Mobvoi TicWatch E3 Review - What Gadget

Mobvoi or Ticwatch as you might know the brand after our review of the Ticwatch Pro 3 GPS has sent us the TicWatch E3 which is a cheaper alternative to the Pro 3 and the upgrade on the previous E2 model. 

TicWatch E3 (Left) vs TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra (Right)

First Impressions

When you compare costs the Pro 3 costs £289 compared to the E3 which costs £163 now this is the budget-friendly option but what they do have in common is both watches use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100. This maintains the speed of the Pro 3 but without some of the features. 

The E3 still comes with all the health and fitness tracking you might expect as well as the health features from the Ticwatch’s own apps such as TicBreath, TicOxygen and TicPulse which we discussed in detail in the 3 Pro review. The E3 with the use of Google WearOS also offers apps such as GoogleFit, Google Assistant & Google Pay. 

The design of the watch comes in a 1.3-inch display which unlike the Pro 3 is an LED and not an OLED display. Apart from that, you will find the watch to be quite minimalistic in style and is also very lightweight and comfortable to wear for long periods of use.  

Design

The E3 is a really nice sized watch that comes with that 1.3 inch that is 360 x360 pixel display. Some users might not like the large bezel around the watch it’s a little bit of a strange addition as it does take up some space which could have been better used but I feel the bezel adds character.

The casing is quite large at 44mm in diameter and comes in at 12.6mm thick. Some users might feel this is a bit bulky if you have a smaller wrist but I had no such complaint. 

The watch is missing an automatic brightness sensor which can be annoying if you go from the indoors to the outside quickly but if you want to adjust the brightness it’s not impossible to do. 

The Watch is made from a mix of Polycarbonate in the frame of the watch and a plastic casing underneath this is done to reduce the overall weight of the watch is only 36g and is designed for those who feel comfort is more important than the style of the watch. Unlike the Pro 3, there is no rotating crown instead you have 2 buttons on the right-hand side. 

The top button turns on/off the display, opens the app menu and brings you back to the home screen. If you press the top button for about 2 seconds it will activate google assistant (You need to have a Wi-Fi signal).

The bottom button activates the TicExercise app or you can change that to bring up an additional app if you don’t want a shortcut for fitness tracking. In terms of customising the watch just like the Pro 3, you can change the watch faces. The app has a selection of faces but a trip to the google play store unlocks many more. 

The Watch also comes with a quick-release silicone rubber strap allowing you to switch it for another design and as long as the strap is 22mm you can buy any kind of strap. 

Unfortunately, unlike the Pro 3, you don’t have Gorilla Glass so be careful as the watch is more likely to scratch so be careful. However, the watch is IP68 rated meaning you can record your swimming efforts when in the pool just avoid sea swimming with this watch. 

Under the Bonet 

As mentioned the one thing both the Pro 3 & E3 share is that Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100. The E3 also comes with a 1GB Ram which can also be found in the Pro 3. This makes the E3 feel really powerful compared to other options at this price point. 

The Snapdragon Wear 4100 makes this watch very responsive and easy to navigate through the menus. On top of all the Ticwatch apps, you also have all the Google apps you come to expect from a WearOS system like Google Assistant, Google Maps and Google Pay all are very easy to use. 

The display is a great size for viewing notifications or using any of the apps, unlike the Withings ScanWatch we recently reviewed. I found when a notification landed it was much easier to read the full message. However, if you try and do anything with that notification it will prove difficult. What you do notice is when a notification lands the vibration indicates the notification is quite weak which might mean you miss something coming through.  

Moving to the battery the E3 will allow about a day and a half with some users maybe able to stretch the battery to 2 days. I charged the E3 last might and it’s now 6 pm the next day and I have 40% battery life. This is with the heart rate monitor always on but I decided to keep the sleep tracker off for this part of the review.  

When it’s time to charge the watch you are provided with a USB charging dock that fits on the back of the watch using a small magnet. You will find providing the E3 with a full charge takes about 1hr 40m to get from zero to one hundred per cent. 

If you find you hit only a small amount of battery life the E3 presents a battery-saving screen that when you hit 5% or under the watch will provide the user with minimal features such as the following:

• Time
• Date
• Steps taken
• Current heart rate

This is done to allow you to continue to use the watch but without eating too much of the remaining. Now when it’s time for bed you also have sleep tracking. 

