Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas Review: Globe Trotter

Worth When Reviewed

$349

Greatest Costs At this time: Mobvoi TicWatch Atlas

$349.99

The TicWatch Atlas sees Mobvoi roll out one other Put on OS smartwatch and this time it’s constructed for lovers of the good open air.

Just like the TicWatch Professional 5 Enduro, which was introduced early in 2024, the Atlas guarantees to wrap Google’s newest smartwatch OS in a rugged exterior to make it higher fitted to some severe tough and tumble.

Harder design apart, there are some new software program options right here that haven’t appeared on the TicWatch Professional 5 and Professional 5 Enduro, like fall detection and emergency modes with a enjoyable warmth map mode for lovers of crew sports activities like soccer, tennis and basketball.

It does, after all, embrace Mobvoi’s dual-layer show know-how, which helps to push battery additional than rival Put on OS smartwatches to maintain you monitoring for longer than the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and the Google Pixel Watch 3. 

I used to be fairly underwhelmed by the sunshine replace Mobvoi rolled out with the TicWatch Professional 5 Enduro, so is there extra to get enthusiastic about with the Atlas? I strapped it on to search out out.

Design & Construct

• Massive 52mm case
• Heavier than Professional 5 Enduro
• Waterproof as much as 50 metres

The Professional 5 Enduro doesn’t stray too far-off from what we bought with the Professional 5 Enduro by way of general look.

The large variations lie with the case measurement and the color choices accessible. There’s your choose of black (pictured) or silver seems and the case has grown from a 50mm one to a barely bigger 52mm case.

Mike Sawh

In actuality, that soar in measurement doesn’t dramatically change what it’s prefer to reside with the Atlas in comparison with the Professional 5 Enduro and Professional 5, however for those who have been hoping for one thing small then you definately’re out of luck.

It’s jumped a little bit in weight on the Professional 5 sequence but doesn’t really feel as hulking as another outdoor-centric smartwatches. It tries to strike a steadiness between providing a sturdy design whereas retaining a extra refined, streamlined look of the Professional 5 sequence to make it one which doesn’t scream open air.

You’re nonetheless getting a watch case with a rotating and non-rotating crown buttons and a case made out of stainless-steel and aluminium. It’s additionally been examined to MIL-STD-810H navy requirements to deal with being operated in excessive and low temperatures and situations like rain and wind.

The Atlas will get the identical degree of waterproofing because the Professional 5 and Enduro, making it secure to take for swims as much as 50 metres depth and it survived my time within the water with it. Retaining that robust case in your wrist is a reasonably standard-looking 24mm-sized flurorubber strap that may be eliminated and makes use of a reasonably easy pin mechanism to do this. 

Is it probably the most beautiful, jaw-dropping smartwatch to take a look at? Probably not. For those who like the thought of a smartwatch that has a extra rugged high quality to it with out including severe heft to your wrist, then the Atlas can have enchantment.

I feel it could profit from including one other bodily button to make interacting with Put on OS extra intuitive. For those who’re hoping for one thing distinctly totally different from the Professional 5 and Professional 5 Enduro, that’s undoubtedly not the case.

Display screen & Audio 

• Similar 1.43-inch AMOLED show and ultra-low energy show
• Sapphire Crystal display screen safety
• Microphone and speaker included

Regardless of giving the Atlas a bigger case Mobvoi sticks to utilizing the identical 1.43-inch, 466 by 466 decision AMOLED show used on the Professional 5 and Enduro.

That’s mixed with an ultra-low energy show the place some good options of the watch could be offloaded and might help to push battery life additional. Sapphire crystal protects the display screen from scratches and is the kind of display screen safety usually discovered on costlier outdoor-centric smartwatches.

Mike Sawh

The twin show stays a spotlight characteristic for Mobvoi TicWatches in comparison with rival smartwatches. It means in AMOLED mode you get a high-quality display screen with good sharpness, brightness and general vibrancy to indicate off each Mobvoi and Google’s software program.

You should utilize the ultra-low energy mode throughout exercises, set it as much as activate at night time and also you’re capable of look at info like step counts, coronary heart charge and naturally the time. Utilizing the watch crown additionally means that you can view a few of that information in an expanded view, which improves the usefulness of this mode.

Mobvoi consists of each a microphone and a speaker so the Atlas is ready to deal with calls over Bluetooth as there’s no LTE connectivity right here. I discovered the microphone efficiency completely effective normally with out being standout from different smartwatches with comparable performance.

If you wish to take calls out of your wrist, the Atlas affords good quantity and readability.

