Ticwris Max 4G
A form factor that could appeal to field workers.
Every now and then, a product surprises not by its technological prowess but by its ability to zero in on a barely exploited niche. The Ticwris Max 4G seems to be one of them; it is essentially a small smartphone with a wristband and a bargain price tag, at less than $250.
Although it targets the B2C market, there’s some extremely interesting potential in enterprise/ B2B as well for obvious reasons; wearing a computer on your wrist means you’ve got free hands.
A big watch is how one could describe the Ticwris. With a thickness of 15mm and a footprint of 50 x 74mm, it looks like a smaller version of the iPhone 3G when viewed from above and at 155g, it is actually heavier than the aforementioned Apple handset.
The Max 4G combines glass with metal and ABS plastic (for the actual unit) and a rubber strap - similar to those on cheap Casio watches - that is 34mm at its widest and almost 210mm long.
There’s no mention of the Ticwris brand on the body of the watch, only on the tang buckle, which makes it easier to swap brands. There’s a side firing speaker grill at the back with a heart beat sensor, pogo connectors for the charging station and a SIM slot that’s hidden behind a flap, secured by two screws.
A pinhole camera can also be found on the right hand side, not far from the microphone.
Note that the device is IP67 rated, which means that it could in theory be immersed in water plus it looks sturdy enough to take a few knocks. There’s obviously far less chance of it being dropped on a hard concrete surface given that it is likely to be strapped to the owner’s wrist, a field worker or outdoor operator.
The Max 4G is closer to a smartphone than it is to a watch. Indeed, you can make a call on this “watch” and one can argue that Ticwris missed a trick by not allowing the device to be detachable.
At the heart of this smartwatch is a quad-core Mediatek CPU, the MTK6739, which has powered a raft of entry level 4G smartphones since its introduction in 2017. 3GB of system memory and a whopping 32GB of storage make this smartphone, at least on paper, the equivalent of an iPhone 7 spec-wise.
Once secured on your wrist, the Ticwris is intuitive enough to operate without looking at the supplied manual. From the default menu - that looks a lot like the Windows Phone one - slide up to access the pedometer interface, slide down to show basic information, left to display the quick toggle menu and slide left to show pending notifications.
The Ticwris Max 4G rugged wrist computer is a refreshing product; not everyone will need one, but if the idea of a technically handsfree smart device appeals, it’s an alluring option.
Desire Athow