I should hate the TicWatch Atlas smartwatch, but I just can’t

2 weeks ago

I really shouldn’t for illustration nan Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas, and I possibly should springiness it a spot of a kicking for being fundamentally nan aforesaid arsenic Mobvoi’s past 2 Wear OS smartwatches, but I conscionable can’t do it.

The Wear OS smartwatch scenery has become progressively barren complete nan past twelvemonth aliases so, yet Mobvoi’s still here, giving its already fantabulous smartwatch a makeover each now and past to support america hooked. And I’m truthful gladsome it is.

What is nan TicWatch Atlas?

Do you retrieve nan TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro? Well, nan Atlas is simply a redesigned type of that, which successful itself was a mildly warmed-over type of nan TicWatch Pro 5. It’s different big, achromatic (although a metallic type is coming later this year) smartwatch unsuitable for small, bladed wrists and anyone who balks astatine nan thought of an 81-gram watch. It’s a mini spot thicker than nan Enduro astatine 12.05mm, bringing it person to nan original TicWatch Pro 5’s height. It’s attached to a thick, chunky 24mm rubber strap, complete pinch 2 arsenic durable keepers.

The awesome news is nan Atlas has sapphire crystal complete nan 1.43-inch AMOLED surface for scratch protection; nan bezel is made from aluminum, and nan lawsuit is made from nylon and fiberglass. The beardown materials utilized successful its building person ensured nan Atlas meets MIL-STD-810H toughness standards and is h2o resistant to 5ATM. Inside is simply a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chipset pinch 2GB of RAM and 32GB of retention space. No, you’re not mistaken; each of this is nan aforesaid arsenic nan Enduro. Sapphire crystal aside, it’s nan aforesaid arsenic nan original Pro 5, too.

Thankfully, nan superior logic you should see buying nan Atlas besides remains — nan dual-screen exertion and extended artillery life it brings. Instead of utilizing a elemental ambient mode to ever show nan clip connected nan screen, Mobvoi adds a 2nd ultra-low-power OLED surface to show nan clip all nan time. Not only this, but you tin besides scroll done it to show basal wellness data, preserving artillery life from nan 628mAh compartment moreover more. It’s a immense benefit, and though I haven’t worn nan Atlas for agelong yet, I person nary logic to deliberation it won’t lucifer nan Enduro’s fantabulous four-day artillery life.

What it’s for illustration wearing nan smartwatch

A personification wearing nan Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas.

The TicWatch Atlas isn’t dramatically different to deterioration than nan Enduro, but nan creation is much “hardcore” than before, allowing Mobvoi to capitalize connected nan existent inclination of adventure-style watches, including nan Apple Watch Ultra 2 and nan Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra. I’m very pleased Mobvoi sewage imaginative pinch nan name, though, which I deliberation is suitably cool. It didn’t conscionable tack Ultra connected nan extremity for immoderate free hunt clicks and telephone it a day.

This time, nan bezel gets a bid of numbers astir it, positive agleam orangish accents guiding you toward nan crown and azygous pusher. It’ll sound for illustration a insignificant thing, but nan fastener and crown some look awesome and really suit nan style of nan smartwatch. The crown rotates to move done menus, but nan sensitivity is each complete nan place. It’s good successful Wear OS’s menus, but moreover nan slightest activity erstwhile trying to take different colors for watch faces sends it racing up and down nan options database immediately.

Despite its size, nan TicWatch Atlas is comfortable to wear, acknowledgment to its elastic rubber strap, which besides has plentifulness of holes for adjustment. However, they are rather wide spaced, and I recovered that they were either a spot excessively tight aliases loose. It has quick-release pins, truthful it’s easy swapped out, but nan 24mm size whitethorn mean location are less options available, and nan bosom complaint sensor intends you can’t usage a afloat NATO strap contempt it being a awesome lucifer style-wise.

Anything other not truthful good? I don’t for illustration nan clone screws adjacent to nan perchance arsenic clone sensor bulge connected nan near broadside of nan case, and nan charger is still nan aforesaid aged magnetic pogo-pin system, which is arsenic unattractive arsenic it is apt to travel loose.

New package features

The backmost of nan Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas.

The TicWatch Atlas comes pinch Google’s Wear OS 4 installed, and speech from a big of Mobvoi apps, location doesn’t look to beryllium a dense personification interface connected apical of banal Wear OS. This again separates Mobvoi from Samsung, nan different large subordinate successful Wear OS astatine nan moment. For nan Atlas, Mobvoi has besides added a mini action of caller wellness and exercise-related features.

Fall Detection makes it onto nan Atlas, pinch emergency services being contacted if it detects a fall. This does request to beryllium manually enabled for continuous monitoring, different it’s only operative during exercise. There’s besides an Emergency SOS characteristic to spell pinch it, which will alert an emergency contact. It joins an updated type of TicMotion, which shows much stats, including Vo2 Max connected nan secondary show during a workout. Finally, nan Mobvoi Health app will create a Heat Map for those playing squad sports, showing activity and areas of nan transportation you focused on. Otherwise, nan package is nan aforesaid arsenic nan Pro 5 and Enduro.

This isn’t a bad thing. Wear OS 4 is nan latest type of nan package successful wide usage (Wear OS 5 has encountered problems connected nan Pixel Watch, stalling its release), nan menus are intelligibly defined and easy to interact pinch utilizing nan surface and rotating crown, notifications person arrived from my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra reliably, and there’s a decent on-creen keyboard and a action of apps including a calculator that whitethorn travel successful handy.

That said, location are a lot of Mobvoi apps to contend with, and almost each nan wellness features require enabling earlier they work, truthful this isn’t a watch you tin group up and expect to activity immediately, dissimilar nan Apple Watch Series 10. It’s frustrating to do this, arsenic it’s easy to miss aliases hide to activate features, arsenic you often request to work together to position of usage aggregate times conscionable to make nan watch work. The watch faces are comparatively uninspiring (the caller Vitality look is shown successful our photos), and Mobvoi wants you to salary for a greater prime done its ain app.

Another not-really-new smartwatch

The $350 TicWatch Atlas isn’t entering an particularly crowded space. Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Watch 7 are its astir evident competitors, but it’s besides worthy looking astatine Huawei’s caller models. After trying nan fantabulous but costly Huawei Watch Ultimate, I expect nan caller Huawei Watch GT 5 Pro is worthy exploring, too. The Google Pixel Watch 3 is nan different smartwatch for an Android telephone to consider, but it takes nan creation successful wholly nan other guidance pinch its simple, minimalist style.

The Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas isn’t a caller smartwatch, conscionable for illustration nan Enduro wasn’t precisely new, either. Both are somewhat revised versions of nan Pro 5, but astatine slightest Mobvoi is keeping Wear OS live pinch these mini iterations. I’m truthful pleased it’s still utilizing nan fantabulous second-screen system, which gives Mobvoi smartwatches immoderate of nan longest artillery life you tin get. I besides for illustration nan rugged style, which isn’t arsenic challenging arsenic nan Galaxy Watch Ultra’s look and alternatively builds connected nan great-looking TicWatch Pro 5.

It’s easy to get caught up successful expecting “brand new” devices connected an yearly aliases moreover much regular ground and past consciousness shortchanged erstwhile they don’t arrive. But nan TicWatch Atlas proves it’s not ever necessary, particularly successful nan slow-moving world of smartwatches, wherever nan underlying exertion hasn’t changed overmuch complete caller years to make a large update imaginable anyway.

If you want a reliable smartwatch pinch a tried-and-tested information creation and immoderate of nan longest artillery life successful Wear OS, return a bully look astatine nan TicWatch Atlas.