs a couple thousand simply does not tell the whole story. You may feel different and that's okay. This is just my .02.

Long story short, the Ticwatch is the very first Wear OS smart watch that I not only highly recommend, but actually look forward to strapping to my wrist daily. Congrats to Mobvoi for what they have finally achieved...and while I'm still a little miffed that it took so long to finally see decent and reliable functionality from Wear OS, at least it finally happened. I was worried for a while that it wouldn't. It's nice to be proven wrong here.

***UPDATE***

I am absolutely THRILLED to say that Mobvoi has answered a LOT of users pleas, and in an update that happened at the beginning of February 2021, allowed us to turn off the backlight on the LCD panel display! I loved it - at first. But it doesn't take long for the little honeymoon to end. Suddenly you notice the backlight turning on when you barely move your wrist to do virtually anything. Whether you are looking to see what time it is or just moving your hand to scratch, or well, almost ANY movement triggered it. Kudos to Mobvoi for making the tilt-to-wake feature ultra responsive and pretty swift, too...but that damn backlight though. I KNOW it contributes to lower battery life, too. Now that we finally have a Wear OS device that has decent battery life, I hate to see it diminish even more simply because I reached up to scratch my chin too often each day. I have looked and found numerous forums of Ticwatch 3 owners who have this exact same complaint, too. It seems like an easy fix, and thankfully, they actually LISTENED. Before this, I discovered if you hit the "do not disturb" function the backlight would not engage unless you pressed one of the buttons...unfortunately, you would also not get any notifications...which kind of defeats the purpose of a smartwatch now doesn't it? In the new update, Mobvoi gives us an honest-to-goodness option of turning off the backlight totally, while keeping the LCD panel still up and running. Yes, that means under some circumstances it will be more difficult to read, but I am perfectly happy with this option. My only problem was located where this option actually was...because it wasn't where I thought it would be. Now you may find it obvious, but it wasn't to me. The option is within the Essential App. I just (stupidly) assumed that they meant the mobvoi app on my phone. Nope. You won't find it there at all. Go into the Essential App on your WATCH (I feel dumb that I didn't figure this out immediately...so if you haven't either, just know you are not alone). Scroll to the right and on the second page I believe, the option will be there to turn off the backlight in Essential mode. Voila! Bye-bye backlight. The Amoled panel still activates as usual when you press a button, so no worries there.

Also, I have noticed slight screen sensitivity improvements with this update as well. If I'm being honest, the Amoled panel has never been the absolute most touch-responsive smart watch I have ever used, but what it lacks in that (and let's be honest, it isn't bad by ANY stretch, just not quite AS responsive as my Oppo Watch or my Galaxy Watch 3) it more than makes up for within the Google eco-system...which I must admit, before the Ticwatch, I never truly explored much. The previous Wear OS watches I've owned have been so glitch-filled and issue-prone, I simply gave up on the OS altogether. I am finding it is way more robust, and user-friendly than I ever had experienced before. If only all the watch makers before this had started off releasing watches with no less than 1GB of RAM from the beginning and who knows where Wear OS would be today? Course, it doesn't help that Google hasn't lived up to their own commitment like they "claimed" they would from the beginning. Optimizing your own software so those glitches never became an issue to begin with would have been a nice place to start. Instead, all those who adopted the software had to figure out their own work-arounds, and thankfully, it seems as though all that work has paid off. ANY Wear OS device running the 4100 chip and 1GB of RAM will see an astonishing improvement in ways that I find difficult to truly describe. All I can say is, it just works. FINALLY.

Once again, thank you to Mobvoi for listening to us users and giving us what we asked for. That means a whole lot more than what we've got from Google in the last 7 years or so.

***UPDATE #2***

I feel it necessary to say that I have noticed another thing which I prefer over my Galaxy Watch 3. The bluetooth connection seems to be stronger for further distance. At my work, if I leave my phone at my desk, I can always count on having it vibrate to let me know it lost connection every time I reach the break room. However, with the TicWatch Pro 3, I have noticed I can go almost 10 solid yards further before losing connection...which is pretty amazing since the GW3 has bluetooth 5.0 which has a pretty great distance connection rate. Not sure how important that is to making a decision, but I felt it important enough to at least point out in case anyone is interested.

