Ticwatch E2

Ticwatch E2 GPS Function Smart Watch

The new Ticwatch E2 poses the question that keeps coming back to life: Would you rather have a sparrow in your hand or a dove on your roof? There are beautiful Smartwatches, and some with more functions, and probably also technically more modern – but the Ticwatch E2 is cheap, functional and does what it can do pretty well.

Smartwatches are expensive fun? Does not have to be, at least not with Mobvoi and the Ticwatch E2. It costs only $159.89, which is quite a bargain, if you compare it with the LG Watch W7, which has a $500 hole in its purse. There is no choice in terms of design, the Ticwatch E2 is only available in black.

I’ll tell you right now: design is a matter of taste, yes. But I showed the Ticwatch E2 to a lot of people, and nobody really liked it . The case is made of shabby plastic and is pretty thick. The silicone bracelet is soft and pleasant to the touch, but doesn’t necessarily make a long-lasting impression. Half as bad, the recording is standard and so the Ticwatch E2 is compatible with countless watch straps. On the right side there is a button, nothing more. Too bad, because Smartwatches with Wear OS allows you to assign your own functions to the additional buttons. That is not the case here.

The sister model of the E2 is the Ticwatch S2, which looks similar, but justifies its surcharge of 20 Euro with a military certification for a specially protected case. The E2 lacks that, but the watch is still water resistant to 5 ATM and can dive 50 meters deep – not bad for the price range.

The savings Mobvoi has made in design and material benefit the display of the Ticwatch E2. The 1.39-inch round AMOLED panel offers better resolution than the first generation and now displays 400 x 400 pixels. The display is sharp and very high-contrast, everything is easy to read even in bright sunlight – as long as you have set the correct brightness. There is no automatic control for this, the user has to set one of the five levels himself. This is annoying every now and then, as is the fact that the lowest level is much too bright when you are in dark rooms, such as a bedroom or cinema. With automatic and low basic brightness, the display would be almost perfect.

Wear OS doesn’t give the manufacturers too much leeway to adapt the system, as the Ticwatch E2 makes no exception. The Watchfaces, which the manufacturer of the Smartwatch donates, fit well to the sporty approach of the Smartwatch and look modern and tidy. If you don’t like them, you’ll find plenty of alternatives to try them out and build them yourself in the Play Store. For the fitness display to the right of the Home screen, users can choose between Google Fit and Mobvoi’s counterpart.

In addition there are a number of fitness apps from Mobvoi that are designed to motivate people to do sports. The Ticwatch E2 is waterproof, so it has its own swimming function. That’s nice, and even if the sports functions don’t contain enough detailed information for professionals, they are still a nice addition.

The chip in the Ticwatch E2 is the Snapdragon Wear 2100 from Qualcomm, which is no longer as fresh as a new one, but guarantees solid performance. That’s exactly how it looks on the Ticwatch E2 in the test. The Mobvoi-Smartwatch doesn’t run like Speedy Gonzalez now, but it’s not too lame and usually reacts fast. It’s questionable whether the Snapdragon Wear 3100 would have performed so much better, because it didn’t always run perfectly in the test either. Only the wiping gestures on the touch screen weren’t always recognized on my first try, especially with cold or wet fingers.

It’s a pity that Mobvoi didn’t give the Ticwatch E2 an NFC chip, because that means that you can’t pay with the Smartwatch via Google Pay or similar services. The heart rate monitor cannot yet be evaluated conclusively, because the manufacturer has promised an update for this soon, which should improve both the speed and the accuracy of the measurement.

The Ticwatch E2 is charged with its own charging cradle, to which the watch docks magnetically. Annoying detail: USB cable and charging cradle are firmly connected. In case of a cable break or a defective USB plug, a completely new charger is needed, the cable alone cannot be replaced.

But only good things can be reported about the battery life of the Ticwatch E2. The capacity is 415 mAh. The Smartwatch usually lasts two days, which is more than most Wear-OS-Smartwatches can do. If you use GPS tracking frequently and for a long time, you still don’t have to be afraid not to hold out until the evening. A really good performance that many more expensive smartwatches can’t achieve.

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