The Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 gives the Google Pixel Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 some stiff competition. Priced at $349.99 and compatible only with Android smartphones, the TicWatch Pro 5 stands out among its Wear OS peers for its excellent battery life—it can power through up to 80 hours on a charge. Though a bit bulky, it has an attractively classic design and it runs fast and smooth thanks to a speedy chip. There's no cellular option and Google Assistant support isn't available as of this writing, but it otherwise offers many useful lifestyle features, a wide selection of downloadable apps via the Google Play Store, and robust fitness- and health-tracking capabilities. The sleeker, more affordable Galaxy Watch 5 remains our Editors' Choice winner as the best smartwatch for most Android users, but if you want a wearable with longer battery life, the Mobvoi TicWatch 5 Pro is a worthy alternative.
Impressive Specs
The TicWatch Pro 5 is Mobvoi's top-of-the-line smartwatch. It's attractively designed with a traditional round face, a shiny aluminum bezel with crosshatch detailing, and a 24mm interchangeable silicone quick-release strap. On the right side, it features a physical button that slightly sticks out from the case, plus a rotating crown featuring a red accent ring like the Apple Watch.
It only comes in black and only in one size. The watch measures 1.8 by 2.0 by 0.6 inches (HWD) according to my calipers, and weighs 1.6 ounces. It's similar in size and weight to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, which means it's bulky for small wrists like mine.
The TicWatch Pro 5 features a bright and beautiful 1.43-inch, 466-by-466-pixel AMOLED always-on display covered by anti-fingerprint Corning Gorilla Glass, as well as a secondary ultra-low-power (ULP) display that helps extend battery life.
On the inside, it runs Google Wear OS 3 and features the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 wearable platform, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 628mAh battery. The watch is fast and responsive—apps open quickly, metrics and data generate within seconds, and I never encounter any lag when swiping on the touch screen or scrolling with the crown.
The battery-saving ULP displayFor connectivity, the TicWatch Pro 5 supports Bluetooth 5.2 and single-band Wi-Fi. There is no cellular/4G LTE version of the watch available; Mobvoi sells the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra 4G/LTE and the TicWatch Pro 3 LTE in Europe, but doesn't offer any cellular-compatible smartwatches in the US. If you want an Android-compatible watch with cellular support, we recommend the Galaxy Watch 5 series or the Pixel Watch.
The TicWatch Pro 5 packs a speaker and microphone, allowing for wrist-based calls when connected to your phone. A pinhole below the crown on the right side is for the microphone, and the speaker is located on the back, opposite the charging port. The microphone has no problem picking up audio for voice recordings, and the speaker sounds sufficiently loud for a smartwatch, though a bit tinny. You can use the watch speaker for alarms, voice calls, recordings, and similar functions like Alexa responses, but not for playing music.
For texting, Messages by Google is the default app, but the TicWatch Pro 5 also gives you access to KakaoTalk and Line.
The watch has an impressive sensor suite, including an accelerometer, a barometer, a blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) sensor, a compass, a gyroscope, an optical heart rate monitor, and a skin temperature sensor, plus an off-body sensor to detect when it's being worn. It also has an integrated GPS (plus Beidou, Glonass, Galileo, and QZSS sensors) for pace and distance measurements during outdoor workouts.
Despite its size, the TicWatch Pro 5 is comfortable enough for all-day wearing and didn't hinder my slumber during the testing period, though I generally prefer the less obtrusive Oura ring or a non-wearable sleep tracker like the Google Nest Hub smart display or the Sleep Number 360 i8 smart bed.
As for durability, it sports a fairly standard 5ATM water resistance rating, as well as the same military-grade MIL-STD-810H certification as the Apple Watch Ultra and Samsung's Galaxy Watch 5 series. The 5ATM rating means it can withstand depths of up to 164 feet and is safe for shallow waters such as swimming pools. Unlike the more water-resistant Apple Watch Ultra, the TicWatch Pro 5 isn't suitable for scuba diving, water skiing, or other high-speed water sports. The MIL-STD 810H certification, which the Pixel Watch lacks, means the Pro 5 has been tested to survive high altitude, extreme temperatures, freezing/thawing, blowing sand, and other environmental stressors such as vibration and shock.
