The Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS: Still a Great Way to Experience Wear OS
The Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS is one of Mobvoi’s latest devices out on the market today, and it packs a lot of great features while running on Google’s Wear OS platform. It competes mainly with other devices like the Samsung Galaxy Watch series, Fossil Gen smartwatches, and even the Apple Watch. And while it might seem like “just another smartwatch,” I do think that it has some unique features that set it apart from the competition — let’s take a look!
Design, Hardware, Display & Battery
Let’s start with the design. I appreciate what Mobvoi has managed to pull off with the design on the 3 Ultra. It’s functional, and doesn’t stray too much from established design templates, and results in a fairly standard smartwatch look. The watch features a 1.4-inch AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass, built into a 47mm case with a stainless steel bezel, and a chassis that has IP68 waterproofing. Despite its rugged and large appearance, it’s comfortable and doesn’t feel heavy on my wrist, so wearing it for long periods is no problem at all.
The two buttons on the side allow you to go through the user interface, although you can’t rotate them to scroll through the different screen menus, which would’ve been a nice feature to have. You’ll find the sensors and charging port underneath the 3 Ultra, which according to Mobvoi is graded for Military Standard durability.
The watch also comes with a speaker and microphone set-up, so you can use it with compatible apps and features like Google Assistant. The speaker sounds loud and clear without much distortion. There’s also a vibration motor for haptics and notification which I found to be decent in performance, although it’s not particularly strong. There were a couple of times when I missed a notification because my watch strap was a bit loose, meaning that I didn’t feel much of the vibration motor on my wrist.
Now, while the display is AMOLED, Mobvoi has equipped the 3 Ultra with a dual-display system, meaning that in addition to the main screen, there’s a secondary LCD display that shows basic information like time, date, and a step counter. This screen is turned on by default, and it actually conserves battery life because the AMOLED display only shows up when you tap the watch to access the main user interface and your apps.
The display is very responsive, and swiping through the UI and different menus almost feels like swiping on a smartphone. It’s also very bright, and thanks to adaptive brightness I have no trouble viewing the display when outdoors.
I’ve also gotten good battery life on the 3 Ultra. While most Apple Watches and Wear OS devices require you to charge every night, I usually get two and a half days on the Ticwatch, and maybe even 3 days if I turn off Wi-Fi connectivity and really drain the battery down to zero. And even if the watch is low on power, you can still continue using it as the device automatically reverts to the basic LCD screen to conserve the remaining battery life.
Internal Specs
As for what’s on the inside, the Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra packs a lot of impressive hardware. The watch runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 4100 Platform, and Mobvoi’s dual Processor system. It’s also got NFC, an accelerometer, Gyro sensor, SPO2 sensor, heart rate sensor, barometer, and a compass.
If you’re after a watch with a lot of health tracking hardware, the 3 Ultra will probably be more than enough to meet your spec requirements. However, there’s no ECG monitor on the watch, which is something to consider if that’s something you specifically need.
There’s also a built-in GPS, although I noticed that it takes a while for the GPS to kick in, so I had to wait for a few moments for the system to pick up my location. By comparison, my Fitbit Versa 3 was able to lock on my GPS location a bit faster. Once it locks on though, you’re pretty much good to go.
Software, Apps, UI, & Notifications
Before I got to use the Ticwatch, I mostly had wearable devices which featured their own custom operating system, instead of Google’s own Wear OS platform. When I started using the 3 Ultra however, experiencing Wear OS for the first time was impressive. It’s got a smooth and fluid interface, and a wide selection of apps that you can install. One thing to note however, is that it’s currently at Wear OS 2.3 at the time of this review, although it is scheduled to be updated to Wear OS 3 sometime this year. By comparison, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 ships with Wear OS 3 pre-installed, although the user interface and apps selection on that device is heavily Samsung-centric.
The UI on the 3 Ultra offers customization by letting you add tiles for quick access to data, and a wide selection of watch faces that you can customize on the Wear OS app. There’s also an official Mobvoi App that you can use if you want to customize the watch even further.
There’s a wealth of apps to choose from, and being able to finally use Google staples like the Play Store and Google Pay on my watch is a big advantage when comparing the device to other smartwatches and wearables which don’t have the benefit of having a Google-centric operating system inside them.
The 3 Ultra is also pretty impressive when it comes to fitness functions. The pre-installed TicExercise app has a list of 100 exercises to choose from, although you can also use Google’s own Fit App if you’re after a little variety. All the other fitness staples like sleep tracking and heart rate monitoring, for example are here, and based on my experience with other wearable devices, I think that the sleep tracking, in particular, is pretty accurate, and it’s one of the features that I check on a regular basis.
The watch also has step-tracking, although one thing I did notice is that when I would use the Google Fit watch face, it would show a different step count compared to what’s shown on the dualscreen display or the other Mobvoi Watch Faces.
As with other wearable devices, the 3 Ultra also lets you view and interact with notifications. In general, I had no trouble with notifications, and they do appear on-time on my watch. You can either choose to view them, swipe them away, or respond by typing a message or using the microphone for voice-to-text typing. While not always accurate, I usually prefer using voice-to-text as I have a bit of trouble typing on the small display of the watch.
Overall Thoughts
Alright, so now that I’ve gone through the hardware and software features of the watch, I’d have to say that my overall experience so far with the Ticwatch has been pretty great. Yes, it is admittedly my first Wear OS device, but compared to my other wearable devices, the 3 Ultra provides an overall better experience thanks to a more powerful processor and Wear OS. The easy customization, coupled with access to a huge library of apps make this a very versatile smartwatch.
At a price of around $299, it is pretty expensive. But considering the wealth of features that you get, as well as a promised update to Wear OS 3 in the future, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra is a great investment to look into, especially if you’re after a Wear OS device that’s more Google-centric, as opposed to competing devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Watch series, which are more tailored for users looking to make the most out of Samsung’s device ecosystem.
All in all, it’s a solid device, and long-time Ticwatch fans and potential newcomers looking to try something new should definitely check this out.