Software program & Options 

• Runs on Put on OS 4
• Works with Android smartphones solely
• Powered by Snapdragon W5 + Gen 1 chip

The excellent news on the software program entrance is that the Atlas runs Put on OS 4.0 out of the field, as Mobvoi lastly began rolling out this model of Google’s smartwatch working system to its Professional watches in September final yr.

Mike Sawh

Meaning you get entry to the very best Google has to supply, although it’s not the newest model which is Put on OS 5. Nonetheless, you might have the flexibility to again up and restore your information making it simpler to switch your watch to a brand new cellphone with out doing a manufacturing facility reset.

In essence, you’re getting new Put on with the presence of tiles (widgets) and notifications to swipe by means of, entry to Google apps like Google Calendar, Google Maps and Pockets and YouTube Music.

That’s additionally blended in with Mobvoi’s personal software program, together with its Important mode to make the very best use of the ultra-power show. There are additionally health-focused ones like TicBreathe, TicBarometer whereas its TimeShow app indulges followers of fixing watch faces frequently.

Mike Sawh

Efficiency is dealt with by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 + Gen 1 chip together with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Once more, the identical parts that characteristic within the TicWatch Professional 5 and Professional 5 Enduro.

The expertise of utilizing Put on OS feels an identical to utilizing it on Mobvoi’s Professional watches. It’s nice to see Google’s apps are effectively built-in and third-party app assist doesn’t really feel disjointed or clunky.

I feel the combination of Mobvoi and Google’s apps can really feel like a struggle to be probably the most dominant on the software program entrance. Each provide helpful apps and modes, nevertheless it may want a little bit of refining nonetheless to make the software program bundle really feel like a extra unified one.

Health & Monitoring 

• New Emergency and SOS modes
• Warmth maps for crew sports activities
• Enhanced TicMotion assist 

Whether or not you go for Mobvoi’s personal well being and health monitoring smarts or select to move to the Google Play Retailer to get one thing extra to your liking, the Atlas offers you a complete degree of monitoring assist.

Mike Sawh

There are optical sensors to trace coronary heart charge, SpO2 ranges and pores and skin temperature. There are additionally the everyday movement sensors to trace train each manually and routinely in addition to allow sleep monitoring, with extra out of doors sensors within the type of a built-in compass and barometer to raised measure elevation.

Most of that information is viewable on the watch, with all the things else saved within the Mobvoi Well being Android smartphone app. It’s an app that gives a dashboard of your stats alongside gadget settings and turning on information sharing for Strava and Google Match.

As a sports activities watch, it covers over 100 sports activities modes, however lacks the most recent dual-frequency GPS assist we’re beginning to see crop up on different smartwatches together with ones that are available in cheaper than the Atlas.

You’re getting an enhanced model of Mobvioi’s TicMotion automated monitoring recognition that works for strolling, operating and biking solely. The improved half refers to with the ability to see richer real-time health information on the low-power show, which I discovered fairly difficult at instances to soak in on the transfer.

Mike Sawh

On out of doors runs, I discovered the GPS sluggish to choose up a sign and tended to overreport distance towards a extra correct dual-frequency GPS-packing watch. It wasn’t a foul exhibiting for GPS monitoring, however yow will discover devoted sports activities watches for much less that may carry out higher.

Most coronary heart charge information in comparison with a coronary heart charge monitor was at instances greater than 10 bpm increased in my assessments. For pool swims, it didn’t fare too badly monitoring distance and laps, although did counsel a faster common tempo in comparison with the dependable swim monitoring on an Apple Watch Extremely 2 and the Type Sensible Swim 2 Goggles. I appreciated that the center charge zone backlights make it simpler to know your exercise effort ranges with out carefully wanting on the watch, although how dependable that coronary heart charge information was is one other matter.

There are some extra coaching metrics at your disposal like VO2 Max estimates, superior operating metrics and advisable restoration time ideas. The restoration time ideas notably felt off, even off the again of some fairly mild exercises.

The large new software program addition is the brand new warmth maps mode, which is a enjoyable approach for anybody who dabbles in crew sports activities to see the place they spent most time on the sector, court docket or pitch with the flexibility to shortly share warmth maps.

By way of different options distinctive to the Atlas, there are fall detection and emergency SOS modes, so when the watch detects a fall utilizing its onboard sensors it’ll fireplace a message to emergency contacts. That is reliant on you having your cellphone close by to make all of it work.

What’s a little bit shocking for a watch that’s geared in direction of adventurers is that it doesn’t embody any type of offline maps constructed for actions like hikes. You do have Google Maps after all and the flexibility to obtain an app from the Play Retailer so as to add it into the combination, however it could have been a pleasant contact so as to add some native mapping assist to make this really feel extra like a watch you’d need to go exploring with.

