Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 vs TicWatch Pro 5

If you’ve taken a look at our best Android smartwatch guide you’ll know that the Galaxy Watch 6 and TicWatch Pro 5 are two of our top picks.

But while both run Wear OS, that’s about where the similarities end. And they will appeal to two different sets of people.

Read on to find out which is the best smartwatch for you.

Full test: TicWatch Pro 5 review
In-depth: Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 review

Price 

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 comes in at $429/£319 for the 44mm and $299/£289 for the 40mm version. 

The TicWatch Pro 5 lands for $399/£329, so is competitively priced, especially given its superior spec sheet and battery life.

Check out the latest live prices below:

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Design, screen and OS

Wareable

The Galaxy Watch 6 and TicWatch Pro 5 are both round-faced smartwatches, so there’s not too much to pick between them.

But if you look a little closer, there’s a lot of difference.

The Galaxy Watch 6 is blessed with clean lines, a reduced bezel (30% less than the Watch 5), and a very bright AMOLED display.

You get a 1.5-inch 480x480 AMOLED display on the 44mm version and a 1.3-inch display on the 40mm offering.

It comes in 40mm and 44mm sizes, and there's the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic if you prefer a more old-school style, that's available in 43mm and 47mm sizes.

Wareable

The TicWatch Pro 5 has a protruding bezel and looks more like a classic watch, with a pronounced crown. It actually looks far closer to the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic in terms of design.

The Pro 5 comes with a 50mm case size, larger than the Watch 6 Classic, and bigger than the standard Galaxy Watch 6 pair.

It has a 1.43-inch AMOLED screen with a 466x466 display – so it’s pretty even here.

However, the TicWatch Pro 5 has a trick up its sleeve.

It packs a secondary, low-res ultra-low power display, which is laid over the top of the main AMOLED one.

That can be used for basic functions, such as telling the time or checking in on basic activity stats, so you don’t have to wake up the AMOLED. This saves power and contributes to a very impressive battery life as we'll come on to.

Wareable

The TicWatch Pro 5 doesn’t look as sleek as the Galaxy Watch 6, and it’s a big smartwatch at 50mm.

The low power screen inevitably takes a little of the sheen off, so in terms of design, it’s Samsung all the way.

We should also mention that the Galaxy Watch 6 runs on Wear OS 4, while the TicWatch Pro 5 uses Wear OS 3. So Samsung is a generation ahead. Given the pantomime of Mobvoi updating its older smartwatches to Wear OS 3, don’t expect an update.

Battery life

Wareable

Under-the-hood Mobvoi has added a huge 628mAh battery, which goes a long way to explain the 50mm case size.

The upshot is a whopping 80 hours of battery life, and our testing found it to last over three days – and even to around four.

It means only the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro can compete with it for staying power.

This is also thanks to the fact that the TicWatch Pro 5 runs on the all-new Snapdragon W5+ platform, which promised huge power saving and performance benefits and seems to have delivered.

It’s superior to the Exynos 930 processor of the Galaxy Watch 6, which is a marginally overclocked version of last year’s Exynos 920. So while it’s a little faster, is nowhere near as power efficient.

Wareable

The opposite is true for the Galaxy Watch 6. With the always-on display enabled we found that Samsung’s estimate of 30 hours was generally correct, but given an hour of GPS-tracked running can deplete the battery by 20%, you can still suffer battery anxiety.

Health tracking

Wareable

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 excels in terms of health features, with ECG and blood pressure spot checks.

Sleep tracking, which was improved in Wear OS 4, is excellent,  both in terms of tracked sleep and analysis. And there’s sleep coaching on board too, once it's learned about your behavior from registering 15 nights of sleep tracking.

And Wear OS 4 brings new heart rate zone training modes, which are complemented by strong HR accuracy.

The TicWatch doesn’t enjoy advanced health features such as ECG or blood pressure, so it’s immediately on the back foot compared to Samsung.

But there are an absolute ton of new health and tracking features included on the Pro 5.

Mobvoi has added recovery time estimates, VO2 Max predictions, Multi-GNSS, a compass, and a barometer.

Wareable

A new 'One-tap measurement' app takes a snapshot of heart rate, respiratory rate, stress levels, and blood oxygen, and sleep tracking adds skin temperature amongst a host of reported data.

All of these are tracked through a mindblowing number of proprietary apps. That means navigating apps such as TicBarometer, TicBreathe, TicCare, TicCompass, TicHealth, TicOxygen, TicPulse, TicSleep, and TicZen – which is a little overwhelming.

In short, both offer a strong suite of fitness and wellness services. Samsung does edge things with blood pressure and ECG – and Samsung Heath delivers superior sleep tracking and a more cohesive activity tracking experience.

Verdict

Wareable

This is a tough call, as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 offers great sleep and health tracking, Wear OS 4, and a sleeker, smaller, and more wearable design.

The TicWatch Pro 5 has a battery life in its favor – and loads of it. It’s no health-tracking slouch either, but it’s not as refined as Samsung’s offering and there’s no ECG.

We’d say that battery life and the new Snapdragon W5+ platform just edge our recommendation if you can live with a 50mm smartwatch. If not, pick up a Galaxy Watch 6 with our blessing.

Galaxy Watch 6 vs TicWatch Pro 5 specs