We reported on the rumor of a Ticwatch E3 smartwatch being in the works back in April, and now details have leaked days before launch.
An Instagram video has shown off details of the device, which looks to be a pretty powerful addition to the Wear OS line-up. See a screenshot below.
The video reveals that the Ticwatch E3 runs a Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor, the most powerful and latest version of the chipset designed for Wear OS smartwatches. That makes it only the second 4100 device, following the Ticwatch Pro 3.
Elsewhere, there’s a 2.5D AMOLED display, which looks pretty much unchanged.
And it seems the device will get 20+ workout modes, SpO2 sensor for blood oxygen reading, stress monitoring and VO2 Max detection.
The key question is whether the Ticwatch E3 will run the new Wear OS. Objectively, it’s a terrible time to launch a Wear OS device, given the uncertainty that Google has created for its partners by announcing the unified OS with Samsung – and nothing more.
We’ve seen Fossil move to rule out launching the new Wear OS (Wear OS 3.0?) for any of its legacy devices. Mobvoi appeared to confirm that the Ticwatch Pro 3 would be upgraded, but has now rowed back on that commitment. Hopefully these questions will be answered at launch.
For our money, it seems to come down to the hardware. It’s logical that older Snapdragon Wear chipsets may not be capable of running the revamped Wear OS, but we’re assuming that Snapdragon Wear 4100 will be powerful enough.
It doesn’t seem like we’ll have long to wait.
How we test
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.