Review: Ticwatch E Android Wear 2.0 Smartwatch by Mobvoi

Thanks to hot products like the Samsung Galaxy watches, the Fitbit series and Apple’s “Watch”, smartwatches and fitness trackers have been growing strong all over, with new brands popping up here and there to challenge the market with. One of these challenging brands is Mobvoi, a company out of China and officially backed by Google. They are the maker of the Ticwatch series of Android Wear (now branded as “Wear OS”) smartwatches, with a number of models now to choose from since their initial launch in 2012.

Their entry level option is the Ticwatch E (“Express”), priced around $159.99, featuring Google Wear 2.0 that works with both Android and iOS devices. We have been testing one of these around the office for a little over a week now, puting it through various tests and scenarios to see how well it lived up to average daily use.

The body of the watch face is simple in design, featuring an all plastic make with a rubberized coating for grip. There is a single button on the left side that allows you to power it on (if it was off), manually rebooting it (if held down) and access to the installed app list. The backside of the watch features a sensor for tracking your heart rate with, as well as the contacts that the magnetic charger snaps into place over.

The watch band is a silicone elastic solution that can quite possibly be 3D printed for custom bands down the road (as you can tell that’s how they manufacture them), however the band does feature a proprietary and user-friendly sliding pin that allows you to easily swap a band on and off with. So printing your own might be a little difficult unless you are able to pull the pin mechanisms out and force them into another.

The watch face features a 1.4-inch capacitive multi-touch (if you have tiny fingers) 400×400 OLED display (287dpi). The glass is listed at “anti-scratch” via all of the documentation we’ve seen both on and offline, however Mobvoi has pointed out that the glass is also Corning Gorilla Glass 3–which makes for a good sell. The screen looks fantastic for this price range, and responds quite well to the touch. We also got our hands on a typical tempered glass screen protector solution to see how well it performs with one installed (cause you can never be too safe), and found that the watch experience did not degrade any. It only makes it that much more scratch-resistant.

Durability-wise, the band does seem to be quite durable when it comes to average wear. We couldn’t get it to scratch up much, and it due to the material, it helps to prevent the watch from sliding around too much if you prefer to wear yours slightly loose. It doesn’t come loose or anything while wearing it, and we haven’t seen any noticeable wear on the sliding pins, despite removing and replacing the band numerous times.

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Water-resistance is another thing they brag about, which is of course a must have for today’s modern smartwatches of any price category. However, we wouldn’t be too reliant on its ability to thwart water (for the sake of having to buy another watch if something goes wrong).  I only say this because although their website does claim IP67 rating (which is good), Mobvoi has expressed to customers many times online that the watch was not meant for submersion, and should only be exposed to rain, sweat and splashes–despite what the rating suggests, since IP67 generally means something can withstand as much as submersion up to 30 minutes in up to 1 meter of water. Kind of sounds like the rating should be around IP66 vs IP67.

It offers a long list of apps and features that you can download to the watch or interact with your phone with, allowing you to stream music, manage your todo list or calendar, check the weather, set alarms, turn it into a compass, browse your contacts, find your phone, talk to Google Assistant, take phone calls (yes, it does have a mic and a speaker!), view and answer text message, emails, Shazam a song, integrate with IFTTT, request an Uber, and even spend some time on Tinder. What really counts of course is the ability to send and receive phone calls from the watch itself. For us, a smartwatch feels pretty limited if you can’t do this.

All of your notifications are shared on the watch, including vibrations for your alerts. Alarms, incoming calls and more feature audio from the built-in speaker, but most of average notifications default to a vibration, which is good. It does seem to lack the ability to follow your phone’s Do Not Disturb mode when it is enabled, but it does have a manual Do Not Disturb you can set on the watch itself by sliding your finger down to access the quick links. It would just be nice to not have to take the extra step every night, or during meetings and so forth, where the phone’s Do Not Disturb is being automated (or at least has the ability to be automated).

You can of course choose from a library of watch faces to customize the display with, covering everything from analog to digital. You can also download additional collections, including the popular app “Facer“, which comes with an extensive selection of thousands of faces to choose from, including both free as well as those you have to pay for. You can even use Facer to design your own watch face from scratch.

