[Wear OS General] bernarbernuli:
REVIEW TICWATCH PRO 5
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I have owned the TicWatch Pro 3 since early 2021. It is a watch currently wearing Wear OS 2, the last system update it received was in August 2022.

When it was launched in summer 2021 Samsung

Galaxy Watch 4

was considered the most powerful watch at the time, but I let it go, I didn't buy it. It was the first watch with Wear OS 3 (also exclusively) but it had and has too much dependence on the Samsung universe, with apps and functions on the watch that only worked if you have a Samsung phone paired, plus I personally preferred a purer Wear OS experience, without the One UI layer that Samsung put on top of Wear OS.

A year later the

Galaxy Watch 5

was released, becoming the most powerful Wear OS watch, and for the same reason as Galaxy Watch 4 I didn't buy it.

Last October,

Pixel Watch

was launched, the truth is that I had high hopes for that watch, but I did not buy it either, finally it did not meet my expectations and there was very little of it that could leave me satisfied: The battery did not last more than 24 hours, screen much smaller than my old TWP3 and the design did not seem reliable for outdoor sports with the screen so exposed to shocks.

Since my TicWatch Pro 3 was still working fine, I was in no hurry to buy another Wear OS watch that wouldn't leave me at least as satisfied with my current one, until the TicWatch Pro 5 arrived, and this one really caught my attention.

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Comparing the watch to the other Wear OS 3 watches currently on the market ...

... it outperforms them all in almost every important aspect:

Battery: Thanks to a 628 mAh battery (the largest of all Wear OS watches) and the cool trick of the dual screen that manages to reduce consumption to the maximum, there is no Wear OS watch on the market that lasts longer without charging it than TicWatch Pro 5 (3 days at least).

The screen: It has the largest screen (1.43"), The Pixel Watch has 1.2" and the closest is the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro with 1.4". For me this is important if you do outdoor sports and that you can see the information provided by the watch comfortably.

Size: It is the one with the largest size (48mm wide), if you come from the TicWatch Pro 3 (44 mm) you will hardly notice any difference, but if your previous watch was the Pixel Watch (41 mm) the difference is ostensible. If it's your first Wear OS watch and you have a small wrist it may feel awkward at first, but I reckon the larger screen certainly feels like a worthwhile benefit.

Power: It sports Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 processor which gives it the most power and battery life of any Wear OS watch out there.

Memory and Capacity: It is the watch with the largest storage capacity (32 GB) and RAM (2 GB). There is no other watch that even matches it in this right now.

Water resistance: It has MIL-STD-810H and 5 ATM certification, and supports swimming in open water, only Galaxy Watch 5 matches it in this aspect.

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It is not the best, but it is among the best…

Sensors: TicWatch Pro 5 has a heart rate sensor (PPG) and blood oxygen saturation sensor (SpO2) like most Wear OS 3 watches. It also has a skin temperature sensor that for now is only being used in sleep metrics and also has Galaxy Watch 5. The latter watch has 2 sensors that the TicWatch Pro 5 does not have, however, these are more oriented to give health information than directed to sport, it is the ECG sensor to detect cardiac abnormalities and the bioelectrical impedance analysis sensor to measure the percentage of body fat, among other data.

Shock resistance: The Galaxy 5 Pro is probably more resistant thanks to the titanium body and sapphire glass covering the screen, as opposed to the aluminum body (and stainless steel bezel) and Gorilla Glass of TicWatch Pro 5, however, I must say that the hardness of TWP5 is not little by what I have checked for several years in my old TWP3 that has materials of lower hardness compared to TWP5 and has received countless blows without showing any blow to the body of the watch, plus it has obtained military certification MIL-STD-810H (only Galaxy Watch 5 has also achieved that certification).

They could improve on…

There is only one configuration available, with an obsidian black casing, as opposed to other Wear OS 3 watches such as Pixel Watch with several colors to choose from.

The charger is the same small connector with magnetic pins for charging that Mobvoi supplies from TicWatch Pro 3, I wish Mobvoi would just follow the industry trend and supply a "dock" style charger.

The buttons cannot be customized (officially) and there are no native wrist gestures. Interestingly, TicWatch Pro 3 does allow you to customize one of the watch buttons from the settings.

