TicWatch Atlas review: Dual displays and incredible battery life

I’ve been testing out numerous smartwatches for over 5 years now, and my work has offered me the chance to check out a variety of makes and fashions. In all that point, I’d by no means personally used a smartwatch that would give me an entire weekend’s price of battery life, nor had I used a watch with two shows. That every one modified with the TicWatch Atlas from Mobvoi, the model’s ruggedized tackle the  Apple Watch Extremely and Samsung Galaxy Watch Extremely components.

After spending two weeks with it, I’ve to say I genuinely loved having it on my wrist. Nevertheless, I’m nonetheless hesitant to advocate it as a high decide for most individuals attributable to a persistent problem we’ve seen with Mobvoi’s TicWatch line for some time now. In case you’re contemplating the TicWatch Atlas, right here’s what I feel it’s worthwhile to know earlier than shopping for one.

One of many TicWatch Atlas’s defining options is its dual-screen design, which Mobvoi’s smartwatches are identified for. That mentioned, I didn’t even discover it till midway by means of establishing the gadget. What instantly caught my consideration was the premium look of the matte metallic again casing.

It’s crafted from sandblasted stainless-steel, and the shiny bezel with orange accents provides it a smooth, high-end really feel proper out of the field. Proper now, it’s solely accessible in black, however Mobvoi plans to launch a silver model down the road.

The raised bezel not solely provides a traditional aesthetic but additionally gives some safety for the sapphire crystal show. I haven’t had the possibility to actually put it by means of the rugged adventures that Mobvoi suggests this watch is constructed for, however I’m not notably mild with my wearables. The truth that the watch has managed to stay scratch-free throughout my testing is unquestionably a superb signal.

Because of the rotating crown, navigating the Atlas is a breeze. The watch’s vibration motor supplies satisfying tactile suggestions as you scroll, making interactions really feel easy and exact. A single press on the crown takes you to the app drawer, whereas a double press relaunches the final app you used. There’s additionally a second button on the highest proper that provides you fast entry to latest apps and Google Pockets and likewise acts as an influence button.

At first look, the fluoro rubber straps didn’t excite me — they regarded a bit generic. However after carrying the Atlas for some time, I’ve come to understand their performance. The ridged design with these massive holes for the buckle does a incredible job of preserving my wrist cool and sweat-free throughout exercises.

In comparison with the sports activities band on my Galaxy Watch, which requires frequent adjustment throughout exercises, the Atlas strap felt rather more breathable and safe. Plus, because of the quick-release mechanism, it’s straightforward to swap out the 24mm band with any third-party possibility.

Whereas the Atlas weighs a bit greater than another smartwatches, just like the Pixel Watch 3 or Galaxy Watch 7, the 47 grams by no means felt cumbersome on my wrist. I put on a smartwatch to mattress each night time, so consolation is an enormous deal for me. Even with its 47mm case measurement, the TicWatch Atlas felt snug to put on 24/7. That is partly because of these ethereal straps, which, as I discussed, stored my wrist surprisingly sweat-free even throughout California’s latest heatwave.

Mobvoi markets the TicWatch Atlas as an outside journey watch, however it’s not fairly as rugged as choices just like the Galaxy Watch Extremely, Apple Watch Extremely, or Garmin watches just like the Fenix or Epix strains. It does have an IP68 and 5ATM water resistance score, that means it might probably deal with mud and splashes with ease. I took it for a 30-minute swim within the pool, and it carried out flawlessly. Nevertheless, it lacks particular diving options, and people different adventure-focused watches usually boast a 10ATM score, permitting to be used in deeper waters.

True to its title, the Atlas features a compass and barometer, helpful for individuals who take pleasure in exploring off the grid. However it doesn’t provide superior options like offline navigation or TrackBack, that are discovered within the Galaxy Watch Extremely and Garmin watches. To be honest, although, these different fashions include a a lot greater price ticket, typically much more than double the Atlas’ $349 MSRP. Total, the Atlas continues to be a strong alternative for outdoor, simply not the all-out journey watch you’d need for a Man vs. Wild-level expedition.

What’s new on the TicWatch Atlas?

In comparison with earlier flagship Mobvoi smartwatches, such because the TicWatch Professional 5 Enduro, which launched earlier in 2024, the TicWatch Atlas introduces a number of noteworthy upgrades, together with Warmth Map Monitoring, Fall Detection, and Enhanced TicMotion, which helps with auto-detecting exercises.

Fortunately, I didn’t get the chance to check the Fall Detection function, however it’s a welcome addition for any smartwatch, particularly one geared in direction of lively customers. The watch makes use of superior sensors and AI to detect falls mechanically and might set off an SOS name along with your location if wanted. There’s additionally a guide SOS set off, which is a superb security function for outside lovers.

