Ticwatch Pro 3 Ultra Review Reddit 2023

Smartwatches these days have turned into something more than just styling accessories. They might not be that useful on their own, but pair them up with a smartphone and they are transformed into something more powerful and productive. From tracking your workouts and sports activities to monitoring your heart rate, a smartwatch can do all that and much more. In addition to that you can view your notifications, listen to music.

Some watches also let you make a call from the watch itself. In this article, we will be reviewing one such promising smartwatch, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra. So, if you are planning on buying it or you are interested, then keep reading as well be reviewing the watch to see whether it’s worth your money. Without wasting any time, let’s just jump straight in.

TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra Review

TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra Specs

• Operating System: Wear OS by Google™
• Dimensions : 45mm x 12.6mm
• Display:1.39” AMOLED 400 x 400 + FSTN display
• Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 2100
• Memory : RAM: 1GB / Storage: 4GB
• GPS : GPS + GLONASS + Beidou + Galileo
• Connectivity : Bluetooth: 4.2 / Wi-Fi: 802.11bgn 2.4GHz
• NFC payments: Google Pay ™
• Water and Dust Resistance: IP68
• Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro, Magnetic Sensor, PPG Heart Rate Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Low Latency Off-Body Sensor
• Battery and Charging: Capacity：415mAH
• Charging method: Dock with a USB cable

TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra Highlights

• Two screens: TicWatch Pro comes with a Layered Display Technology. It comes with two different screens. The first one is a high-resolution AMOLED screen. The display is a power-saving FSTN LCD screen. The power-saving FSTN LCD screen gives you extra control over extending battery life. Doing that you can scratch the watch to last up to 30 days on a single charge.
• Two modes: TicWatch Pro has two different modes you can choose from. The first mode is the Smart Mode and the second one is the Essential Mode. You can easily switch between the modes. Switching between them lets you adapt the watch to your needs and optimize your battery usage. The smart mode gives you more controls whereas in the Essential Mode you only get the essential features that you require. You can also enable the feature that will Automatically Switch into Essential Mode when the battery is low. This gives you some additional battery life out of the watch.
• Up to 30 days battery life: The TicWatch Pro has very great battery life. With a minimum of 2 days, it can go up to 30 days on a single charge. But there’s a catch. There are two different modes in the TicWatch Pro, the Smart Mode, and the Essential Mode. Turning on the Smart Mode will give you up to 2 days of battery life whereas turning on Essential Mode will get you 30 days of battery life. You can also enable auto-switching to Essential Mode on a low battery, which will give you up to 5 days of battery life. When outdoors with GPS tracking running the entire time, you can get 10 hours of battery life before recharging. Along with the two functioning modes, the Layered Display technology also helps in giving a better battery life.
• Pay with your watch: The TicWatch Pro lets you make payments from the watch itself. You will no longer require to swipe or insert your card nor do you have to go through the hassles of entering your PIN. The TicWatch Pro has Google Pay built into. So you can just point it to make the payment on the go without your card or anything else.
• Google Play apps: TicWatch Pro comes with the Google Play Store out of the box. This means you can now use all your favorite android apps on your smartwatch itself. From all Google Play APPs to third-party apps like Spotify, you can download all these and many more apps from the play store to your watch.
• Health and Fitness: TicWatch Pro is a smartwatch after all and hence it shouldn’t be a surprise that it is packed with all types of sensors that you can use to measure different data and vitals. The built-in GPS lets you track your jogs and also map your jogging route more accurately. The Steps and calories counter to measure the steps you walked and the calories you burn while doing so. Hence you can trace and hit the fitness goals that you have set. The Heart rate monitor measures your pulse and lets you know about your heart’s health. Different fitness apps like Google Fit, Strava, Runkeeper, etc can use these data to accurately measure your fitness data and help you remain healthy.
• Award-winning design: The TicWatch Pro got 2018 iF Design Award which is an indicator of how good and well thought the design is. It has a carbon-fiber body that is reinforced with high strength nylon and it covers the stainless steel bezel. The straps are made from Italian leather on the outward side and skin-friendly silicone layer on the inward side. The Hybrid leather straps are sweat-resistant breathable which makes them more comfortable to wear. It is Waterproof and comes with IP68 water & dustproof rating. The TicWatch Pro has both good-looking and functional design which is why it was 2018 iF Design Award winner.
• Google Assistant built-in: The TicWatch Pro also has Google Assistant built into it. This brings all of the powerful features of the assistant on your watch. You can use your voice to interact with the assistant and get a lot of tasks done for you. The optimized speech recognition AI from Google can easily recognize most types of accents. So, from sending a text message (on Android only), to making a call (on Android only) to checking for directions, Google Assistant will let you do all these using just your voice.
• Thousands of Watch Faces: A good looking watch can really compliment your whole look and make it even better. The TicWatch Pro with around thousands of watch faces lets you do just that. There are a thousand different watch faces you can choose from to customize the look of your watch. So, depending on your mood and style, you can customize the watch by changing the watch face and give it a unique look with hundreds of watch faces made exclusively for the TicWatch.

