Mobvoi TicWatch GTX

Simple Smartwatch with just the right features and a brilliant battery life – If you are after a full on smart watch with every bell and whistle on it, the TicWatch GTX is not for you. This watch does basic smart watch feature such as various fitness modes, sleep monitor, heart monitor, ability to control your music and a few alerts from apps and messages. It is also rated at IPS68. It does not have GPS or any form of monetary/banking/payment app and it does not run on Android Wear. It also retails for AU$90 and as such, this is why it offers a simpler smart watch experience. But saying that, that is exactly why I was interested in this watch. As I always have my phone with me, the need for any of those other features or apps is via my phone itself. I also have a tendency to be a bit rough with my watches, so breaking the screen on a $90 watch is going to be far less traumatic than one from Samsung etc.

After owning this watch for approximately a month now, I am quite happy with it now. Initially, I was quite frustrated with the app on the phone and its interaction with the watch itself, but these issues have now all been resolved and I can only assume it was early teething problems for this watch.

All the major settings for the watch are done on the phone via the app. This includes setting your watch face, smart alarms, tilt-to-wake, do not disturb mode, call notifications, sms alerts. App reminders/alerts, vibration sedentary reminder, screen light up up duration, 12/24 hour clock, language and temperature unit. The watch is permanently connected to your phone via Bluetooth. It has very little ram and rom,so it relies on being connected to your phone which stores all the important health and fitness data.

The watch band is easily replaceable with any 20mm and uses the quick release style of pins and whilst the band it comes with (a standard silicon sports type band) is fine, I’ve always been partial to the metal/mesh type bands as I find them a little less sweaty, so I had a new band ready to put on for when my watch arrived.

The app allows you change the style of the watch face, and as of writing, there are 23 faces you can choose from. This isn’t as many as I imagine that Samsung or Apple have for their watches, but let’s not forget the price of this watch. You can also create your own watch face using an image or photo from your phone and the app allows you to move the image around and crop it so it fits the face neatly. When you creating your own custom face, you don’t have any options for where the read outs appear, but you can choose different colours for the text/read out.

Probably the best feature about this watch is the battery life. Mobvoi claim that the watch can last up to 10 days between charges, but I got 13 days for the first time, and as of writing, I have surpassed 14 days for the second time (although, I suspect I’ll no more than 24 more hours before it needs to charge again).But in order to achieve these times between charges, I have disabled the shake to wake feature and only have the screen “on time” set to 5 seconds just so I can have quick glance at the time usually. If you are doing something on the watch, the face won’t turn off until 5 seconds after your last touch of the screen or button. This has proven to be ample time for me really. I highly suspect that the lack of Android Wear is also a huge contribution to longer battery life.

And finally, what is there about the watch that I don’t like? Without a doubt it would be the constant pairing and un-pairing with my phone (Samsung S20FE). If I’m in the lounge watching tv and decide to make a coffee in the next room, it will unpair itself every time (if I leave my phone in the lounge). Same from bedroom to bathroom. I’ve now learned to just keep my phone with me if leave one room in order to avoid this. I know it’s not the end of the world, but I suspect that it would surely have to impact on battery life. And yet at work (supermarket), I can use my watch to change music tracks from virtually anywhere in the store (I usually leave my phone on the bluetooth speaker so that it doesn’t go out of range when we are stocking before or after hours). Go figure!?!

So in conclusion, I quite like the watch and think that the features it has for the price are actually really good. As mentioned earlier, If you want fancier features, then you need a fancier watch and this will obviously be reflected in the price and battery performance. I know you can pick it online in Australia for $90, but I was able to get my mine as a pre-order (and apply a Honey voucher at the time) for $72. I have no reason to doubt the online price from Mobvoi of US$59.99 would be your cheaper option.