The Warmth Map Monitoring function is one thing that I haven’t seen on many mainstream smartwatches. It gives a customized warmth map that tracks your actions in numerous sports activities — excellent for analyzing your efficiency and seeing the place you’ve been most lively throughout a recreation. The function is out there for sports activities like American soccer, basketball, rugby, soccer, and some others.

I didn’t have the possibility to check it totally in a aggressive match. Nevertheless, I did activate the soccer mode and walked round my yard. From the warmth map above, it looks as if the GPS locked onto my place precisely sufficient for me to really feel assured that it will work nicely in an actual recreation.

You can too share the warmth map to your socials or obtain it utilizing one of many in-built templates. It’s a cool function, however in all probability not one thing most individuals will use daily except you’re closely into sports activities monitoring.

Now, let’s dive into what units the TicWatch Atlas aside. The TicWatch Atlas options a typical 1.43-inch OLED display with a 466 x 466 decision, however it additionally has an “ultra-low-power” LCD panel. This secondary display introduced again recollections of monochrome digital watches I wore as a child. However nostalgia isn’t the one purpose I appreciated its existence right here.

For one, I seen that in brilliant outside daylight, the low-power show is definitely simpler to learn than the OLED. The low-power display is solely darkish textual content on a plain background, which holds up higher in direct daylight in comparison with the OLED, the place a darkish watch face would possibly make visibility extra of a problem.

The LCD has a customizable backlight in 18 totally different colours, and you should use the rotating crown to toggle by means of coronary heart price, energy burned, SpO2 readings, and even the compass, all with out waking up the primary show. I even arrange the watch to solely mild up the low-power display for the Tilt-to-wake performance, which does all the pieces you want it to — with out draining your battery.

I’ve all the time averted utilizing AOD on smartwatches just because I hate how rapidly it drains the battery. However the TicWatch Atlas solves that problem for me. In case you want, you should use the OLED for AOD too — however, as anticipated, that’ll hit your battery more durable.

One minor downside of the dual-display design is that the OLED appears a tad much less brilliant than it may very well be, nearly prefer it’s coated with a faint 10% transparency filter. However truthfully, it’s a small trade-off for the advantages you get in return.

And what are these advantages, you ask? The most important one is prolonged battery life, which is a significant promoting level for the TicWatch Atlas. This watch packs an enormous 625mAh battery, which dwarfs the batteries present in most different smartwatches, together with the bigger variants of the Galaxy Watch 7, the Pixel Watch 3, and even the Galaxy Watch Extremely.

As I anticipated, the Atlas lasts considerably longer than my Galaxy Watch 7. I’ve persistently been getting greater than three full days of use, together with sleep monitoring and common exercise monitoring — one thing I’ve by no means skilled with some other smartwatch.

On days after I wasn’t logging any exercises, the battery dropped solely by about 15-20% in 24 hours, which is spectacular. On days after I did monitor exercises, the battery drained a bit quicker, however the Atlas nonetheless had about 50% left after 24 hours, whereas the Galaxy Watch 7 dropped to about 30% throughout that point.

Whereas I’m head over heels for the battery life, I’m not a fan of the Pogo pin charger. Wi-fi charging would have been good to have. Nevertheless, it’s a compromise I’m prepared to make for this degree of endurance. My solely different grievance is that the charger makes use of a USB-A cable. Most of my units are USB-C now, so having to dig up an outdated adapter was a slight inconvenience.

The TicWatch Atlas has devoted health monitoring modes for about 100 totally different actions. I put it to the take a look at with outside walks, pool swims, and common every day exercise monitoring. The built-in GPS precisely mapped my routes, and the guts price monitoring appeared to be on par with my Galaxy Watch 7 (although I don’t have any medical-grade gear to substantiate absolute accuracy).

Keep in mind that helpful secondary show? You need to use it throughout exercises to watch your vitals at a look, and it pulls off a neat trick — its backlight adjustments coloration based mostly in your coronary heart price zone. It’s a easy but efficient method that can assist you tempo your exercises without having to swipe or faucet the primary display.

The watch does a good job of figuring out sleep cycles, from deep sleep to REM, however for sleep monitoring typically, it struggles to distinguish between mendacity awake in mattress and really dozing. I usually spend about 20 minutes every morning reviewing my to-do listing whereas nonetheless in mattress, and the Atlas persistently counted this time as sleep. To be honest, many health wearables have this problem, however my Galaxy Watch appears to be a bit extra correct on this regard.

To trace your information and tinker with the watch, you’ll use the Mobvoi Well being app (accessible solely on Android — the TicWatch Atlas isn’t appropriate with iOS). Whereas the app is visually interesting and full of detailed graphs and charts, I discovered the efficiency to be a bit sluggish. There’s a noticeable choppiness when switching between pages, nearly as if it’s loading internet pages inside the app. It’s not a deal-breaker, however it does detract from the general expertise.

