Mobvoi has unveiled its 2021 smartwatch – the TicWatch Pro S – which scales back on specs and price.
The TicWatch series has been a Wear OS ever-present, and last year saw the launch of the premium TicWatch Pro 3. It brought the newest Snapdragon 4100 in a 47mm case – all for a top-end price of .
The TicWatch Pro S shrinks slightly, from 47mm down to 45mm, and the screen also downsizes marginally to 1.39-inch AMOLED 400 x 400. That still makes it a seriously chunky smartwatch, and we don't feel the TicWatch S is remarkably more unisex or manageable than any previous version.
You still get the secondary FSTN low res display that kicks in when the AMOLED is turned on, which offers always-on features with a big battery life saving.
And that means the TicWatch Pro S can offer two days with full smart features. There are also other power-saving modes that can extend battery life up to 5 days – and you can use Essential Mode for 30 days, with the low-res screen and basic fitness tracking smarts.
Storage has been boosted to 8GB, which is now standard for Wear OS smartwatches.
The price is also slightly lower, and the TicWatch Pro S costs , making it cheaper than the Pro 3.
But there are more troubling downgrades. The first thing to stand out is the use of the Snapdragon 2100, which is two generations behind the Pro 3. This seems a particularly odd choice, especially given it packs a significant price tag.
Mobvoi has also made some upgrades to built-in apps, with TicExercise 3.0 and TicSleep 2.0 offering more data with the launch of VO2 Max, deeper sleep stats and the ability to track sleep while placed in the Essential power saving mode (which offers 30 days battery).
So what we have is a marginally smaller (although not enough to make a real difference), slightly cheaper, but significantly less powerful smartwatch. We await our review, but it a device that struggles to significantly compromise.
The TicWatch Pro S is available now.
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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.