Amazon is offering the Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas for $280, which is $70 less than its $350 retail price. Since I had just reviewed the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro a few months prior, I was eager to test out the newest model, the TicWatch Atlas, to see how they compared.
With an extra color, minor case design modifications, and Wear OS 4 pre-installed, the Atlas is a comparable gadget. If battery life is your top concern, the Atlas is a watch to take into consideration. It has some of the best battery life of any Wear OS watch.
But since I looked at the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro, the competition has evolved. Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Watch Ultra, a high-end, durable wristwatch that is among the most attractive available, while Google unveiled the 45mm Pixel Watch 3, which has some significant safety features and cellular connectivity. It essentially boils down to Mobvoi doing what it does best – creating devices with amazing battery life – given the fierce competition.
Ticwatch Atlas
If battery life is your top concern, the Atlas is a watch to take into consideration. It has some of the best battery life of any Wear OS watch.
The dual-display technology of the Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas contributes to its exceptional battery life. Just behind an ultra-low power display, the watch has a primary OLED display with a high resolution of 466 x 466.
Similar to the Enduro Pro 5, this low-power display provides you with quick access to important metrics: Instead of navigating a menu or searching for specific heart rate values on a graph, I prefer to look down to check which zone I am jogging in.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 chipset makes the TicWatch Atlas incredibly responsive. You can scroll between lists with the help of the rotating crown and two buttons in the upper right corner of the watch. But having to use both buttons and swipes to traverse the user interface is frustrating; I would much rather use one or the other. At least spinning the crown to obtain stats is simple.
Although the Pro 5 Enduro should have debuted with Wear OS 5, it now runs Wear OS 4, and there is no indication when this update will be available. I believe that TicWatch is lacking in this area because Google and Samsung have a history of releasing timely upgrades for their watches. Since there may not be a software update for the Atlas very soon, make sure you are satisfied with Wear OS 4.
You may download and install any software from the Google Play Store because it is still a Wear OS device, even with the older version. Several essential apps, including TicBarometer, TicBreathe, TicCare, TicCompass, TicExercise, and TicHealth, are pre-installed on the Atlas by default.
While TicExercise is the default app that launches the exercise you have chosen, TicHealth displays an overview of all your fitness and health statistics. I utilized Strava and other apps for fitness tracking because there are no alternatives to personalize your data screens or adjust the workout parameters to your liking.
Fortunately, the watch has five GNSS support, which allows for precise tracking of outside activities. Although TicExercise does not support it, the heart rate sensor performs well for the majority of exercises, and you can combine external sensors with some installed apps.
The watch includes some helpful safety measures, despite not having cellular capability. When you couple your watch with your smartphone, you can configure fall detection and emergency SOS so that when the motion sensors identify a hard fall, the watch will call emergency services and/or your designated contacts. By manually pushing the digital crown five times, you can also start these calls.
As an athlete who has played American football for ten years and rugby for more than twenty, I do not completely understand how someone might wear a smartwatch and still play these sports, even though Mobvoi offers a new personal heatmap feature. Although it would be interesting to see the statistics, I did not test out this feature because it would require the watch to be highly wrapped up to protect both you and your opponents.
The TicWatch Atlas is priced the same as the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro, and your choice comes down to case design preference and whether or not you want a newer version of Wear OS installed by default.
The Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas, which has a more recent version of Wear OS than the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro, is your best choice if you are searching for a Google Wear OS smartwatch with a battery life that lasts more than a few days. Although the TicExercise app has limitations, the dual display technology offers some intriguing use cases for the ultra-low power mode. The advantages of a Mobvoi TicWatch are limited to its lengthy battery life in light of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra and Google’s larger Pixel Watch 3.
Ticwatch Atlas
If battery life is your top concern, the Atlas is a watch to take into consideration. It has some of the best battery life of any Wear OS watch.