On the plus facet, the app is sort of useful, which hasn’t all the time been the case with Mobvoi’s apps. It syncs your well being information with Google Match, means that you can tweak watch settings, and gives a good choice of watch faces. I additionally favored the power to customise watch face problems to show the knowledge I discover most helpful. For a greater variety of watch faces, it’s worthwhile to set up a separate Timeshow app.

As for the software program, the TicWatch Atlas runs on Google’s Put on OS, and Mobvoi doesn’t mess with the expertise an excessive amount of. There are a number of Tic-branded apps for exercises, stats, and different important capabilities, however total, it stays near the inventory Put on OS really feel. Because of the Snapdragon W5 Plus chipset — similar because the one within the Pixel Watch 3 — the watch is fairly snappy. In reality, it usually felt extra responsive than my Galaxy Watch 7.

That mentioned, the software program has one draw back: the Atlas comes working on Put on OS 4, which is greater than a yr outdated at this level. Put on OS 5 brings some strong enhancements like higher battery effectivity and quicker app loading instances, to not point out new working metrics and watch face enhancements.

Whereas Mobvoi will doubtless replace the TicWatch Atlas to Put on OS 5 ultimately, the corporate hasn’t dedicated to a timeline. Provided that it took the TicWatch Professional 5 sequence some time to get Put on OS 4, it wouldn’t shock me if the Atlas doesn’t see Put on OS 5 till Put on OS 6 is already on the horizon.

The TicWatch Atlas seems to be smooth (for a rugged watch, anyway), feels nice for all-day put on, and boasts an distinctive battery life that outshines a lot of the competitors. The twin-display design is greater than a gimmick — it’s genuinely helpful, and the watch’s total efficiency is snappy. It has all of the important health and health-tracking options you’d count on, together with a number of cool extras like warmth map monitoring.

The one main downside right here is the software program assist. Whereas a Put on OS 5 replace is probably going, Mobvoi hasn’t offered a transparent timeline, and the dearth of Google Assistant assist additional limits its good capabilities. If preserving your units up-to-date with the most recent software program is a dealbreaker, this would possibly provide you with pause, particularly since Put on OS continues to be evolving, and every replace brings significant enhancements.

There are a number of different minor hiccups, just like the Mobvoi app feeling somewhat unrefined at instances and the sleep monitoring needing some fine-tuning. Moreover, when you’re already locked into Samsung or Google’s ecosystems, you’ll miss the tight integration between your cellphone and watch. As an example, with my Galaxy Watch, enabling sleep mode on both my Samsung cellphone or watch syncs it throughout each units, whereas with the TicWatch, I needed to do it manually on each.

The TicWatch Atlas is priced at $349.99, accessible by means of Mobvoi and third-party retailers like Amazon. That places it simply above the Galaxy Watch 7 ($299.99 at Amazon) and on par with the smaller Pixel Watch 3 ($349.99 at Amazon).

In case you prioritize distinctive battery life and recognize distinctive options like warmth map monitoring, the Atlas is a compelling alternative. However, for individuals who closely depend on their smartwatch as an extension of their smartphone and worth the most recent software program options and ecosystem advantages, choices from Samsung or Google is likely to be a greater match.

In case your high precedence is unparalleled battery life, or when you’re primarily thinking about exercise monitoring throughout your outside adventures, the Garmin Fenix sequence is price contemplating. Nevertheless, be ready for a considerably greater price ticket. One other glorious possibility for outside lovers is the Galaxy Watch Extremely ($499.99 at Amazon). It gives a broader vary of adventure-focused options, multi-day battery life, and particular perks for Samsung customers, however it additionally comes at a premium value in comparison with the TicWatch Atlas.

In case you’re not as involved with outside options however nonetheless crave prolonged battery life, the OnePlus Watch 2 ($299.99 at OnePlus), with its distinctive dual-chip structure, delivers spectacular endurance at a barely lower cost level.

Alternatively, when you can stay with out warmth map monitoring and the emergency SOS function, contemplate the TicWatch Professional 5 Enduro ($349.99 at Amazon). It gives an analogous function set and spectacular battery life and is commonly promoting for a reduction now, however remember the fact that it’d lag even additional behind by way of software program updates.

Finally, the choice comes right down to your priorities. As our wearables skilled, Kaitlyn aptly summed up in her evaluate of a earlier TicWatch mannequin, “The true query is whether or not your precedence is to entry the most effective software program accessible or faucet into the most effective battery life. For Mobvoi’s sake, I hope buyers don’t all the time have to decide on.” Sadly, that’s nonetheless the case with the TicWatch Atlas, however I nonetheless should commend Mobvoi for making a compelling Apple Watch Extremely and Galaxy Watch Extremely various at nearly half the worth.