TicWatch Pro 5

It's hard to blame anyone for being a little confused about the smartwatch market if you don't own an iPhone and just buy a new Apple Watch every once in a while. Google kick-started a collaboration with Samsung that saw the Galaxy Watch series get an exclusive period as the sole driver of the WearOS 3 bandwagon, and while that period is over and other watches can now use the latest update, these alternative competitors are not able to offer Google Assistant, for example. You only get it on Samsung and Google's own Pixel Watch.

It's a slightly confusing middle-of-the-road situation to say the least, and it's clearly something that has left manufacturers like Mobvoi in a bit of a pickle. They've struggled to simply deliver WearOS 3 for their previous models, but if you're looking for something brand new, you can thankfully get the latest update, minus Google Assistant, on their TicWatch 5 Pro, which deliver some of the innovations that have defined their previous models too.

Okay, so the TicWatch 5 Pro runs the latest WearOS update, and does so through a combination of Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 platform, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal space. Those are pretty impressive specs, meaning there's no scenario where the watch doesn't respond instantly or do exactly what you expect it to do, and quickly too. These impressive specs are flanked by a stunning 1.43" 466x466 AMOLED panel covered in Gorilla Glass, which has the brightness to easily withstand direct sunlight. What makes TicWatch special is that in addition to the AMOLED panel, there is a secondary ULP display that acts as the watch's always-on display. This shows digital time, steps, date, battery life and other crucial parameters, but without waking up the actual display at all.

This means that from the 628mAh battery you can expect something like 80-85 hours of battery life, or just over three days for me. And that's three days of full use, controlling lights from the Google Home app, using Spotify and Google Fit to track runs and all the other little things in between.

There are a lot of nice little design touches too. This time, there's a so-called "active crown" that you turn to navigate the interface without touching the display. The edge of the watch face has a refined surface, and underneath you have all the crucial sensors, from blood oxygen saturation to heart rate, from accelerometer to gyroscope. It all works flawlessly. We received the Sandstone variant, which does a little more to stand out, because Obsidian, which should really just be called "Matte Black", is perhaps a little lacking in character. But it's hard to find fault with the hardware here.

The software is pretty straightforward WearOS 3. That's actually a compliment, if you're up for a bit of tidying up. Mobvoi preloads as many as 15 of their own apps on the watch, and even though these can be disabled, removed completely or just ignored, replacing the watch's functions with those from Google and other third parties requires a bit of setup. I only had to use "TicSleep" once, where it estimated that I slept three hours between something like 2am and 5am (I don't sleep much, but more than that, thankfully) before I started soberly disabling these apps.

It's also worth noting that parts of the WearOS platform still don't quite work as intended, and that this must be Google's fault. The Google Play Store on the watch always takes a few tries to connect, dictating messages doesn't work nearly as well here as on Google Nest hardware, for example - it's as if Google is so fixated on the Samsung partnership and their own Pixel Watch models that other manufacturers who also use WearOS are under-prioritised. However, there's nothing wrong with the sensor readings, the app selection and the stability of the software - it's all top notch.

The TicWatch Pro 5 is excellent hardware, it's even a complex, complete and well-functioning smartwatch that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to anyone who doesn't have an iPhone. It's not just that the watch offers great hardware and stable software, but it's reasonably priced too. Simply, put, it's a great value for money.