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Design

Ticwatch Pro has a somewhat more premium design as compared to the other Ticwatch models, like the Ticwatch E and Ticwatch S. If you go by Mobvoi’s claims, then the Ticwatch Pro is constructed from premium materials. It is made from stainless steel and has a carbon fiber body that is reinforced with high strength nylon. Together, these two give a premium look and feel to the watch. As an added bonus, they also provide a solid build quality to the TicWatch Pro. Even though the Watch looks great, there’s one thing that bothers me the most. And that is the heaviness of the watch. I mean it isn’t that big but for something that I am supposed to wear on my wrist throughout the day, it could have been a bit lighter.

To begin with, the Ticwatch Pro weighs around 58g without its silicone and leather strap. On the other hand, with the silicone and leather strap the Ticwatch Pro weighs around 78g. I feel this is a bit heavy for a smartwatch. To put it in perspective, the Ticwatch E weighs around 42g. That is a noticeable difference. Now while not many will be bothered by this, but someone whose primary goal is to use it while doing some high activity or some whose wrists are smaller will find it a bit odd. But it still won’t be a deal breaker. To make things a little better, the silicone and leather straps along with the stainless steel casing make it somewhat comfortable to wear.

In terms of hardware buttons, the TicWatch Pro comes with two physical buttons. Both these buttons are located on the right side of the watch. They are positioned adjacent to the 2 o’clock and the 4 o’clock positions on the watch face respectively. As far as the looks go, both these buttons are identical and are of the size. They also give the same tactile click when pressed which felt good and easy. Functionality wise, the top button doubles up as a menu button as well as a back button. You can press it to open the main menu of the watch which will display you the available apps. It can also be used as a back button, which means that you can exit from different apps by pressing it.

By default, the button on the bottom is a dedicated shortcut to Mobvoi’s Fitness app. However, you have the option of changing it to open any other app you want. Consider it as a shortcut button for your favorite or most-used app. This enables you to quickly launch an app when you want. This would ideally be an app that you use frequently so that it is just the press of a button away from being launched. The touch screen lets you interact with the watch as you want. There’s no rotating bezel like the one you find in other smartwatches. So, the touchscreen is your main way of interacting with the screen. Both the buttons also help up to some extent in this regard.

Coming to the straps, there are eight different types of straps to choose from. You can either buy a brown leather strap or silicone straps in either orange or black. Other than these two there are five more straps you can choose. These five straps are a combination of these two materials. The watch supports a 20mm watch strap as well. However, you are not limited to the straps Mobvoi has and can buy straps from other brands as well if you that’s what you like. Just like the Ticwatch S, the bezels around the edge of the Ticwatch Pro watch face have the seconds numbers marked on them. It also has a five-minute interval marked alongside. The bezel around is quite thick but it still looks good. On the bottom of the watch, there are four pins that are used for charging the Ticwatch Pro. It comes with a magnetic dock on which you place the watch. So charging the watch is very simple and easy and you don’t have to remove the straps for charging it. The Ticwatch Pro has an IP68 waterproof rating. So wearing it while showering or jogging under a slight drizzle won’t be a problem. The waterproof rating means it won’t be damaged. However, Mobvoi still doesn’t recommend wearing it while swimming. If that’s what you were planning to do, then that’s a bummer. But otherwise, it’s pretty solid.

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Screen

TicWatch Pro comes with a Layered Display Technology. It comes with two different screens. The first one is a high-resolution 1.39in, 400 x 400 AMOLED screen. The second display is a power saving FSTN LCD screen. The power saving FSTN LCD screen gives you extra control over extending battery life. Doing that you can scratch the watch to last up to 30 days on a single charge. The power saving FSTN LCD screen is placed in front of the AMOLED screen.

