Mobvoi TicWatch GTX Review

We think this smartwatch only offers a bit more functionality than a fitness tracker, and we would suggest you also consider those products if you are shopping for a wearable in this price range.

Ease of Use

We weren't particularly impressed with the performance of the TicWatch GTX's touchscreen. It scrolls decently well if you are very deliberate in flicking your finger across the screen, but it can be a little laggy and far from fluid if your swipes are on the slow side. It can also be a little hit or miss when it comes to waking up when you raise your wrist, usually showing a noticeable delay. However, it typically illuminates within a second.

This watch is rated for IP68 when it comes to water-resistance, making it suitable for swimming, as it should be good to a max depth of 1.5 meters for up to 30 minutes. The charging setup for this watch is fine in our opinion, staying in place quite well. It can take a tiny bit more effort to get set up, as the magnetic coupling is polarized and can only be attached one way.

We liked that it is very easy to swap out wristbands on this watch.

The bands are fairly slim, so it doesn't get in the way if you are trying to slide the lever to unlock the band or slip the new one into the notches.

Smart Functions

This smartwatch doesn't appear to have the option to add any third-party apps and is limited to the features that the device ships with. This watch also doesn't have a speaker or microphone, so you aren't able to take phone calls from your wrist.

There is no GPS unit or NFC capabilities for payment terminals. You also don't have any music controls, which puts this watch significantly behind other models in terms of smart features.

Display

The TicWatch GTX has a 1.28" diameter circular screen with a resolution of 240x240 pixels. Overall, we weren't super impressed with the image quality on this screen compared to the other watches. We also found it to be very difficult to read in direct sunlight, though it does have a backlight for viewing in the dark.

You have limited customization options with the backlight as well, as the TicWatch GTX lacks the capability to have the backlight set to be always-on or to automatically adjust its brightness.

Fitness Impact

We assessed how well the TicWatch GTX's step counts compared with a mechanical step counter for each of our three mile-long walks. This watch didn't do all that well, having an average error of 40 steps after our three trials.

It did even worse in our heart rate monitor test, differing wildly from our chest strap monitor in our tests whenever it was measuring an elevated heart rate. We found discrepancies as large as 60 bpm to be common, but they did align fairly well when measuring a sedentary heart rate.

We also weren't overly impressed with this watch's workout tracking features. Its data collection was fairly spotty in our experience and when it does work, it will only give you the distance, duration, estimated calories burned, heart rate data, and a few other things. It does have activity profiles for outdoor run, outdoor cycling, jump rope, swimming, indoor walking, rowing, free style, mountain climbing, indoor run, gymnastics, soccer, basketball, indoor cycling, and yoga, but most of the data collected for the different profiles will be the same. The TicWatch GTX also does not count the number of stairs climbed throughout the day.

Battery Life

The manufacturer for this watch claims that you can get up to 7 days with typical use or up to 10 days when using the power save feature. This matched up well with our testing, with the very limited features of this watch aiding its longer battery life. It also is about average when it comes to recharging, taking about 2 hours to completely refill the battery.

Value

If you are shopping on the smallest of budgets, then this watch is a good low-cost option.

Conclusion