A ‘long duration’ battery has been promised
Mobvoi is a known name in the Wear OS market for a reason — it consistently releases capable smartwatches at satisfactory prices that even undercut the competition from time to time. Take the company’s flagship TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS, for example, which, while it doesn’t really run the latest version of Wear OS, still makes for a worthy competitor to the Galaxy Watch 4 by making up for lacking in other departments as we’ve noted in our review. Now, Mobvoi appears to be working on a new “flagship” watch that could possibly be a successor to the current top dog.
A Redditor has posted an email from the company (via 9to5Google) reaching out to them about a new program recruiting testers for an upcoming TicWatch that’s “about to be released.” No particular date has been given, but we can bet it will be making its way through along with the Galaxy Watch5, expected to launch this fall. The email does give out some teasing tidbits, though, including:
- Long duration battery
- NFC payment is compatible with Google Pay.
- IP68 waterproof, GPS, speaker, and microphone
- New IHB/AFiB detection and fatigue assessment
- Improved premium design, flagship model
The company reportedly emphasized the first and last points in its message. The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra packs a large 577mAh battery, promising 72 hours of usage on “Smart Mode”, so we could either see a larger battery in the upcoming mystery watch or big efficiency improvements if it’s stocked with the Snapdragon Wear 5100 chipset.
The mention of the watch running Google Pay means it will most likely be running Wear OS, quite possibly Wear OS 3.
“Improved premium design” suggests that the watch will likely not bring about a complete redesign and will look quite similar to previous TicWatch flagships — a large circular dial without a rotating crown. Lastly, “IHB/AFiB” stands for irregular heartbeat/atrial fibrillation — instances which the Pro 3 Ultra already tracks — so this mention suggests there could be improvements.
All we’re left here is a pretty decent teaser for what’s to come in the fall.
