It’s a fantastic watch, but…

It’s been 3-months since I started using Mobvoi’s latest smartwatch, the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 and based on my experience, I think that it is a phenomenal smartwatch, but we’ll get to why I think that a little later in this article.

The last few months have provided me with a lot of opportunities to test the watch to the full, I’ve taken it on hikes, I’ve taken it on ultra-long cycle rides and I’ve used it as an everyday smartwatch.

As a whole, the watch has performed extremely well, with similar results to the ones I see on other watches such as the Google Pixel Watch when it comes to health tracking.

On a side note, Mobvoi did send me this watch to try out, but this is not a sponsored post and all views and opinions are my own.

But without any further ado, here is my genuine opinion after 3 months of using the watch…

Design and Build Quality

I wanted to start this 3-month review with the design and build quality of the watch as I don’t think it’s something I covered much in my past reviews.

In terms of appearance, I think the watch looks stunning, especially in the Sandstone colour, which I don’t think would have been a colour I would have picked. However, the colour has grown on me and if it was to be an option on any future smartwatch I buy, I would definitely go for it.

The reason is simple, whenever I see people wearing smartwatches, they usually all look very similar and the most common watch I see is the Apple Watch which is fine, I mean it’s a brilliant watch. I do see a lot of Samsung watches too, but not as many compared to the Apple Watch.

I think that the fact that the Sandstone version of the watch stands out is a good thing, I mean when wearing the TicWatch Pro 5, I get people asking me what watch it is which I think is because it looks different from the crowd.

I mean it gives the watch its own identity and it makes people genuinely interested in the device.

Speaking about the bezel, I think that Mobvoi has done an excellent job with the crown and the button. I mean they feel premium and the button doesn’t feel cumbersome to press, like it does on the Pixel Watch.

My one complaint about the design and build quality of the watch is the strap that comes with the watch. I mean Mobvoi have made the strap look like the strap you would find on a standard watch, but I find that sometimes the strap comes out of the strap holder, which can be annoying.

But in all honesty, that can happen to any watch and I appreciate that Mobvoi has decided to go more traditional with the watch.

Performance

With the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chip, performance is where this watch really excels!

In normal everyday life, I have yet to see the watch crash or lag and all of the apps I tried perform incredibly well on the watch, and that’s important.

The worst thing you want is for the watch to feel laggy and constantly crash, which is something that I’ve experienced on many WearOS and Android Wear smartwatches, but not the TicWatch Pro 5.

Even when doing intensive outdoor activities using the GPS feature, the watch just performs.

Since we are talking about performance, I also wanted to talk about the battery life, which is still incredibly impressive. I’m wearing this watch as I type this review and it is showing as 62% and I can’t even remember the last time I charged the watch.

If we compare that to the Google Pixel Watch, I had to charge that daily so that it would last throughout the day and night.

User Experience

I know that I talk about hardware from time to time, but I feel that that’s not the important part, the overall user experience is and my overall user experience with the watch so far has been extremely positive.

It works great, it provides me with decent fitness tracking, the watch itself looks great and I genuinely enjoy using the watch.

Mobvoi has done an incredible job with the software, the built-in fitness apps are really good and the built-in watch faces are brilliant.

Since we are talking about software, we need to discuss the elephant in the room, updates. At the time of writing this article, WearOS 4 is not available on the platform, but the watch has received several WearOS 3 updates, which is good to see!

I hope that the watch will receive WearOS 4 next year because the watch really is a brilliant watch!

I also want to see Google Assistant as it is useful to have that there, not only does it make the overall user experience better, but it also makes the watch more functional.

However, I have been using the Alexa app which you can activate by holding the crown for a couple of seconds, and to be honest, the experience hasn’t been bad. I mean the Alexa app is very basic, but it does work.

This brings me to my next point, if you are an iPhone user, this watch isn’t compatible with iOS. The Mobvoi app and the Health Copilot app don’t support the watch at the time of writing this article, which is a shame but kind of understandable.

Value for Money

If we think about the features you are getting, I definitely think that the watch offers great value for money, especially if we consider the price.

Based on my experience with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 as well as the Google Pixel Watch, if you own an Android phone that isn’t made by Google or Samsung, the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 is a great choice.

One of the key issues I had with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 was that it was catered to use with selected Samsung phones and limited some of the features if you didn’t have one. I’m talking about ECG and blood pressure monitoring, which I think is a shame.

But Mobvoi doesn’t currently manufacture phones, so they need to cater their watch to work well on all Android phones.

However, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the watch to mainstream manufacturers such as Google, who will likely get updates first for the platform.

But based on my experience over the last 3 months, I definitely think that the watch offers value for money.

Conclusion

To conclude this 3-month review, based on my personal experience, I think that the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 is an excellent watch which not only offers a lot of features but is also very stylish.

It also has a decent battery life, which I think is an important factor for a watch to have.

There are a few things that Mobvoi need to work on, starting with ensuring the watch is kept up to date. I would also like to see Google Assistant on the watch as it will make the entire experience a lot better.

But in summary, I am very satisfied with the watch after 3 months.