[Samsung Galaxy S8 Accessories] jco23:
Introduction

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I am comparing two smartwatches that use Android Wear 2.0. I have read where many people prefer the Samsung watches with their Tizen OS and rotating bezel, thus I felt that comparing a AW OS smartwatch to a different OS would not be fair. From my experience, Samsung tends to handcuff their customers (much like Apple), so many folks are already turned away from using any additional Samsung products. my previous devices were the original Moto 360 (paired with a Motorola Droid Trubo) and Asus Zenwatch 3. The Moto 360 had a heartrate feature, but was only available on demand, and took over a minute to find my heart rate. The Asus Zenwatch 3 is very classy, but lacked the heartrate monitor, and always seemed slow to respond. Neither of these watches had GPS, NFC, or IP68 rating. The Moto 360 capped out at AW 1.5 (which some still say is better than 2.0), while the Asus Zenwatch 3 started with 1.5 and moved quickly to 2.0. I had the Moto 360 for nearly three years (11/2014-8/2017) and the Asus Zenwatch 3 for less than one year (8/2017-7/2018). Battery life on both barely made it a full 24 hours. Both felt very comfortable and looked classy.

Tiwatch Pro

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I tested the Ticwatch Pro for about two weeks. Pairing it to my phone took well over an hour. There were many times when I had to disconnect/reset the watch, as I thought that the phone/watch was stuck. But really, it just took significantly longer than my other watches. The watch worked fine from the get go, however, setting up my credit card for NFC payments took some time as well (including disconnecting/resetting, as your watch must have a PIN/password/pattern in order to use this feature). Did not realize until later that each time I disabled the lock screen, I lost NFC, so I had to re-enable the lock screen and then set up my credit card all over again. But I think that is more of a feature of AW than the watch. Supposedly, the watch knows when it is on your wrist, so when you take it off/on, you'll have to get through the lock screen each time. The watch was not very consistent with this, so there were a few times when I had to enter the info even though the watch had been on my wrist for a while. Also, when I docked/charged the watch, I had to bypass the lock screen just to get to the nightstand mode. In terms of feel, the Ticwatch felt like I was wearing a smartphone on my wrist, and not a watch. This felt awkward to the point where I could not wait to take it off. The idea for the band is great - leather on the outside and a breathable silicon on the inside. However, the length was a little odd and felt too stiff. The battery life was acceptable, as I always take it off when I sleep, so I really only require 1-day+. The Ticwatch's best feature is what I dislike most - the digital display. In my opinion, this is not classy - not the reason to spend $250. Thus, I had to enable the always on display - which was fine, but for the stock watchfaces, I did not like having to read, "Ticwatch", and they were not that nice. I installed Watchmaker and used a custom watchface, which was much nicer, but with the always on display, my wrist was always illuminating (and not fading like the stock faces). However, the Ticwatch functions as it should, and is a nice watch. Just that it does not feel right to me.

Huawei Watch 2 Classic

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I tested the Huawei Watch 2 Classic for one week. Much like the Ticwatch, it took well over an hour to pair to my phone. The functionality is essentially the same as the Ticwatch with these few exceptions: the screen lock had to be entered far less. Only had to bypass the lockscreen when putting the watch on my wrist, and NOT when I docked/charged the watch for nightstand mode. Since I had the Ticwatch previously, the Huawei had a noticeably smaller screen size. Not a big deal, but the featured watchface has a circle that shows the date, and this circle is not legible, this making it useless. In terms of feel, the Huawei felt like very comfortable. Similiar to the Ticwatch, the Huawei has a dual band with leather on the outside and breathable silicon on the inside. However, this band feels more genuine and softer than the Ticwatch band. Also, the two tone (brown leather) looks better than the black band only offered by Ticwatch (Huawei also offers a black band). Battery life is better than expected, as I could get 2-days easily with limited use, and could probably get even longer if enabled "Smart Power saving" or "watch mode" via the Battery setting. Response is realatively quick, even with "Ok Google" detection enabled.

Conclusion

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Both watches work very well as advertised, and are great for both casual users and athletes. I go running/walking/biking at least twice a week, and both watches perform well with no hiccups. Battery life is a non-issue to me due the Huawei having it's own essential mode. The key difference is that the Huawei has more RAM (thus, performance is slightly better), and the Huawei looks/feels classier and far more comfortable. The Ticwatch has a slight edge for a larger screen size and being newer. However, given that the Huawei is now on clearance (could be a bad sign), the Ticwatch is more expensive. Thus, due to these factors, I went with the Huawei Watch 2 Classic.