TicWatch E2 Review

Not too long ago, we tried out the TicWatch E smart watch. Now, Mobvoi have given that watch a little upgrade and released it as the E2. We were fortunate to get one sent over, so let’s try it out.

Tech Spec

– 47mm diameter face
– Operating system: Wear OS by Google
– Compatible with iOS & Android
– Qualcomm Snapdragon
– Battery: 415mAh
– 1.4″ AMOLED screen (400x400px)
– Bluetooth, GPS & WiFi
– Sensors: Accelerometer, gyroscope, heart-rate sensor, low latency off-body sensor
– Waterproof rating: 5 ATM (swim ready up to 50m)

In The Box & Design

The watch arrives well protected in a cardboard box. The watch is strapped around a piece of foam and covered in sticky plastic. Within the box is the docking station and some instructions.

The watch itself is has a polycarbonate case, with a rubber strap. All of which are matte or glossy black, and black is the only colour available at present. It has a traditional clasp strap, with plenty of holes for added flexibility and two bands to hold any excess strap in place. The other clock face size is nearly 47mm, which is a bit of an odd size, when you’re used to 38 or 42mm watches.

There is a single button to the right-hand side of the watch, which can be used to access options, but the screen is also touchscreen, which is probably how you will control the traditional most of the time. To the back of the watch is the sensor & charging plates. You need to sit the watch onto the charging station and plug that into a power socket via USB (no plug adapter included). To accurately use the sensor, you need the watch relatively tight to your wrist.

Set Up & Use

Set up is quite straight forward and you are guided throughout the set up via the watch. In essence, you need to download the Wear OS app on your smartphone (free on iOS & Android), pair the two together and activate. After set up was complete, I was prompted to install a firmware update on the watch.

There is just a single button on the watch, as well as the touch screen. You can control everything with these two methods. Hitting the button takes you to the options, which you can then scroll through.

If you’re on the home screen or watch face screen, scrolling down brings up a mini menu, with options such as flight mode, volume, brightness & battery level indicator. Swipe up and it will list any notifications you have from the apps on your traditional, such as Whatsapp or text messages, meeting reminders etc. If you swipe left it takes you to your calander day, what I had going on etc and swiping right took me to my daily health information, steps, distance, calories etc.

If you hold your finger down on the screen for two seconds, face options will appear. There are several watch faces to choose from, including both traditional and modern looks.

There are several options & settings within the watch, including system settings such as display, gestures, sound etc, which allow you to customise the watch to suit your needs. You can select different watch faces, the information on the watch face, brightness, when the display is shown, there really is lots of options to dig your teeth into.

There are several apps the watch works with, including Spotify, Lifesum, Google Fit, Strava, Uber, Facebook messenger and Whatsapp. The app needs to be on your smartphone, for the watch to function with it. When you get a notification or message through the app, it’s displayed on your watch.

Performance

As for performance, it’s a far better experience and improvement over the original E smartwatch. My main issue with the original watch, was the accuracy of the stepomete, as I was able to swing my arm and it would count as a step. However with the E2, it’s far more accurate and doesn’t count any arm swinging as steps. The built-in Tic sports features (TicMotion 1.0) work well and seem to be accurate. I monitored my heartbeat during the day, showing me times when it was elevated (during exercise) and when it was at it lowest. I used it in the pool more than anything, with the swimming feature and my only issue with that, as I was only able to input up to 100m as a distance, whereas I would do either 200 or 400 in some instances.

As a timepiece, the time is accurate and the display is fantastic, for both telling the time and for other information. Notifications work a treat! While wearing the watch, I received notifications from Uber when my car had arrived, new alerts from Hot UK Deals and of course, multiple Whattsapp & Facebook messenger messages.

Battery life is ok, I had the screen off, unless I used the gesture to view my watch or pressed the button. Battery lasted about two days for me, but it would be alot less if you had the screen on 24/7.

The watch depth is too much for me, as the watch wouldn’t fit underneath my shirt and I personally don’t like my watch sticking out from my shirt, but maybe that’s just me.

Verdict

The E2 is a great smartwatch, regardless if you use it for sports or not, and is a much wanted improvement over the original E version. It retails for the same price as the original E watch did, at just £145.99, which is more than half the price of the overprice Apple Watch series 4.

For more information, visit the official TicWatch E2 webpage.