Mobvoi Ticwatch – The latest Android wear for Australian Sports fans
If you are a sports lover then the latest Android wear watch Mobvoi Ticwatch S is the one for you. Earlier the company had released their E (express) version but this watch is their larger model that focuses on sports incorporating GPS, heart rate monitor and all the usual sensors to allow you to get a good workout while taking advantage of the breadth of the Android Wear app ecosystem.
Both Ticwatch S (Sport) and E (Express) empower your active lifestyle with the convenience of Google Assistant, fitness apps like Google Fit, and the powerful ecosystem of Google Play. Google Play brings you apps that enable sleep monitoring, music detection, multi-language support, and much more. The possibilities are endless with your Ticwatch watches.
Features of Ticwatch S
The Ticwatch S has seen a lot of coverage due to its feature set and low price. And it costs AU $253.63 which you can order from Mobvoi which includes free shipping.
The watch comes in three colours Glacier (White), Knight (Black) and Aurora (Yellow). The design of the watch is pretty well what you’d expect from a modern watch; it’s got a fully round 1.4″ 400×400 resolution OLED display with anti-scratch glass. The display is quite nice to look at with the deep blacks you associate with OLED displays there. It’s easy to read inside but has some issues when in direct sunlight even when at full brightness. One big design change the Ticwatch series boasts is the move of the crown from the right-hand side to the left. The case is made of polycarbonate and it’s got an IP67 rating meaning the case is strong; and has the bonus that you can go for a swim or shower with it without fear.
The rear of the watch has a 2-LED PPG (Optical) heart rate monitor and some POGO pins for charging. The 2-LED setup is fairly standard for most Android Wear watches. And it falls into the range of ‘good enough when it comes to basic fitness tracking. It’s not going to measure up to the Polar M600 and its 6-LED PPG heart rate monitor.
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The band on the Ticwatch S is fixed; it contains the GPS antenna, so it’s a like it or lumps it option in terms of comfort. The band is rubberised and has two rings for holding the excess strap in place so it’s not flapping about.
Internally, the Ticwatch S is powered by a Mediatek processor; a dual-core 1.2GHz MTK MT2601 to be precise, but all the other hardware reads like a standard Android Wear device: 512MB RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 300mAh battery.
The watch supports dual-band WiFi to connect to the internet, as well as Bluetooth 4.1 to connect to your phone or to connect a Bluetooth headset to play music while you work out. It also comes with GPS (Glonass+GPS+Beidou and AGPS) support which is amazing for the price.
Software, Apps and Battery
The Ticwatch series uses POGO pins to charge the watch with a magnetic connector. The cradle is actually pretty decent, but you do have to ensure the connector is lined up and the watch is charging before you place it down for the night or while it’s charging. The Ticwatch S runs Android Wear 2.0 software or to be more precise Android Wear 2.5.0.172604017.
As usual with any Android Wear watch release Mobvoi has released some specific watch faces for the Ticwatch series. There is a number pre-installed: Simple Sport, Sport, Sport Heartbeat, Sporter, Wander, Blues, Colorful, Atom, Castle, Tourbillons, Ticwatch x MLGB, Steck, Calendar, Golden Coffee, NOMOS, Simple Green LED and Elements Pointer. You can as usual install third-party watch faces to the Ticwatch, there’s the Google Play store on the watch.
With pre-installed apps, you will find the Fitness app, as well as a Health, Step Ranking and Heart rate monitor app. You get the usual Google apps such as a Flashlight that turns your screen white and goes to full brightness, as well as Agenda, Alarm, Contacts, Find my Phone, Google Fit/Google Fit Workout, Phone, Stopwatch, Timer, Weather and Contacts apps in the watch.
About Mobvoi
Mobvoi was founded in 2012 and uses the latest technology with AI technology in its products. Mobvoi has developed its own Chinese voice technologies in the fields of voice recognition, natural language processing, and vertical search. Through its creation of critically acclaimed consumer products in wearables, automobile and home product categories, Mobvoi’s rich accumulation of experience in the application of AI has in turn driven continued innovation in its core voice-based technologies.
