Drawlines Misfits: Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 GPS

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I never got a digital watch before. I was always interested in the devices though. I liked the idea of them but I can already tell by watching YouTube videos that they are not being used to their fullest potential. There really is no need for them other than for businesses to make money off lazy people. So… I joined the lazy people, lol!!

I have to admit though. On the plus side, it does help shift your spending money from paper to digital credit / debit cards. It kinda helps you medically which is what I meant by “not being used to its fullest potential” the readings on these devices are not perfect. The software on these devices is not up to par with the years of software the cellphones were installed with (cellphone!!! who uses that word anymore!!)

Medically, these digital watches can be used to document your heart beats or medical condition and wifi directly to that “MyCart app” or any hospital app your doctor’s offices or hospitals are in. I wouldn’t be surprised with the hard drive space we have so far on these watches that no one has thought of adding an app that saves / transfers medical documents from your watch to your doctors. Easy wat to transport from one doctor to another and you, the owner of your medical private files can give authorization on the spot.

Why isn’t there an SOS app for the watch? It sends GPS coordinates to as many family members as you want and to a nearby police station with a phone number to your phone and family members in case of an emergency. Is that something already done? Let me know.

Anyways, let me introduce you guys to the TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, for short I’ll just keep it as TicWatch 3. It’s a beautiful clean 2 button watch. For anyone that knows me, I’m into clean and simple but complicated on the inside. This watch does that. It’s thinner than most enough to play as a regular simple-looking watch but it comes with the latest hardware to guaranty the longevity of the device. for me.

Mobvoi did a fantastic job of recreating this device to lock in the capabilities of the Snapdragon Wear 4100 series. Though I would of liked them to take advantage of the Snapdragon 4100+ . But are they really using the full potential of the Snapdragon Wear 4100? I’m just asking cause I feel like you can do more, I just haven’t seen it yet. Though I have to admit the previous versions of this watch, when I saw them in stores are heavier than the TicWatch 3 but somehow they were able to get a bigger battery in there. I’m not mad at that at all!! They were right about it in the ads this watch does last for a full 3 days. People say it’s still a large watch but I think it’s the right size. Though I am interested in what would happen if the Snapdragon 4100+ was in this watch! That hardware actually sounds like it was made for this watch. It features the Always-On Ultra-Low Power dedicated chip on top of the 4100 SoC. This watch never turns off in a way, its a perfect fit… what happened, why didn’t they add the +?

Design and hardware

By the looks of this watch compared to the older models they all have a combination of metal and plastic forming the outer casing which is nice. The buttons are more spread apart and the screen is a tiny bit larger. Unlike previous TicWatch Pro models, the TicWatch Pro 3 is not MIL-STD-810G certified. Mobvoi isn’t using Gorilla Glass too, though it says it has “high strength cover glass with anti-fingerprint coating.” which I can say is true so far. I like the look, its not the same as competing watches from Samsung and Apple.

Mobvoi has made some welcome tweaks to the design, You’re still getting a stainless steel and plastic sandwich, but the bezel is thinner and doesn’t stretch out at the top and bottom. The two buttons on the right side are also spaced further apart, and the display is a fraction larger. My brother’s has a Samsung watch that has physical input besides the buttons, a rotating bezel or crown would have been nice to have that too. I actually like that as a second scroller. While still a large watch, it’s nowhere near as chunky as previous iterations. The TicWatch 3 is 0.4mm thinner than its direct predecessor and 28% lighter. You can certainly feel the latter, which is extra impressive when you consider that the TicWatch 3 has a significantly larger battery than the TicWatch Pro 2020 or its LTE counterpart. Despite this newfound lightness, it’s still a big watch. It is larger than the Galaxy Watch 3, for example, and if you’ve got small wrists you might want to look elsewhere.

All of these changes lead to a watch that’s more comfortable, but also easier to interact with. Unfortunately, this comes at the cost of durability. Unlike previous TicWatch Pro models, the TicWatch Pro 3 is not MIL-STD-810G certified. Mobvoi isn’t using Gorilla Glass this time around either, though it says it has “high strength cover glass with anti-fingerprint coating.”

The TicWatch Pro’s defining feature is its dual-display. It pairs a 1.4-inch AMOLED panel with a transparent Film Compensated Super Twisted Nematic (FSTN) LCD display. The 454 x 454 resolution panel is crisp, clear, and bright enough for use in sunlight. Mobvoi has a solid track record for smartwatch displays. The secondary transparent display activates to save power while the watch is idle, at low battery, or permanently via the watch’s Essential Mode. You don’t get any smarts from this secondary display, only the basics such as the time, date, and a step counter. This was previously a necessary feature on the TicWatch Pro line to fix the questionable battery life. However, as we’ll see shortly, that’s not a concern this time around. Nevertheless, it’s a nice option to have if you want to save some juice by not using the always-on display.

At launch, you can only get the watch in Shadow Black, and it comes with a 22mm silicone strap with orange stitching, though this is interchangeable due to the universal design. The strap looks more premium than previous TicWatch bands, but I bought a stainless steel black band.

Watch Specs

The biggest change to the new TicWatch is what’s inside. Most notably, the TicWatch 3 is the first watch on the market to utilize the much-hyped Snapdragon Wear 4100 series. Mobvoi skipped the Snapdragon Wear 3100 for its second-generation TicWatch Pro 2020 and TicWatch Pro LTE variants, but the latest model is taking a giant leap from the Wear 2100 (a processor first unveiled some four years ago).

The Wear 4100’s quad-core CPU boasts a 1.7GHz clock speed which is claimed to boost performance by 85% compared to the Wear 3100. In addition, there are also big improvements to the GPU — reportedly 2.5x faster — and increased power efficiency resulting from the shift to a 12nm process, as well as additional optimizations.

While Google’s own tweaks to the platform have helped narrow the performance gulf between Wear OS wearables like the TicWatch series and Samsung, Apple, and even Fitbit’s watches, there’s only so much you can do with software. Thankfully, at least based on my experience with the TicWatch 3, the new chipset exercises any memories of the laggy Wear OS watches of old.

Yet, the bigger draw is the impact the new chipset has on battery life. The general rule for a Wear OS smartwatch has always been that you would need to charge it basically every day to avoid battery anxiety. That’s just not the case with the TicWatch Pro 3.

With the screen brightness at max, plus every ambient tracking feature (except sleep tracking) and the always-on display turned on, the TicWatch 3 still managed to see a full two days with around 15% to spare. When using the FSTN display while idle, this went up to three and a half days on average. Mobvoi also claims you can get up to 45 days of battery life using just Essential Mode.

Quickly Rechargeable

Recharging the watch took around 2hrs to get back to full. The magnetic charging puck is a proprietary affair and it has a bit of a weird shape. Unlike previous rounded TicWatch chargers that encased the entire watch, this bean-shaped puck only attaches to a small part of the rear case. This makes it rock around on a table so it’s quite easy to accidentally dislodge it. None the less, they’ve done a great job finding a balance between the software and the hardware to give everyone 2 days of no charging at minimum.

Well, there you have it. If you like the pictures taken by Drawlines Studio, just give them a text or email. and they can work on your product photography project too. Drawlines works remotely so you don’t have to ever worry about due dates or hassle.

Specs