Also See: Our review of the TicWatch Pro 2020 Edition

Fitness-wise, it is able to track your heart rate thanks to the sensor on the back, and it supports your popular fitness apps like Google Fit, as well as Mobvoi’s own self-titled app (which has mediocre reviews for now). This way you can easily keep track of your steps, distance, calories burned, heart rate and so forth using your favorite app. This is mostly thanks to the watch running on Google’s Wear OS (leading to plenty of app support).

Built-in GPS is another positive feature that the Ticwatch E has to offer, allowing you to easily use navigational apps to get you around town, despite if you are driving, walking or riding a bike. One less reason to take your phone out of your pocket. This can of course be disabled as well in case you want to save on battery life, since GPS is well known for being an energy troll.

Sleep tracking is supported as well. It doesn’t have any native apps, but you can use third party sleep tracking options to accomplish this with. However, you will more than likely not find yourself using it for this since it would never work out due to the battery life.

Battery life is one of our biggest beefs we have with the Ticwatch E (as well as a number of smartwatches). Mobvoi claims battery life is up to 48 hours. This seems to be grossly misrepresented unless you have everything disabled and the watch in airplane mode. On average, we see about a single day’s worth of use before it’s back on the charger. Load on a handful of apps like Messenger, Facer, and a few others and you will find battery life draining relatively quickly each time you start playing it. It should in most cases get you through the day, but you will be placing it on the charger before you go to bed (sometimes not even making it that far if you have a day of above your average usage). For example, I took it off the charger at 10 am–by 2:20 pm, it shows at 67% (with some average use here and there). Sadly, it seems to be pretty difficult to get good battery life out of a true smartwatch (vs a simple fitness tracker that can last for many weeks).

Price-wise, it’s always nice to find a smartwatch solution under $200. Of course, you do get what you pay for when you do choose this over some of the bigger ones. You get some limitations, lack of battery life, and access to any upgraded hardware like built-in cameras and so forth. For the $160 price tag, it isn’t a terrible watch. We do find it to be best when it falls on sale to a lower price, justifying it all the more.

What’s inside the box?

The accessories are simple. You get a USB cable with a proprietary magnetic connector at the end. You can use any wall adapter you have lying around, or for a slightly slower charge, you can use any USB port on a computer or laptop. The magnetic connector snaps into place on the backside of the watch and does seem to make the connection perfectly each time (you won’t find yourself moving it around to get it to start charging).

Beyond that, you get some instructions to walk you through the process of setting the watch up with your phone. It can all be accomplished simply by downloading Google’s “Wear OS” app (Mobvoi’s app is completely optional and allows you to use their own health/tracking apps that come loaded on the watch.

Update: We do not recommend using any 3rd party watch face apps like Facer. Especially Facer as it will kill your battery life to less than a days worth, killing the fun pretty quickly. Sticking to the Ticwatch faces will greatly boost your performance giving you a full day or more.

Update (05/2019): Mobvoi has already discontinued support for this watch, unfortunately. Although it was a good watch, it had a short run it seems, due to the fact that it uses a MediaTek processor. Mobvoi has stated that they have no plans on upgrading the OS/firmware on the watch any further because of this. For those who upgrade their phone to the latest Android OS (9.x), you may find that the watch does not function properly when it comes to alerts popping up (ie, text messages, emails, etc). Further compatibility issues may also be present. For now, it seems that the TicWatch E has met its end already. Since a $10 analog watch will last many many years, it now becomes difficult to recommend this series since it renders the below score null and void, forcing us to have to update the score due to lack of product support (previously 7.5). Less than a year since it arrived in our hands, it is already a dead gadget. 

Our Conclusion

For $159.99, the Mobvoi Ticwatch E is a pretty decent entry-level smartwatch. It does offer a number of features thanks to it running on Wear OS (previously Android Wear), and can even track your heart rate. The ability to take phone calls from the watch itself offers a lot of positive weight to their score as well. The watch face looks great, features Gorilla Glass 3, and the watch in-whole feels durable enough to last through your average amount of daily wear. The battery life is basic unfortunately, barely getting you through the day and water resistance could be better. It also doesn’t seem to follow the phone’s Do Not Disturb mode when it is running (which seems to be a long-requested feature in their forums). It isn’t the perfect watch, and we found it to be the best bargain when it goes on sale, but it does still deliver a decent list of options. If you are looking for more performance/features, then you might want to look into their other models. Maybe we’ll have the chance to cover some of them in the near future for a fun comparison.

*Average price is based on the time this article was published

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