Mike Sawh

While you flip to the Atlas to trace your well being, all the everyday sensors are in play although you’re not getting an ECG sensor or blood strain performance, which you can see on rival Put on OS smartwatches.

Coronary heart charge monitoring all through the day didn’t really feel all that dependable. My resting coronary heart charge all the time felt suspiciously excessive in comparison with different units and simply understanding normally what my ranges usually are day-to-day. My SpO2 information didn’t deviate exterior 98-100%, which might point out that it was within the wholesome vary. An included one-tap measurement helps you to seize a number of metrics from a 90-second studying. For me, it took a bit longer than that although.

Sleep monitoring captured comparable sleep period because the sleep monitoring from Samsung and Oura good rings. Sleep high quality scores and sleep phases did appear to differ throughout units, nonetheless. When sleep is unhealthy, the Well being app will inform you that and provide some fairly fundamental insights on why that’s not a superb factor in your well being. It’s nothing groundbreaking, however helpful for freshmen nonetheless.

Whereas Mobvoi does provide a superb vary of its personal monitoring apps, so far as being a completely fledged well being and health watch, it does a ok job of it.

Battery Life & Charging

• As much as 90 hours battery life
• As much as 45 days battery life in Important mode
• Can schedule Important mode

Mobvoi makes use of the identical capability 628mAh battery on the Atlas as you’ll discover within the Professional 5 and Professional 5 Enduro. What you get pleasure from by way of battery life completely depends upon the way you deal with the dual-layer show talked about earlier.

Mobvoi states you must get pleasure from as much as 90 hours or simply shy of 4 days when primarily making use of its AMOLED show. It actually depends on that much less power-hungry show to verify it could actually push by means of. A lot in order that on the primary day of testing I hadn’t realised that the watch had been set to default to modify show modes at night time to get that longer battery life.

I discovered 3-4 days consultant of my time testing the Atlas, so no actual enchancment on these Professional 5 watches. Attending to 4 days requires switching to the important show mode. For those who’re utilizing the display screen in always-on mode, that may invariably see the battery drop under these instances.

I discovered the day by day battery drop was wherever from 25-30% per day in heavier use and round 20% in lighter use. For over an hour’s use of GPS, the battery drop was 20%, which might work out to about 4-5 hours of GPS monitoring battery life. 

While you do get low on energy, there’s a quick cost mode that gives you 2 days of battery life from a 30-minute cost in that day by day utilization state of affairs, so not when the display screen is ready to always-on. It nonetheless means it’s up there with the OnePlus Watch 2 as Put on OS smartwatches that transcend the norm of what we’ve needed to cope with on Put on OS smartwatches and battery life for a very long time.

Worth & Availability

The TicWatch Atlas was formally introduced in October 2024 and went on sale for £329/$349. It’s since dropped under that launch worth as usually appears to be the case with Mobvoi because it doesn’t wait lengthy to low cost its watches.

You should purchase one from Mobvoi or Amazon.

The TicWatch Professional 5 and Professional 5 Enduro launched on the similar worth and just like the Atlas, are already on provide under £300/$300 and even under £200/$200 for some variations.

When put up towards different Put on OS smartwatches, the Google Pixel Watch 3 is pricier at £399/$399, whereas Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 pricing begins at £289/$299. There’s additionally the likes of the WearOS-packing OnePlus Watch 2 and Watch 2R, which prices from £249/$299. 

The Atlas is extra rugged and cheaper than choices such because the Galaxy Watch Extremely which is £599/$649.99.

Take a look at our record of the very best smartwatches to see our high suggestions.

Must you purchase the TicWatch Atlas?

For those who’ve already bought a TicWatch Professional 5 or Professional 5 Enduro, there doesn’t appear to be an entire lot to swap that look ahead to the Atlas. Barring a couple of software program extras and a bigger case, you possibly can anticipate an identical efficiency throughout the board.

Whereas the Atlas affords a reasonably inexpensive path to Put on OS, the competitors is getting cheaper and there’s an argument to say that rival watches just like the OnePlus Watch 2R and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 provide you with higher worth for cash for those who don’t want such a rugged design.

Samsung affords extra on the well being and monitoring entrance, whereas the Watch 2R edges the Atlas for battery in full smartwatch mode. The Atlas is a solid-enough performer that doesn’t do fairly sufficient otherwise from different TicWatches and different rivals that sit in and round its worth.

The primary purpose to purchase it’s the rugged design which is cheaper than the likes of the Galaxy Watch Extremely.

Specs