Standout Battery Life
Battery life is typically the main tradeoff of fully-featured smartwatches, but that's less of an issue with the TicWatch Pro 5 thanks to its massive 628mAh cell, which exceeds that of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro (590mAh) and the Apple Watch Ultra (542mAh). Battery life varies depending on usage, but Mobvoi claims it should last up to 80 hours on a charge, as Samsung does for its Galaxy Watch.
In my real-world testing, the TicWatch Pro 5 lasted 75 hours on a charge—more than three full days—with normal use, making it one of the longest-lasting true smartwatches I have tested. After 24 hours of normal use, it still had 68% battery life remaining in my tests. With heavy use, it lasted 66.5 hours on a charge.
In comparison, the Apple Watch Ultra and the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro both stayed powered for up to 57 hours on a charge with normal to heavy use in my tests, and the latter offered 79 hours of power with light use.
Left to right: Apple Watch Series 8, Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5, Google Pixel WatchRecharging the TicWatch Pro 5 doesn't take long: Mobvoi says 30 minutes on the charger powers it up by 65%. If you're pressed for time, a 15-minute charge should deliver enough power for the day.
By default, the always-on screen is set to ULP mode, but you can switch it to AMOLED via the Display Settings menu if you don't mind the battery hit. When enabled, ULP mode activates when the screen times out and automatically switches back to AMOLED when you press a button or tap the screen.
Turn the crown to access the compass from the ULP displayMobvoi offers 18 backlight color choices for the ULP display, as well as a dynamic heart rate zone option that changes color based on your pulse while you're tracking a workout with the TicExercise app. When the ULP display is active, you can rotate the crown to access various health metrics and features, including your current heart rate, SpO2, calories burned, and the compass without switching to back the AMOLED. This helps extend battery life.
Keep in mind that while excellent for a smartwatch, the TicWatch Pro 5's battery life still falls short of many fitness trackers and sports-focused watches, which can sometimes last weeks on a charge.
Getting to Know the TicWatch Pro 5: Setup and Navigation
The TicWatch Pro 5 must be paired with a device running Android 8.0 or later that supports Google Mobile Services. In the box, you get the watch, a USB-A charging cable, a quick-start guide, and a safety guide.
I set up the TicWatch Pro 5 with a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE and had no problems doing so. To get started, press and hold the side button on the watch to turn it on, then download and install the Mobvoi Health app on your phone, and create an account if you haven't already done so. It offers a slightly easier setup process than the Pixel Watch, which requires you to download both the Pixel Watch app for pairing and the Fitbit app for fitness tracking.
The TicWatch Pro 5 supports Google Fast Pair, offering a seamless setup process on compatible phones like the S21 FE. As soon as I powered on the watch, my Galaxy phone found it and began walking me through the setup process. If you don't get an initial pairing pop-up on your phone, navigate to the Device tab in the Mobvoi Health app, tap the plus sign in the upper right corner > Add New Device, and follow the instructions to complete the pairing process.
During the setup process, it prompts you to sign into your Google Account to use Google apps and Find My Device on your watch. Next, it presents a list of recommended apps, including those on your phone with a Wear OS version, and lets you select the ones you want on your watch. If you prefer, you can skip this step and manually install apps via the Google Play Store at any time.
For security, you can optionally set up a screen lock pattern or PIN code during setup, or at any time from the watch display via Settings > Security. During setup, the Mobvoi Health app also asks you to fill out some health information, including your gender (with options for male, female, non-binary, and confidentiality), birthdate, height, and weight; you can edit this information at any time from the watch display via Settings > Health Profile.
As with any true smartwatch, getting the hang of the TicWatch Pro 5 and learning where everything is takes some time, even for a seasoned wearables reviewer like me. You can navigate the TicWatch Pro 5 via the touch screen, the side button, and the rotating crown. The crown is easy enough to rotate with my thumb, but for quick scrolling, I prefer the Galaxy Watch 5's digital bezel, which I find easier to operate.
The built-in TimeShow app on the TicWatch Pro 5 offers more than 1,000 watch face options, but some cost money and/or do not allow for customization. Still, there are enough free watch faces that you shouldn't have a problem finding one you like. I stuck with the default Color Run watch face, which offers two customizable complications and a rainbow of text color options.
From the watch face, you can swipe up for notifications, swipe down for an editable menu of quick settings (such as Find My Device, Bedtime Mode, and more), or swipe left and right to scroll through an editable carousel of Tiles that show helpful information from apps. To add or remove Tiles, press and hold any of them.
To open your app list, press the crown button. When you're on a different screen, pressing the crown button takes you back to the watch face.