The working principle of these two watches is very simple actually. So how it works is that by default the bright and colorful AMOLED display is used. But when you’re not using it and the watch has been inactive for sometime the screens will be switched and the power saving FSTN LCD screen will get activated and will be displayed. This will show you just a few basic but essential things, the ones you would wanna take a look at, regularly. Like the date and time and also your step count. If you wanna go back to using the other display, you either just tap the screen or press either of the buttons. Doing so would switch the screens and activate the AMOLED display. You can then see more information and also launch any app you want.

The dual-screen system is a great mechanism, to be honest. The AMOLED display shows you everything you want and uses all the apps. But, the AMOLED display does use up more battery. The FSTN LCD is a power saving display. It may show you less information compared to the other display, but it sure is a lot more battery efficient than the AMOLED one. Combining these two screens along with the dual modes available will give you much better battery life. In fact, Mobvoi claims that the watch can last up to 30 days on a single charge. However, that isn’t exactly the case and there are a few catches.

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Battery Life

As I said above, Mobvoi claims that the watch can last up to 30 days on a single charge. I also mentioned how that wasn’t exactly the case and that there were a few catches. Well let’s find that out. The TicWatch Pro has impressive battery life. With a minimum of 2 days battery, it can theoretically go up to 30 days on a single charge. But that always isn’t the case and the reality is a bit different.

There are two different modes in the TicWatch Pro, the Smart Mode, and the Essential Mode. Using the Essential Mode is how you are supposed to get 30 days of battery life. In the Essential Mode you only get to see a few basic but essential things, the ones you would wanna take a look at, regularly. Like the date and time and also your step count. This will definitely give you a great battery life but I am not sure anyone would want to use the Essential mode all the time, unless they really need to stretch the battery life. The Smart Mode on the other hand is more functional and will display a lot of other useful information. It will also give you complete functionality and will let you launch apps as well. But, it will use up a lot of battery.

So, the ideal use case in daily life would be to use a combo of both. You can easily switch between the modes. Switching between them lets you adapt the watch to your needs and optimize your battery usage. The smart mode gives you more controls whereas in the Essential Mode you only get the essential features that you really require. You can also enable the feature that will Automatically Switch into Essential Mode when the battery is low. The dual display also switches between the two modes. So when you’re not using the watch and it has been inactive for sometime the screens will be switched and the power saving FSTN LCD screen will get activated and will be displayed. This activates the essential mode which will show you just a few basic but essential things, the ones you would wanna take a look at, regularly. Like the date and time and also your step count. Tapping the screen or pressing either of the buttons will switch back to the AMOLED display which activates the smart mode. This way. they will give you the max battery life.

In terms of battery life, using just the Smart Mode will give you up to 2 days of battery life whereas using only the Essential Mode will get you up to 30 days of battery life. But the more obvious thing to do would be to use the Smart Mode regularly and switch to the essential mode when the battery is low. With the Ticwatch Pro, you can do that automatically. All you need to do is enable the auto-switching to Essential Mode on low battery and you are well set. So, when the battery is low, the watch will automatically switch to the essential mode and save some battery. This should give you an additional 3 days of battery life.

So, here’s how long the Ticwatch Pro will last in day to day usage. Using the Smart Mode should give you up to 2 days of runtime before the battery gets low. At that point, it will switch to the Essential mode which will give around 3 days of additional battery life. Adding both these, and you will get 5 days of battery life at normal usage. When outdoors with GPS tracking running the entire time, you can get 10 hours of battery life before recharging. Even though it isn’t to the 30-day battery life, the 5 days battery life is still very impressive for the Ticwatch Pro smartwatch.

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Operating Modes

TicWatch Pro has two different modes you can choose from. The first mode is the Smart Mode and the second one is the Essential Mode. You can easily switch between the modes. Switching between them lets you adapt the watch to your needs and optimize your battery usage. The smart mode gives you more controls whereas in the Essential Mode you only get the essential features that you really require. You can also enable the feature that will Automatically Switch into Essential Mode when the battery is low. This gives you some additional battery life out of the watch.

• Smart Mode: This is the default mode of the TicWatch Pro. The vivid and colorful AMOLED display is used while this mode is activated. This mode is a fully functional mode which means that you can use all the apps and features. So, you can download apps from the play store and use them. You can also make payments using the NFC chip. You can also use the Google Assistant to do different tasks and get directions using the built-in GPS. Basically, this mode lets you use the full functionality of the Smartwatch, as it was intended to. However, it takes up a lot of battery and will give you up to 2 days of battery life. Using the Essential mode will give 5 days on a single charge.
• Essential Mode: In the Essential Mode you only get to see a few basic but essential things, the ones you would wanna take a look at, regularly. Like the date and time and also your step count. So, you can peek at the time, date, steps taken and your heart rate at a glance in this mode. This mode uses the power saving FSTN LCD screen. This is a high contrast LCD display. This display has high sunlight readability. This means that the brighter it is on the outside, the easier it is to view your “information on the high contrast Film compensated Super Twisted Nematic (FSTN) LCD display.” This mode is also the Ultra power saving mode and gives an extended battery life of up to 30 days on a single charge.

