About the TicWatch Pro 5
- Dimensions: 50.1 x 48.0 x 12.2mm
- Weight: 44.3g
- Display: 1.43-inch 466 x 466 60Hz OLED + low-power LCD
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 2.4GHz
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyro Sensor, HD PPG Heart Rate Sensor, SpO2 Sensor, Skin Temperature Sensor, Low Latency Off-Body Sensor, Barometer, Compass
- Water Resistance: 5ATM
The TicWatch Pro 5 is available in two colors—Obsidian and Sandstone. There’s no option for cellular connectivity. Considering how many smartwatch owners love leaving their phones behind to take calls on their wearable, it feels like a missed opportunity.
What we like
Credit:
Reviewed / Christian de Looper
The Ticwatch Pro 5 feels well made, with clicky buttons and a tough body.
Good-looking design and dual-layer screen
The TicWatch Pro 5 may not be as slim as the Pixel Watch or as iconic as an Apple Watch, but it’s still a good-looking device. It has a round face with a 1.43-inch OLED display and a relatively slim bezel around that display. It’s a little thick, at 12.2mm. I suspect those with smaller wrists might find it a little chunky. To my eye, it’s slimmer than devices like the Apple Watch Ultra or the Garmin Fenix 7S Pro.
On the right side of the device, you’ll find the crown and a secondary button, all of which feel clicky and easy to press. The watch accepts standard 24mm bands that can be removed and replaced with ease—so you can easily add a splash of color to your watch if you want.
The Pro 5 also benefits from Mobvoi’s dual-layer screen, which is built to save on battery life. Essentially, the watch has a low-power always-on LCD screen that shows the time, date, battery level, whether you have notifications and more. When you interact with the rest of the watch’s functions, you’ll be greeted with a bright OLED panel that looks great, even in bright sunlight. Thanks to the Pro 5’s built-in accelerometer, the OLED panel activates when the device senses that you’ve lifted and turned your wrist to view the display.
So how much does the dual-layer screen actually impact battery? It’s hard to tell, but I will say that the battery life on this device is better than much of the competition, when it comes to full-on smartwatches. In fact, I was able to get three days of use out of the Pro 5 before charging it, which is quite impressive. The likes of the Pixel Watch and Apple Watch Series 8 can’t come close to that. That said, many Garmin wearables easily match or surpass this, and the Apple Watch Ultra, when in low power mode, can squeeze out 72 hours of operation before it needs to be recharged.
Speedy performance
The Pro 5 features Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chipset, which handles day-to-day tasks with ease. I found it easy to control Google Home devices, quickly check the weather, and so on. The wearable never really skipped a beat while I swiped around its interface and, even when initiating workouts, it was able to hold its own quite easily. The only time I really found myself waiting for the device was when starting an outdoor workout that required GPS lock, however, that has little to do with the processing power. GPS acquisition was, unfortunately, an issue during most workouts, taking upwards of 30 seconds before negotiating a satellite lock.
Great fitness tracking
Health and fitness on the TicWatch Pro 5 is managed through the new Mobvoi Health app. The app is relatively simple and easy to navigate, showing statistics for your workouts and health metrics. You’ll get information about exercise, sleep, heart rate, stress, and more.
On the watch itself, you’ll initiate a workout by heading to the TicExercise app, and there are tons of workouts to scroll through—over 100, in fact. You’ll get all the obvious ones, like walking, running, and hiking, along with some much more niche activities—like standing on one leg, for example.
Sleep tracking is also relatively well-designed, with features you would expect, such as the ability to see how long you’ve spent in each sleep stage as well as track your respiratory rate and heart rate.
Generally, the TicWatch Pro 5 works great as a fitness tracker, and that helps make for a versatile smartwatch experience overall. You can sync that data with Google Fit and Strava too, which is helpful for those who like to keep all their health information in one place.
Relatively intuitive interface
Credit:
Reviewed / Christian de Looper
The Tickwatch Pro 5’s interface is a little busy, but it does keep all of the health and personal data you could ever want, on display.
The TicWatch Pro 5 gets Wear OS 3.5, making it, at the time that this review was written, one of the few devices, along with the Pixel Watch, to run the latest version of Google’s wearable operating system.
On the TicWatch Pro 5, I found the OS relatively easy to use. Hold down on the watch face to scroll through and select a new watch face, and you’ll press the crown to open up the app drawer and return to the main screen. Double-pressing either of the watch’s buttons will open up Google Wallet, allowing you to use tap-to-pay.
You can also swipe around from the watch face to access different features, such as weather, activity, heart rate, and so on. Swiping down from the top of the display will show quick settings. And, swiping up from the bottom will bring you to your notifications. The watch’s functionality can be tweaked using your connected smartphone.
What we don’t like
Credit:
Reviewed / Christian de Looper
We found that the Ticwatch Pro 5’s heart rate monitoring was on par with an Apple Watch.
Updates are a mystery
Mobvoi has not announced if and when the TicWatch Pro 5 will get future software updates. Hopefully, the company will keep it up to date.
No Google Assistant
Google Assistant is integral to the Android—and Google—experience, but it’s absent here. It makes the device instantly less powerful for controlling things like smart home devices, and for finding information out from the web than many of its competitors. It’s unclear why Assistant isn’t available here, but it’s a huge miss from Mobvoi to not include it. When asked, the company said that it was “working with Google” on Assistant support, however, there’s no indication of timing. Customers should buy the watch under the assumption that it’ll never be added.
Should you buy the TicWatch Pro 5?
Yes, if you don’t use Google Assistant
The TicWatch Pro 5 is about as good of an Android-based smartwatch as you’ll find, today. The device performs excellently, offers good fitness and sleep-tracking features, and adds some neat features like the dual-layer display.
But in buying it, you have to accept a few flaws. I don’t find the device to be quite as stylish as some of the competition, plus the lack of Google Assistant support means that it’s not quite as helpful for those deep in Google’s ecosystem. But if you can accept those issues, you’ll be happy with the TicWatch Pro 5.
Meet the tester
Originally from Australia, Christian has long had a passion for gadgets and consumer electronics. Christian has experience reviewing products in all areas of the consumer tech world, and is dedicated to helping people find the best products for their lifestyle.
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