This watch has too many preinstalled apps. It includes Google's apps, obviously, and a huge suite of Mobvoi apps that work very well but that should be integrated several of them under a single app, especially the health and fitness apps (I count about 10 apps, TicHealth, One Tap Measurement, TicCare, TicOxygen, TicPulse, TicSleep, TicBreathe, TicZen, TicExercise and Mobvoi Treadmill), plus Mobvoi includes 2 navigation tools (TicCompass and TicBarometer) and 5 other apps with different themes (Timeshow Watchface, Calculator, Mobvoi Privacy, Media Control and Essential Mode Settings).

It does not allow you to change notification and alarm sound, only ringtone, however, I think it is a Google issue not Mobvoi's, as all Wear OS 3 watches have the same limitation.

Although it has a specific sensor to measure body temperature, you cannot make manual measurements, for now it is only used in the sleep metrics automatically, I guess in future updates will add some functionality that allows it.

It does not include an app to record audio and take voice notes as it did in TWP3.

About the update policy, Mobvoi is clearly not the best at it. TicWatch Pro 3 has not received an update since August last year, and its owners have been waiting a long time for the promised update to Wear OS 3, considering also that other brands in similar conditions, such as Fossil, have updated their watch to Wear OS 3 many months ago. Although they have missed the deadline, and many of us like to have the latest features as soon as possible, I must say that the update to Wear OS 3 of TicWatch Pro 3 would not be critical, that is, the watch currently works on Wear OS 2 normally, I've been using it as a daily watch for years and continues to track my workouts and alerts notifications. The update to Wear OS 3 mostly involves aesthetic changes to the interface and being able to use some app that are only compatible with Wear OS 3. The fact that it hasn't been updated hasn't written off your watch, the apps still work, I know there is a lot of upset, but I would still call for restraint, which from what I read from time to time seems to be the worst thing since 9/11.

Who knows what will happen with TicWatch Pro 5 updates, interestingly the watch has already received a small update since launch. Google has already announced that Wear OS 4 will be released soon, nothing is known about that, however, I am hopeful that they will not delay times.

I love it…

The TicWatch Pro 5 has the same design as the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra. That's not really surprising because all TicWatch Pro models have shared virtually the same design. Their distinctive design gives them a sporty look and makes them instantly recognizable.

Mobvoi's version of Wear OS 3 is clean and nearly identical to what you'll find on a Pixel Watch. The only real difference you'll find comes from Mobvoi's preloaded apps.

The screen is protected by a glass of Gorilla Glass, which apart from the logical thing, namely that it protects against bumps and scratches is also able to repel fingerprints and dust. I love that I don't see the print of my index finger marked on the watch's display.

The digital crown allows you to scroll through the app drawer or notifications, increase or decrease the volume of music, it integrates with some apps for additional controls such as Google Maps or Spotify which allows for example to zoom in and out of maps with ease. The crown, therefore, has a very versatile control, it can even be used with gloves and the touch is pleasant.

Fast Charging, Mobvoi says that the watch should get a 65% charge in the first 30 minutes and that it takes just over an hour to fully charge, I can confirm, it does, they have not exaggerated anything. When charging it shows the charge level in decimals which I find very illustrative of how the fast charge is performing.

The smart essential mode allows you to set a time to automatically turn the watch on or off, so it won't enter that mode until it detects that you are sleeping or have taken it off your wrist. This is a wonderful feature to use during the night, as it still monitors your sleep, but uses even less battery than simply putting the watch into bedtime mode.

The "TicExercise" app, you can scroll through different views that allow you to see different metrics in real time (distance, pace, speed, heart rate, cumulative ascent etc.). You can even track workouts from the secondary display. On TWP3 I didn't like the Mobvoi sports tracking app, and had it disabled. They've improved it a lot and now I find it very reliable, in fact, it's the one I use on a daily basis. Also, the data can be automatically synced to Google Fit and Strava.

The 5 tiles that provide additional information in the essential mode when you're doing a sports workout, much like what you get with the color display. If you turn the crown button you can scroll through the screens, providing heart rate, calories burned, blood oxygen percentage and even a compass. Although I see some use for it, I find it a bit cumbersome to move through them when you're training, maybe Mobvoi should give this a whirl.

