Ticwatch Pro

hyperfish

This is my first smartwatch and so I have nothing to compare it to. Just my observations and opinions after a week. *short version.

I'm not a jogger or anything so essentially this for me is a communication centre. I have the TicHealth app running in the background which shows my activity, but steps is about all I am interested in.

Setup was easy, just followed the instructions on the watch face.
Installed the two main companion apps, Mobvoi and Wear Os. Wear OS updated to 2.1.7.
Mobvoi is the vendor app which does little other than display the fitness activity data.

Keeping it minimal for now I installed Maps, Google Pay, a Calculator, a Calendar, WhatApp and an app called Feel the Wear.

Maps is OK but it's easier to set the destination on the phone and just get the directions on the wrist.
Feel the Wear essentially sets which apps will send notifications, their sound and vibrate patterns and make the watch observe the DND mode as set by the phone. I have also set the watch to notify me if my phone is left behind. This is a must have app for me.

The LCD display works well in daylight when the main screen powers down. There can be a 1 second lag when waking the watch back up.
Functionality is mostly smooth although there can be slight lag opening some features. Scrolling the apps is a bit fiddly a rotating crown or bezel would be better. The tiny keyboard is fairly accurate but also has voice and gesture input. You wouldn't want to type much on it.

The phone calls are just loud enough to hear and would possibly be OK for hands free in a car with the radio turned down. Clarity at the receiving end is good I am told.

Google assistant does what it does on the phone and can accurately pick up my voice even when speaking quietly. Google Pay works fine even if I leave the phone behind. A pin must be set for the watch system, but only needs entering after the watch has been off the wrist.

There are several decent watch faces as stock and many more in the Play Store. The Facer app ground the watch to a halt, well I'll blame that as it returned to normal after uninstalling.

Battery time is giving me 2 full days which may increase a bit bearing in mind is a new toy to me. BT, GPS and WiFi on, brightness set at 4/5, wrist gesture off. It takes about 2 hours to fully charge from my laptop USB.

Not a fan of the strap so I bought a metal link band.

*I like it.

There's probably more I could add but this post is long enough already.

bubs999

I found the same issue with Facer, so I use Pujie black and no issues.
I will have a look at feel the wear

hyperfish

Thanks, I''ll take a look at those when I tire of these two. "Colourful" and the retro "LED clock".

hyperfish

Just received the Wear OS update to 2.20.
Nothing much to see but Google Assistant seems to open a bit quicker from a long press of the power button.

hyperfish

One annoyance since the Wear OS update is that Google Assistant rarely works first time. When I say something I get the "Can't reach Google...." message. Works second time but that's annoying.

tonycommander

following, having received one as an Xmas pressie...'

hyperfish

Got another Wear OS update yesterday. The Google Assistant issue is still there

For watch faces I have settled into the Watchmaker app. Loads of compatible faces on the net. Easily modified to get exactly what I want. I like to simply tap a hidden target on the face and launch Google Pay for example. Easy peasy.

App.
Watchmaker

Free watch faces.
watch faces.be
Facepro

hyperfish

Googled a lot, tried lots of setting changes on the watch and phone but I can't find a solution to the "Can't reach Google...." issue. This is reported across several Wear OS brands and not just the Ticwatch Pro. Alarms set on the phone are hit and miss for sounding on the watch too but I cannot recall if that was present before the update. The one occasion when I wanted to make a call from my watch failed miserably and I had to pull out my phone.

The only thing I can think of is something to do with the power saving features touted in Wear OS 2.20 taking too long to wake the bluetooth connection?

So I have sacked 2.20 and reverted back to version 2.12. Google Assistant works first time every time once again. I'll test if the alarms are working properly throughout tomorrow.

The small changes to the UI in 2.20 were an improvement but not worth the frustrating issues I have experienced. If it's due to the power saving feature, I don't need it. There's more than enough battery life for my needs.

Anyone else experienced these issues or am I just unlucky?

hyperfish

Just installing the Wear OS 2.3 update. See if this resolves any of the issues.

everett_psycho

I'm on the fence about picking up one of these. I've been cycling a lot so want a tracker that I can use with Strava but the issue I'm having is is I'd like to use it to track skiing over the winter.  I presume you can install Strava or use Google fit to track runs as an activity.

The battery life is putting me off, I'm also looking at amazfit watches or even downgrading from the pro to the E2 to save a bit of cash.  Personally I'd happily let the phone be the brain and the watch just a remote with a couple of sensors of it meant vaultv increasing battery life.