Swipe down from the watch face for quick settingsTo quickly access your recently used apps, press the side button from the watch face. To go back from apps and Tiles, swipe from the left of the screen. To quickly go back to your last-used app, double-press the crown button at any time.
To quickly open Google Pay, double-press the side button at any time (note that you must have a screen lock enabled to use Google Pay). In testing, Google Pay worked perfectly on the watch, allowing me to settle up in stores with a tap.
TicWatch Pro 5 Apps
One big app omission from the TicWatch Pro 5 at the time of this writing is Google Assistant, which is available on the Pixel Watch (of course) as well as the Galaxy Watch 5 series. A Mobvoi spokesperson tells me that the company is working with Google to bring Assistant to the TicWatch Pro 5, but made no promises as far as timing. I miss a built-in virtual assistant for quickly pulling up apps by voice, a feature I use all the time on the Apple Watch.
The TicWatch Pro 5 otherwise offers a wide range of preinstalled apps, and many more are available for download via the Google Play Store app on the watch. There's some bloatware, like a companion app meant to be used with Mobvoi's foldable treadmill, and the same bogus handwashing timer I dogged in my Pixel Watch review. To manage the apps on your watch, navigate to Settings > Apps & Notifications > App info, then press and hold an app to disable or, if allowed, uninstall it.
The preinstalled app list includes: Agenda, Alarm, Calculator, Contacts, Essential Mode Settings, Find My Phone, Flashlight, Google Wallet, Hand-Washing Timer, Google Maps, Media Controls, Messages (Google), Mobvoi Privacy, Mobvoi Treadmill, One-Tap Measurement, Phone, Google Play Store, Settings, Stopwatch, TicBarometer, TicBreathe, TicCare, TicCompass, TicExercise, TicHealth, TicOxygen, TicPulse, TicSleep, TicZen, Timer, TimeShow, Weather, and YouTube Music.
Browsing the Google Play StoreSome of the notable apps available for download via the Play Store include Amazon Alexa, Amazon Music, c25k, Calm, Cardiogram, Deezer, Easy Voice Recorder, Golf Pad, Google Home, Hole 19, KakaoTalk, Komoot, Line, MyFitnessPal, Seven - 7 Minute Workout, SoundCloud, Spotify, Stocard, Strava, and Todoist. Wear OS offers a good selection of third-party apps, but is missing some popular titles available via the Apple Watch App Store, including Facebook Messenger, Pandora, and Telegram.
With Alexa on the TicWatch 5 Pro, you can ask questions and control connected devicesThe Alexa app works on the TicWatch Pro 5 as long as you have the app enabled on your phone and your phone is nearby. It lets you ask questions and control connected devices by voice through the watch. When I asked, "Alexa, what's the weather," the virtual assistant read my local forecast and displayed it on the watch screen. When I said, "Alexa, tell Furbo to toss a treat," it immediately relayed the command to my connected Furbo 360 dog camera, which dispensed a treat as instructed. You cannot, however, use Alexa to open apps or perform actions on the TicWatch Pro 5.
TicWatch Pro 5 Health and Fitness Tracking
The TicWatch Pro 5 offers many useful health and fitness features, including the One-Tap Measurement app, which checks your heart rate, SpO2, respiration rate, stress level, and your heart health in a single scan that takes about 90 seconds. After one scan, for instance, it told me I had a heart rate of 52bpm, an SpO2 of 99% (normal), a respiration rate of 18brpm, a low stress level (33/100), and a normal heart health reading (indicating no signs of tachycardia, bradycardia, premature beats, or atrial fibrillation).
The One-Tap Measurement appIn general, the TicWatch Pro 5's resting heart rate and SpO2 measurements are accurate and in line with those of an Apple Watch Series 8. I simultaneously spot-checked my SpO2 with both devices and each measured it at 99%, though the TicWatch Pro 5 took a couple of seconds longer to deliver my result (about 20 seconds vs. 15 seconds for the Series 8).
When you wear it to bed, it tracks the time you drift off and wake up, the overall duration of your slumber, the amount of time you spend in each sleep stage (awake, light, deep, and REM), as well as your overnight heart rate and SpO2. In the Settings menu of the TicSleep app, you can enable overnight respiration rate, SpO2, and temperature readings. Its bedtime, wake-up time, sleep duration, and sleep stage data is generally accurate and in line with measurements from the Polar Ignite 3 fitness watch.