I am STILL frustrated at the haptic motor though. It is super annoying that it is so weak. I miss messages and emails quite frequently because of how weak it is. Dang it.

***UPDATE #3***

After all is said and done, I'm not super impressed with the battery life like I thought I would be. Even with an LCD panel to help battery life and the Snapdragon 4100 chip, it has much worse battery life than my Oppo Watch and my Galaxy Watch 3...which itself has poor battery life compared to the original Galaxy Watch.

It's still a great watch, but that battery life NEEDS to be better optimized. Oh, and the poor haptic motor? I STILL HATE IT. Honestly, it is just shy of not having one at all. Anyone who says it's good is a LIAR.

***UPDATE***

In the year since I bought TWP3, I have also bought the Galaxy Watch 4, running the newest version of Wear OS which the TicWatch will reportedly receive at some point in 2022. I had HIGH hopes that this newer, updated OS would do what Tizen has done essentially since the Gear S2. After using the new watch for 3 months now, I can say without reservation, that the TicWatch Pro 3's performance is better overall. This GENUINELY displeases me to admit, too. I am a HUGE Samsung fan, and I was immediately furious discovering that they were abandoning Tizen for Wear OS. It was the SOLE reason that I bought into their ecosystem, because it worked REALLY well. But, the reviews began pouring in and I did an about face and got one. It stutters, glitches and has issues on a degree that is FAR WORSE than any issue I have ever had with the TicWatch. I DO prefer the natural and SIMPLE way Samsung allows you to download music to the watch to use while exercising or doing whatever. For some reason, Wear OS makes you jump through so many hoops in order to use the extra memory for music storage and it's just silly. Other than that, the TicWatch still has much better battery life (though it should since the battery is positively gigantic by comparison to the GW4 44mm version I have). Performance is flat-out better all the way around. In fact, there are only 3 things that I truly believe the GW4 does better, vibration haptics and download music for playback is simply a breeze with the Samsung app, and navigation on the screen using the digital crown to scroll (the physical rotating bezel on the GW4 Classic is even better)...otherwise, in my opinion, the TicWatch Pro 3 is easily more smooth, has less glitches and just plain operates better. I need to save up for the TicWatch Pro 4, I can only imagine how much better that will be than what we have now.

36 people found this helpful

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frogfeet

I love this watch!

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

I love this watch. I’ve been wearing it for about a month now and have given it a run through the paces. I love the design and feel, it hits the sweet spot between a dress watch and a sports watch. The best thing is the battery life. Incredible. It has two screens, a colorful AMOLED screen that is great for indoors, and an FSTN black and white screen which is perfect for use in bright sunlight. Smartwatch performance is fast and smooth with great hardware specs. I paired it with a pair of TicPod ANC earphones and the music playback in fantastic. I had an issue with my original charging cable and the MobVoi customer service was very helpful and responsive. Like all great products there are always areas for improvement – read down to the end of this review for those.

Polished look and feel
The TicWatch Pro 3 looks good and feels good. It’s thinner and lighter than the Garmin Fenix series or the TicWatch Pro 4G (I have both), and at 12mm thick it will fit nicely under the cuffs of a long sleeve shirt or a cool weather jacket with elasticized wrists, just like a dress watch. The screen is big – 48mm across -- but very light, which makes all the difference. It comes with a decent 22mm quick release watch band made of silicone. The band looks like leather and feels good against the skin. It has been great for summertime wear on the beach, but I’ll probably swap it out for a leather band this winter, or for going out, if restaurants ever open back up. The TicWatch Pro 3 – like its predecessors -- sports a unique double screen – a pretty bright color AMOLED screen which is great for indoors or cloudy days, and a more austere black and white FSTN/LCD screen which is great for reading your workout stats on bright sunlight (see my pics). A welcome new feature is the backlight on the FSTN screen which activates when you turn up your wrist to look at the watch. Very nice. To switch to the AMOLED I just tap the screen or press one of the buttons. (You can also set the AMOLED screen to always on, or to turn on with a wrist turn, but I prefer my current set up.)

