This is a relatively old review when the TicWatch was new. This watch easily outperforms the Galaxy Ultra and even Oneplus 2R and musters in 4/5 days of battery life (looks sadly at my GW 6).
Some did report its app being not as good as S Health or Google’s implementation. However it’s main Achilles heel is the update problem. Pixel Watches, IIRC, get 3 years and Galaxy Watches get 4 years ; but TicWatches are lucky to get one major Wear OS upgrade and that too, delayed. Which is a Shame because the hardware here easily equals last gen Galaxy/Pixel Watches and in terms of battery life, will stand for many years to come.
In my country, Wear OS forms a tiny share of the market and Samsung has the biggest pie of it (it doesn’t help that watches aren’t considered for trade in here, so if and when I do upgrade to a new watch, my current watch becomes e waste and I pay full price). I did consider the TicWatch but seeing it’s relatively poor software support went with Samsung. However, damn if I said that I love Samsung’s battery life or charging implementation. The WPC mechanism wastes so much heat and throttles itself to heck in hot temperatures.
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My dad gave me his Samsung Watch 7 he got for free with his new phone. What a disaster it was. Couldn’t connect to anything other than a Samsung phone, couldn’t charge while trying to make it work on my Nothing Phone because the device got too hot. Yeah… never a Samsung again for me, not even for free. He now uses it because ofcourse, it instantly paired to his S24 Ultra.
If my Garmin Instinct 2 dies, i would buy something simular. Or, if Garmin decides to aggressively pushing their subscription services in the (near) future or do anything other stupid, i would take my money to Pebble:
Huh, that shouldn’t happen. Whilst Samsung gatekeep certain features for its models only (like ECG for instance though one can bypass it by sideloading the SHM Monitor app from XDA), basic features do work fine with most models. I have a non Samsung device as well.
The watch getting too hot is a problem. I have seen it slowing down it’s charging speed (if not outright refusing to charge) in summers here.
Yes, it really shouldn’t, but it did. I tested it on 3 devices: Motorola G55, Nothing Phone 2(a) and my friends Samsung A52s. Guess what? Only the A52s was able to connect… And i have tried EVERYTHING. That can’t be coincindental.
And that getting too hot: Samsung doesn’t not make good cpu’s when it comes to efficiency, especially thermal performance.
Instinct gang! I got an Instinct 2S Solar after being fed up with "smart"watches with 1-2 day battery life, now I get 10-14 days realistically even when frequently training with GPS. I’ve also returned to Gadgetbridge recently and it’s an OK experience, minor bumps here and there, but definitely something I can daily drive in exchange for having control over my data.
What I find nice is that the Instincts don’t need the phone to see all data and can function pretty much autonomously - everything important can be checked on the watch itself. And the watch itself is so rugged (among other things, it has a 10ATM water resistance vs 5ATM for a lot watches, and pretty much all of the WearOS/general smartwatches like Huawei), I don’t have an issue taking it for swimming, which is very important for me.
I just wish there were more watches like Instinct that would also match the functionality these series have. But unfortunately, looks like most people prefer fancy displays over a watch being practical and not needing to charge it as often as your phone.
This is probably not a popular opinion, but I really don’t understand why people want Oled on their watches to begin with… are the pro’s really worth more than the con’s here (just a few days battery life, getting burn-in very quick due to static images)? I know there’s pixelshifting and that sort of stuff happening, but still…
E-ink is such a beautiful thing! Better visibility with more light, very long battery life…i think that’s way more important on smartwatches.
I guess it is appearance vs. endurance, or something like that. I’m just happy that nowadays there seems to be a watch for everybody (unlike smartphones, where 99% are huge, have camera cutouts and Oled…).
If you’re willing to consider something not Wear OS, Garmin watches offer many of the same features and typically multiple days of battery life.
Yes, Garmin is quite good. I only use my Galaxy Watch for basic health and sleep tracking (I know they are paywalling some stuff, but stuff like sleep or heart rate is bare minimum thing) and the odd music streaming.
Garmin definitely would give better milege in that case.