For the same night, the TicWatch Pro 5 said I slept for 7 hours, 29 minutes while the Polar Ignite 3 on my other wrist similarly said I got 7 hours, 2 minutes of sleep, and the Google Nest Hub on my bedside table tracked 7 hours, 11 minutes of slumber.
Sleep data in the Mobvoi Health appThe Sleep section of the Mobvoi Health app offers colorful graphs of your sleep stages, heart rate, SpO2, and other overnight data, making it easy to understand your results. The app also highlights potentially concerning results in red. One time, for instance, it showed -9% circled in red beside my REM sleep data.
"You went to bed later than scheduled bedtime last night," the Mobvoi Health app warned. "Maintaining a regular sleep schedule is important for your health."
My sleep scores from the TicWatch Pro 5 and the Ignite 3 varied, which isn't surprising since each company has its own way of calculating this metric. For the same night, the TicWatch Pro 5 gave me a sleep score of 85% while the Ignite 3 calculated a lower score of 65%. In that case, I felt the Ignite 3's sleep score was more accurate based on my own perception of how well I slept. Unfortunately, the Mobvoi Health app does not specify how it calculates this metric, unlike the Ignite 3's companion Polar Flow app, which offers a detailed breakdown of the factors affecting your sleep score. A Mobvoi spokesperson tells me that the sleep score metric takes into account your overall sleep time, plus all four sleep stages, but the company declined to disclose more explicit details.
The TicExercise appFor fitness tracking, the TicExercise app offers more than 100 workout modes, including everything from aerobics and archery to weightlifting and yoga—even skydiving and off-roading. It offers separate tracking options for pool and open water swimming, as well as other water and sand sports like beach volleyball, fishing, rowing, and stand-up paddle boarding. When tracking a climbing or trail running workout, it can calibrate your altitude and monitor your elevation gain and loss.
To evaluate its fitness metrics, I tracked several walks, a run, a cycling workout, and an indoor rowing workout with the TicWatch Pro 5 on one wrist and the Apple Watch Series 8 on the other. For outdoor workouts, it generally had no problem acquiring a GPS signal, but took up to 15 seconds longer than the Series 8 to do so. I also found that workout heart rate measurements from the TicWatch Pro 5 are sometimes low compared with the Series 8 and a chest strap monitor.
For a half-mile outdoor walk, its average and max heart rate measurements only varied from the Series 8 by 1bpm each. But for an 8-minute cardiovascular workout on the Carol 2.0 indoor bike, the TicWatch Pro 5 said I had an average and max heart rate of 112bpm and 141bpm, respectively, while the Series 8 accurately reported higher values for those metrics: 121bpm and 164bpm.
Some optical monitors tend to lag slightly when it comes to detecting rapid heart rate change, and that happened with the TicWatch Pro 5 during the Carol 2.0 workout. After one sprint on the bike, the Series 8 and my chest strap both showed I had a heart rate of 160bpm while the TicWatch Pro 5 still read 100bpm.
For a 40-minute rowing workout, its heart rate measurements were more in line with those from the Series 8. Apple's smartwatch said I had an average and max heart rate of 103bpm and 140bpm, respectively, while the TicWatch Pro 5 measured those metrics at 102bpm and 133bpm.
For certain workouts, the TicWatch Pro 5 tracks your VO2 Max (a common measurement of aerobic endurance indicating the maximum amount of oxygen you can utilize during intense exercise) and offers helpful recovery guidance. After a 15-minute outdoor walk, for instance, it recommended I wait three hours to fully recover before resuming my exercise training. After a one-mile run, it said my body would need 21 hours to recover.
A Feature-Rich Watch With Battery Life for Days
The TicWatch Pro 5 stayed powered for more than three days in testing, rivaling the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, while offering speedy performance and plenty of ways to track your activity and health. One of its best features, the ultra-low-power screen, lets you scroll through data like compass bearings, your SpO2, and heart rate, all without activating the battery-draining AMOLED display. With the exception of Google Assistant support (which might be available in the future) and a cellular connectivity option, the TicWatch Pro 5 offers a similar Wear OS-powered experience to the Google Pixel Watch, with about three times the battery life and a more durable build. Either one is an excellent choice depending on your needs and preferences, though the standard Galaxy Watch 5 offers more bang for your buck than both, retaining our Editors' Choice award for the best Android-compatible smartwatch.
