Mobvoi TicWatch GTH Smartwatch Review: $80 Does Something a $400 Apple Watch Does!

POSITIVES

✓ Health Monitoring Sensors

There's every single sensor you'll need

✓ Bang for your buck

You get a whole lot for this price tag

✓ Terrific Display

Colorful and responsive for this segment

Negatives

✓ Stale Mobile App

Has connection issues

✓ Magnetic Charger

Disconnects too easily

✓ Design

Not very original

Purchase Price: $79.00

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I’ll be honest with you, it’s been a rough time for smartwatch users on Android, especially if you’ve been well versed with the Apple Watch. Trust me, I’ve searched just about every company to find a smartwatch that works with Android to match-up with the Apple Watch. It just doesn’t exist right now. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t find a watch out there that I can live with and be satisfied with to a certain extent. That’s where the TicWatch GTH comes in. This is more of an Amazfit competitor than an Apple Watch rival. For that reason, I find it more beneficial to have this on my wrist when carrying an Android phone over some of it’s more pricey competitors. 

$80 Packs a Punch

First off, unlike other older TicWatches out there in the market, the GTH does not run on Android’s Wear OS. This watch also doesn’t have a comparable processor like the Qualcomm Wear chips in the more expensive TicWatch Pro lineup. Think of this more as a fitness tracker in the body of a watch. It resembles an Amazfit Bip, which itself takes cues from the Apple Watch. The aluminum casing around a 1.5 “ colored glass display adds relative class to an otherwise cheap product. We’re looking at $79.99 MSRP here. While no one will mistake this for an Apple Watch close up thanks to the dark thick bezels around the screen, I do think it is a step up over the basic Amazfit Bip and other competitors in that range.

It’s Not Wear OS, but thats Alright

For navigating the interface, we have a single push button on the top right side of the casing. This acts as a menu or “back to home” button. Holding it for a few seconds brings you to the power off menu as well. The touchscreen is as responsive as you’d hope for a sub-$100 smartwatch. There’s a slight latency discrepancy, but nothing that will drive you crazy. This is offset by the solid transition animations that Mobvoi has implemented onto their proprietary OS. I’m extremely happy with the vibrancy of the colors and the variable brightness levels of the GTH screen. Just take a look at how sharp and colorful the icons are on the watch. This is one of the best sub-$100 displays on a smartwatch we have ever reviewed at The Sypnotix.

Operating like a modern smartphone will have many users easily adapting seamlessly into this platform. Swiping down brings the quick settings menu that allows you to dim the display as well as ping your phone to find the location. Swiping up from the time card brings up the notifications panel. Here we can see all the push notifications we assigned from our smartphone quickly passed onto our wrist. This aspect is the weak point of the GTH and many other watches like it. Notifications messages cut out after about roughly 40-something characters. A continuation page is available if the notification requires more, but that cuts out before the conclusion of the message. I’m not sure why they even allowed a second page to begin with if it doesn’t complete the sentences. I’m also not a fan of the font Mobvoi chose to use for these notifications. They’re too wiry to view comfortably. I would have preferred using the menu font instead which is bolder and looks cleaner to legibly read.

what’s it like on the wrist?

The GTH feels quite comfortable around my wrist. It isn’t too bulky and the cheaper materials double up for a lighter body weight. It doesn’t wear my wrist down when I have it on for double digit hours during the course of a day. I do appreciate how light it is even though there is a sacrifice in premium quality materials. 

The provided rubber watch band is large enough to be versatile for different wrist sizes. It’s a quick release mechanism we’re all very acquainted with by now since the advent of smartwatches. Nothing about the design of the GTH will blow you away and that’s by design. This is an unobtrusive, inoffensive and un-noteworthy timepiece that blends in with just about any outfit and situation its wearer can find themselves in.

All the bells and whistles

Being a modern smartwatch essentially means the device must have health and activity sensors to monitor its user’s wellbeing. This timepiece surprisingly has an abundant amount of sensors packed into it. You can monitor your skin temperature, your heart rate, sleep quality, respiration rate and even your blood oxygen (SpO2) levels. The latter one is the interesting one to see because as far as I’m aware of, this is the cheapest priced smartwatch with that ability. All the readings are within a reasonable margin of error to that of my Apple Watch Series 6. I’m quite impressed to see all of these readings accessible at such a small price tag. Of course, I don’t use them frequently enough to find it a viable feature set, but I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who would love to have these abilities without buying a Fitbit Versa 3 or an Apple Watch Series 6.

What I’m really here for is the battery life. Mobvoi claims about 10 days of battery life, but I’ve gotten 13 and 16 days off a charge. It doesn’t beat some of the other similar styled watches in longevity, but about 3 weeks off one charge is plenty enough to keep me happy. This watch has way more versatility than any of those other watches though thanks to additional sensors. Even with the constant 24 hr health monitoring, I’m still getting those competitive endurance numbers. This is a major win for the GTH. When it does need to charge, the included magnetic strip that attaches to the back of the watch definitely could be better. It’s easily detached, almost to a fault. However, it is relatively fast to recharge the 260 mAh battery back to full capacity. About 2 hours of charging time will give you almost half a month of battery life.

Does it Solve the Android Smartwatch problem?

What pieces this whole experience together is the Mobvoi app that accompanies the watch on your phone. It’s a rather plain and outdated app that is sorely in need of a makeover. The Mobvoi app screams Xiaomi more than Apple or Samsung and that is a major weakness. While I do like that it has a small watch face app store built in, the synchronizing system through bluetooth is horribly implemented. More often than not, it disconnects the bluetooth connection while pushing a watch face to the watch. It also does this when a new firmware is ready to update. It’s really a crap shoot whether these things work or not from my experience. I genuinely believe that a strong app experience tethers the whole overall smartwatch experience together. In Samsung’s case, their cheaper Galaxy Fit bands share the same app as their flagship Galaxy Watch lineups. It makes the experience much smoother for the wearer. 

It’s not easy being an Android smartwatch user in 2021 if you’ve tasted the sweet nectar of the Apple on the other side. I will say however, that while I do miss the Apple Watch on my wrist every single day I’m on an Android phone, about 40% of what I use a smartwatch for can be accomplished with this $80 TicWatch. I’m all for good value and there is no doubt that the GTH is worth tremendous value. This is even more so for people who put a lot of stock into fitness and healthy living. While Garmin and Fitbit will still have their spots in the Android space for this segment, Mobvoi can really disrupt the market in the near future if they continue to undercut the competition with overperfomlng products.

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