Sleep Tracking

The sleep tracking on this watch gave us excellent results and also provided us with indicating various sleep stages: Light, Deep & REM Sleep. I did notice the Whitings Scanwatch was better at picking up sleep disturbances but it is designed to monitor you when you are sleeping. 

Image Credit: Wearable.com

If you need to chill out when not sleeping the E3 also uses the TicZen app allows you to monitor your stress levels and the app monitors the sounds around you and lets you know if the environment that is too loud for your hearing.

You will find the TicZen app will then take 3 minutes to measure your stress levels which seemed a little long and even some of the sounds it picked up showed concern that the app was not very accurate for example birds in a park showed high levels. 

Fitness Tracking

The TicWatch E3 just like the Pro 3 Ultra runs on Google Wear OS which allows you to use the more popular Google App such as Google Fit which allows you to set fitness goals, track heart rate when exercising and last but not least  Google Fit workouts.  

Now Mobvoi does also offer a suite of fitness apps but you need to sign up for a Mobvoi account which I found very annoying as it failed to let me sign in several times but eventually I got in. 

Once signed in and given the Tic apps permission you will find the TicExercise app has 20 workout modes such as:

• Walking
• Running
• Cycling 
• Swimming
• Yoga

There is a Freestyle option which was useful when you are hitting the weights as it counts sets which is not available in the 20 workout modes in the TicExercise app. Now if you are out running or out walking the GPS is built-in meaning you won’t need to have your phone to track your exercise or location. When testing we found the location data was very accurate and also found the watch will automatically notice if we started a long walk or started running it would start recording and worked very well.   

In addition to the fitness tracking, there is also an optical heart rate monitor that provided continuous tracking during your workouts which can also be used to provide real-time readings via the TicPulse app. It also provides a heart rate monitor just in case you are going too hard and provides a warning when the heart is beating too high. 

Also to assist with the fitness monitoring is the TicOxygen app and you can turn this on to record hourly readings throughout the day and night to measure your SPO2 levels. This is is important when picking up issues such as heart disease or asthma. However, the recording was very difficult to take and even struggled to record SPO2 levels at night. When it does work it uses an alert when oxygen levels in the blood are abnormal. 

Fitness Monitoring Performance

When using the E3 when doing exercise you will notice the start/stop functionality works really well, especially at the end of a hard workout.

When finished your workout you get all the key information displayed on the screen and as the display is large you will have no issues viewing the stats provided. In fact, you are presented with a colour-coded summary like what we have below:

Overall the E3 might not be packed with features like something like on the Pro 3 Ultra but the fact it provides you with general health and wellbeing, fitness tracking and also comes with features like GPS and auto-tracking for those who have kickstarted a diet and want to monitor there progress this smartwatch is a solid option. 

Verdict

The Mobvoi TicWatch E3 is an excellent alternative if the budget does not reach the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra. The TicWatch E3 comes with a large display which allows most users to view any notification with ease. 

The fact this watch uses Google Gear OS you get all the Google features such as Google Fit and the watch also allows for NFC payments via the Google Pay feature perfect for when your working out and do not have your phone to hand and need to buy a drink on the move.

What you will notice is the design of the watch feels cheap it uses a lot of plastic and does not feel premium and that might put some users off. I also found the fact the E3 uses an LCD screen over the more popular OLED display could be to keep costs down but adds to the cheapness of the watch and they have also skipped on automatic brightness. It’s not a deal-breaker but it just adds to the overall feeling this is not a watch that falls in that premium part of the market.

Apart from that, the watch offers a wide range of monitoring on both health and fitness such as the continuous heart rate and SPO2 monitor and also provides alarms if you get near dangerous levels. The Ticwatch apps are useful but the fact you also have Google apps available I expect most users to use them over the Ticwatch offerings. 

Product Rating: 

Design: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0     

Performance: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0

Battery Life: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0  

Health & Fitness tracking: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars4.0

Sleep Tracking: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars3.0

Value for Money: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars4.0

Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 5.0 stars3.3 –  3.3 Stars                     

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