Mobvoi has unveiled the TicWatch Pro with Wear OS, making this its third smartwatch powered by Google‘s wearable platform coming in behind the TicWatch E and TicWatch S. The word “Pro” isn’t just a tag Mobvoi is throwing on the end of the watch to give the allusion of a better quality watch. It actually comes with improvements over its other watches and comes with design traits that aren’t seen on many other products in this category. For starters it comes with a second display, but not like you would probably expect. The second display is actually placed on top of the initial display and serves as a way to help keep power consumption down so the battery doesn’t drain as fast.
Mobvoi was able to implement this making the display transparent, so the top display simply shows users basic details like the time, date, battery level and more in the style of an old digital watch. At any time though users can activate the OLED display underneath when they want to interact with the Wear OS features like apps, so this is still a smartwatch like any other that comes with Wear OS software. This is a unique take on a device which has typically been associated with a less than desirable battery life, though time will tell if Mobvoi’s design choice actually translates to better battery life for users.
It’s possible for users to activate the low-power display by turning off the main one, but it’s also been designed to activate automatically during periods of no use or when it goes to sleep on its own, meaning you can pretty much leave it alone and it’ll do its own thing without you having to worry about it. That might be better than the display being there itself for some users as it’s just one less thing to worry about. Right now there’s no confirmed release date or price but Mobvoi’s plan is to launch it sometime during the Summer and bring it to market for under $300 which would keep it competitive with other smartwatches. It’ll be more expensive than the TicWatch E and TicWatch S, but that extra cost does bring in the extra features, too, such as the TicWatch Pro’s “Essential Mode” which is supposed to help the watch battery last 30 days. Not every user will need that much time, but it’ll be useful for anyone who forgets to charge their devices every night.