Mobvoi TicWatch E2
IS IT TIME FOR A BUDGET SMARTWATCH?
AFTER A COUPLE of hugely successful Kickstarters in 2016 and 2017 Mobvoi carved out a market for affordable smartwatches that can do almost everything a premium smartwatch can – but Mobvoi seems to have outdone itself with the new even-moreaffordable TicWatch E2.
Coming in at just $239, the TicWatch E2 is priced more like a premium fitness band than a fully-fledged smartwatch, but with Wear OS, GPS tracking, voice assistant integration and access to the entire range of Wear Play Store applications, it’s pretty clear that this is as smart a watch as any. It’s not just the fundamentals either, the E2 (alongside its sporty S2 sibling) is the first TicWatch to upgrade the water resistance to 5ATM, allowing you to track your swimming activities.
If we’re being honest, Mobvoi’s fitness tracking software still has some catching up to do to be a competitive activity tracker, but it gets a lot of the basic tracking components right. If you do track your run, walk cycle, or swim then you’ll have speed, heart rate, map and timing data to look at – you just have to dig a little in the Mobvoi smartphone app menus to really find the details you were after. Apple, FitBit and Samsung are all pretty formidable opponents when it comes to fitness tracking and, without getting too granular, each of these services offer much better data interfaces and overall health tracking systems like weight, food, sleep and continuous heart rate tracking, to name a few.
Google’s Fit tracking app has come a long way in recent updates, but it’s still not really any better than Mobvoi’s own software and all the Wear OS third party apps were either annoyingly janky to use on the smartwatch or just didn’t offer a broad enough feature set to be truly appealing. That said, if you’re already attached to services like Runtastic or Strava, these apps work exactly as they should.
The TicWatch E2 is finally at a point where the majority of third party apps run smoothly and you can easily interface with the Google Assistant voice recognition software if you need to navigate with your voice or type anything. This makes replying to a text or searching for things in apps like Google Maps a breeze.
Despite claiming it’ll last two days the E2, realistically, has an all-day battery life. This is less than ideal since it means it’ll be difficult to track your sleep (when this feature does eventually arrive) and if you get into the routine of charging overnight you’ll miss out on one of the most essential smartwatch functions: the silent alarm.
The E2 is also disappointedly bulky. It’s not that this device is bigger than other smartwatches on the market, it’s more that after getting your hands on the elegantly compact TicWatch C2, it’s hard to be satisfied with a traditionally oversized Wear OS smartwatch.
For the price the E2 is an absolute steal, but those looking for advanced fitness tracking, NFC payments or a sleeker profile should probably look elsewhere.
IF YOU DO TRACK YOUR RUN, WALK CYCLE, OR SWIM THEN YOU’LL HAVE SPEED, HEART RATE, MAP AND TIMING DATA TO LOOK AT — YOU JUST HAVE TO DIG A LITTLE IN THE MOBVOI SMARTPHONE APP MENUS TO REALLY FIND THE DETAILS YOU WERE AFTER.