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Apps and Features

TicWatch Pro runs on WearOS, which is the Android version for smartwatches. So, there won’t be much difference in terms of the software experience as compared to any other Wear OS device. The TicWatch Pro 2023 comes with the Wear OS version “H” out of the box. It is updated up to the November 2019 security patches. Everything from the User Interface and basic features will be the same. The only difference would be the hardware and a few exclusive Mobvoi Apps. So, other than the normal WearOS apps there are a few exclusive Mobvoi-developed apps that come pre-installed with the watch. While they most probably won’t match the performance of the Google Apps, the ability to take advantage of the dual screens gives them an advantage. This is something the Google Apps can’t do. If you are completely stuck to the Google Ecosystem, then this is something you are gonna miss out on. But these are added benefits, so you will get the same features as any other watch but will not be able to use them with the dual screens. Anyways, once the Watch has been inactive for some time, the power saving FSTN LCD screen is activated. It will display a few details regarding your workout or activity like the time, steps taken, and heart rate, etc.

In terms of the sensors, the Ticwatch Pro was at par with most smartwatches. The heart-rate sensor worked as expected and the readings you get are accurate as you would expect. The built-in GPS was also impressive also impressive and there weren’t any complaints while using it. It didn’t seem that you were missing the built-in antenna that the Ticwatch Sport comes with. The other great thing about the watch is the Google Assistant it comes with. This opens up a lot of possibilities and also makes the watch easy to use. You can use the Google Assistant With your voice and complete a lot of tasks. From reading messages to sending them, navigating using the Google Maps, controlling music playback, checking calendar entries, etc. You can do all these with the Google Assistant. And you don’t even have to take out your phone from your pocket for this. Nor do you have to press any button.

The Ticwatch Pro also has a built-in NFC chip, which supports contactless payments. While this isn’t something new, and most smartwatches have it, there’s one thing that makes it more useful. That thing is WearOS. Because the Ticwatch Pro runs on WearOS it means that it supports Google Pay. Where it leaves other fitness smartwatches behind is that while those watches do support contactless payments via NFC, they are very limited. Google Pay on the other hand supports a lot of services which gives it a clear advantage.

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Performance

This is something that could have been improved, a lot. The only thing that saved it is the fact that it comes with 1 GB RAM, which is twice its predecessor. The Ticwatch Pro is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip. as compared to the Mediatek MT2601 processor which powers the Ticwatch E and Ticwatch S smartwatches. At first this might sound like an upgrade, but it isn’t. In fact, the Snapdragon Wear 2100 is a 2-year old chip and it really is a surprise that Ticwatch didn’t opt for the newer Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip given how they call it a “Premium Smartwatch.” The lack of a more powerful processor can be seen while using it but it isn’t that noticeable. The watch took a long time to install any new apps and it did get a bit laggy while doing some resource-heavy task. Other than that it performed fine. There wasn’t much noticeable lag. Navigating through the menu and launching different apps was quick and the animations were also smooth.

The void of not having a more powerful processor was somewhat filled by the extra RAM. The TicWatch Pro 2023 has 1GB of RAM and it is a very important spec because it comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chip. In fact, for smartwatches, especially Wear OS, the amount of RAM plays a more important role than the processor it comes with. Sure, the processor is important, but having more RAM will make up for a mediocre or less powerful processor. And this is the case with the Ticwatch Pro. Going to 1 GB RAM from 512 MB RAM on the predecessor has a big impact on the performance. The extra RAM ensured that there were no lags, the apps launched fast and everything felt smooth. So, I feel that Ticwatch Pro somewhat made up for not using the newer Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip by doubling the RAM.

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TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra Review Verdict

The Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro is one of the most impressive smartwatches available currently. It is feature-packed, looks great, and has a great dual-screen setup. It could have done a bit better in terms of the processor, but the 1 GB RAM makes up for it. It runs on Wear OS which means you get all those features as well. Overall, it is a great smartwatch. It might be a little on the pricier side considering it is just a smartwatch, but it is worth it. So, if you were thinking of buying a smartwatch, the Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro is a very good option.

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Last update on 2023-03-21 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API