Also, if the watch practically runs out of battery, it will no longer become completely useless, now it can still track my workouts and even measure heart rate from the essential display.

During a sports workout or when it detects that a sports exercise is being performed, the backlight in the essential mode lights up in different colors to show at a glance which training zone you are in according to your heart rate and to avoid looking at the display for a particular metric. In total, there are 5 different colors to indicate different training zones.

Blue-green light is for gentle training or warm-up (50%-60% of maximum heart rate).

Yellow light for fat burning (60%-70% of FCmax)

Orange light indicates that you are in endurance or cardiovascular zone (70%-80% of FCmax).

Purple light, indicates that you are in anaerobic zone (80%-90% of FCmax).

Red light, which is in dangerous heart rate zone (90%-100% of HRmax).

The "TicMotion" function to detect a workout: It identifies if you are walking, running or cycling automatically, for example, if for at least 5 minutes you walk fast the watch will vibrate, identify that it is a walk and start to track it in real time, in the same way if it detects that you have stopped at a certain time, it will end the tracking automatically and generate the exercise log. If you are running it will start tracking after 3 minutes.

The estimated time needed to recover from the activity: Provides an estimate of how long it will take you to fully recover and be ready for your next workout of the same intensity. Recovery time can range from 0 hours to 4 days. As you log more activities, it will learn more about your overall fitness level, giving you a more accurate recovery time.

The Sports & Health platform: Accessed from h.mobvoi.com, it shows all the activities that have been recorded from the mobile, statistics and you can make comparisons with other workouts.

The "One Tap Measurement" app provides in 90 seconds, 5 metrics at once (heart rate, blood oxygen, respiratory rate, stress and an overall heart health score).

The apps "TicBarometer" and "TicCompass": The first one measures the atmospheric pressure changes and the altitude where you are, and the second one is a very functional compass. Interestingly TWP3 has also barometric sensor and compass, but they didn't include official apps for these sensors, you had to use third party apps.

I don't know what they have done, but clearly, they have improved Google's Gboard keyboard, despite the size of the keyboard now you get without barely correct all the time, when I was typing in TWP3 it was agonic, you can clearly notice the difference.

The Bluetooth handsfree calls, works very well, you hear and are heard correctly. Very useful if you have your hands busy or you are doing sports. Also, the contact book of your phone is synchronized with the watch and you can make calls to any contact.

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Other considerations:

With the strap they have changed from the 22mm size used on all previous TicWatch Pro models to a new 24mm size. The 24mm strap size somewhat limits the choice of third-party straps, though there is availability of course, plus it's not a proprietary design as the Pixel Watch strap system is. They can be perfectly interchangeable, as it uses a classic spring pin system and you can put on any strap with that width.

There is no LTE version of the watch, nor have they communicated anything regarding an upcoming release, however, it is possible that Mobvoi will release an LTE version of the watch in a couple of months in the same way they did with TicWatch Pro 3 in 2020 and TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra in 2021, where they released LTE version, 2-3 months after the GPS version.

TicWatch Pro 5 (and all other watches with Wear OS 3) no longer use the "Wear OS by Google" app on the phone as a companion app. Each watch manufacturer will now provide its own app. TWP5's is "Mobvoi Health" which in addition to helping pair the phone to the watch, manage health and fitness, you will find typical stats, such as steps, heart rate and sleep, as well as workouts.

All the functions and apps of the watch work completely with any Android 8 or higher watch, that is, practically all Android phones. In addition, I believe it can also be paired to an iPhone (I don't know how it does it), but from what I've read not all of its functions are available, for example, it misses out on the quick response, reserved for Android phones.

With Wear OS 3 you gain compatibility with apps that in Wear OS 2 you can't use, I highlight 3 apps: Google Home, Deezer and Strava.

For now, the Google Assistant is not included, it is possible that this lack is caused by a Google/Samsung exclusivity agreement as other models such as Fossil Gen 6 which is updated to Wear OS 3 since last October does not carry it either.

Using the watch for daily use and workouts I found that the heart rate and GPS tracking were on par with other watches such as Garmin. I went for a run with the TicWatch Pro 5 and Garmin's Forerunner 255, and although the Mobvoi watch took a little longer than the Garmin to latch onto my location, it positioned well once it did.