Excellent Smart Watch Performance
There are plenty of performance reviews out there about this watch because it has made quite a splash with the new QUALCOMM 4100 chipset, a full gigabyte of RAM and 8 gigabytes of storage. The memory and chipset boosts are huge upgrades. Suffice it to say the smart watch features are all very fast and very smooth as you would expect with these specs. I love the new layout of Android Wear apps on the screen, 2x2 instead of one at a time. There are plenty of cool features under the hood as well: The TicWatch Pro 3 has a microphone and speaker so you can take take calls on the phone like Dick Tracy, play music on the watch if you don’t have headphones, receive and respond to texts, and get notifications for your emails and messaging apps on your phone. Or talk to “OK Google.” I did not use the NFC or google pay features, but it has that too. The media features are excellent – 8 GB is more than enough for a decent music library. I connected the TicWatch Pro 3 with a pair of high end bluetooth earphones (the TicPod ANC’s) and the sound was incredible. However, with the disappearance of Google Play, there is no easy way to transfer music from your phone to any Android watch, including this one. I tried a couple of third party apps available in the Play Store and found NavExplore and NavMusic to be not perfect but good enough. I’d like to see MobVoi build a TicWatch app with file transfer and music playback functionality.

Strong Fitness Features
The watch comes loaded with the Google suite of fitness apps (Fit Breathe, Fit Goals, Fit Heart Rate, Fit Workout) and an extensive Mobvoi suite as well (Tic Health, Tic Exercise, Tic Pulse, Tic Sleep, Tic Breathe, Tic Zen, Tic Oxygen, Tic Hearing). After trying both, I actually prefer the Mobvoi Tic Exercise app to the Google Fit Workout app. The AMOLED display on the Mobvoi apps is more attractive and useful than the display of the Google app, and the Mobvoi app works on the FSTN display which is perfect in bright sunlight. For some reason third party apps – including Google Fit Workout -- do not display on the FSTN screen, which is a shortcoming. The built-in GPS locks on to satellites quickly, so no waiting around before you start your workout. The built-in optical heart rate monitor is accurate and gives me about the same readings as my Garmin Fenix with a chest strap. Unfortunately the TicFitness apps do not support connection to a blue-tooth chest strap heart rate monitor, which is what I prefer for cycling or rowing. In theory Google Fit Workout does support a bluetooth HRM, but my experience on the TicWatch Pro 3 with a Garmin dual BT HRM strap was disappointing – Google Fit kept losing the bluetooth connection to the chest strap. I suspect it's the apps fault as I had better -- but still spotty results -- with a third party app (Adidas Runtastic). I'll keep looking for a good app for connecting a BT HRM to the TicWatch and will update when I find it. For syncing your workouts you can upload to all the usual third party fitness apps (Strava, IConnect, etc.), and they work well. When using the Tic Exercise app the FSTN data display is easy to read in bright sunlight, and provides all the data you could need, but the layout of the data on the screen is not user configurable, so you get a big read out of your workout’s duration, but you literally have to read the fine print on the watch screen to see your heart rate, pace, distance traveled, etc. It would be nice if the FSTN display played nicely with third party apps, and allowed users to configure what data fields appear where on the screen, like on a Garmin watch. The TicWatch Pro 3 like its predecessor is IP68 water resistant so it can handle rain or sweat no problem.

Incredible Battery Life
Hands down this is the best thing about the TicWatch Pro 3. It comes with a massive 577 mAh battery shoe horned into its skinny case. For me, with an hour or so a day of fitness use and plenty of smartwatch and step counting use all day long, it easily handled 3 days between charges. All my other smartwatches required daily recharges so this is a huge upgrade. The TicWatch Pro 3 will even run for a month on Essential Mode (telling the date and time and counting steps), if you’re ever off the grid.

Real Live Customer service
I had an issue with the original watch shipped from Amazon in September. The charging cable failed. I reached out to the folks at Mobvoi and they sent me a new charging cable and a brand new watch, and so far no problems. The customer service was responsive, and helpful, and that for me is fundamental.

Areas for improvement
I love this watch and recommend it highly. I upgraded from the previous version and expect I’ll be sticking with this brand for a while. But there’s always room for improvement. Here’s what I’d like to see in the next iteration of the TicWatch Pro. The Mobvoi developers seem to be very attentive to user feedback so I’m hoping they’ll read this list:
- A Mobvoi app to transfer and play music files to the watch (RIP Google Play).
- Support for connection to a blue tooth chest strap heart rate monitor in the Tic Exercise app.
- Support for display of third party fitness apps on the FSTN screen, and ability to configure the screen display data by quadrants, like on a Garmin watch.

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