Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS is an Android smartwatch running Wear OS 2 operating system rather than the greatly improved new Wear OS 3.
It is likely to get a new firmware upgrade to Wear OS 3 in the coming months, but even without this it has plenty of appealing features to make it worth considering.
It’s powered by a Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip and 1GB RAM and is slick, speedy and responsive in everyday use. There is 8GB of onboard storage.
Design, build, comfort
Design wise, it’s in rugged territory with military-grade durable stainless steel casing, chamfered edges surrounding the bezel and an easily interchangeable silicone strap.
The face is encircled by a ring etched with five-minute increments.
The watch is IP68-rated for dust and water resistance and the bright and colourful 1.4in AMOLED screen has Gorilla Glass protection.
There's an FSTN monochrome LCD display underneath the OLED screen, and this conserves battery when your device enters ambient mode. Visibility for both screens is pleasing outdoors.
One neat feature is the ability to customise the backlight secondary display – there are 18 colours to choose from.
This transparent display of the Pro 3 shows you basics like time, date and a step counter while extending your battery life by weeks in the process.
It’s a big watch at 48mm but at 41g it is light and thus comfortable enough to wear all day, every day.
There are two physical control buttons on the right. The top one opens the Wear OS app drawer, while the bottom button brings you to Mobvoi’s exercise tracking software.
Health and fitness
TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra is armed with advanced health-monitoring features like irregular heart rate and atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection and mental fatigue and energy level monitoring.
You also get blood oxygen monitoring, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking.
Other sensors include 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, Barometric pressure and ambient light sensors.
There are dozens of activity profiles within the TicExercise app. Tracking is accurate compared to other fitness wearables but I found the GPS sometimes slow to lock on.
You can share your data easily with Google Fit, Strava and Runkeeper.
Other features
Navigation never feels slow or lagging and apps open quickly.
Battery life is decent for a smartwatch – you can get up to three full days of use before needing to recharge which takes about 90 minutes using a proprietary magnetic charger.
Built-in speaker and microphone mean you can make or take calls and listen to music directly from the watch.
The watch was WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 too and can mirror notifications from your smartphone and works with Google Pay.
Verdict
Overall, this is a super smartwatch with decent battery life that collects continuous health metrics and it should be near perfect when it gets the Wear OS 3 upgrade.
Pricing and availability
TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS costs €299.99 from Mobvoi.com
Key specs
Dimensions: 48mm diameter, 12.3mm thick
Weight: 41g
Operating system: Wear OS 2.33
GPS: GPS+Beidou+Glonass+Galileo+QZSS
Case: Stainless steel
Water/dust resistance: IP68 certified
Display: 1.4in, 454 x454 resolution, 326ppi, colour, Always On, AMOLED + FSTN
CPU: Snapdragon Wear 4100+
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 8GB
Battery: 577mAh
