Ticwatch E
Author
Discussion

NiceCupOfTea

Original Poster:

25,607 posts

282 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
Can't see any threads on these - thought it would be better in here than the watch forum!

I've had a Pebble smart watch for a while and generally liked it, like keeping track of steps and sleep and alerts on my wrist etc.

It's been getting a little flaky recently - a hard reset would probably have sorted it but fancied a new toy. Saw the Ticwatch E for a reasonable price (£116 on Amazon) and reviews are good.

Anyway, bought it and it turned up yesterday. First impressions are good - looks nice, not too unobtrusive. Getting used to android wear, struggling with the concept of it having its own apps installed and its own WiFi connection rather than just being linked to the phone by Bluetooth.

Lovely screen and runs very smoothly. Concerns/annoyances so far:

- battery life. Seems ok for these sorts of things but clearly needs a full 1 hour charge every day. This wouldn't be a problem, but...
- sleep tracking. My pebble did this and I really like it, bit android wear doesn't. You can install sleep as android or something but it's not the same and you need to tell it when you're going to sleep. Uses battery too and it really needs to be charging while you're asleep!
- wake up gesture. This is pretty key to saving battery. The wake up gesture is unreliable and very slow. Hope they will get it fixed in an update.

If they can fix 2 and 3 then it would be brilliant. On balance I will keep it I think but weirdly I seem to be wearing my pebble at night to track my sleep and while I charge the Ticwatch. Hopefully all the data will be collected in Google Fit, but movement data isn't displayed anyway as nicely as in the Pebble app where it shows a graph of your movements...

Any other users here?

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

176 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
No but thinking about getting a Ticwatch S (prefer the styling) so interested to hear how you're getting on with it. It would be my first "smartwatch" of any description. Main thing I want it for is running but all the other guff it does will come in use I'm sure.

NiceCupOfTea

Original Poster:

25,607 posts

282 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
I think it will be pretty good for running but not sure what to use - I've used runkeeper with my pebble but now I can use Google fit or even Strava or something now.

I preferred the styling of the E, other than a GPS antenna in the strap of the S I'm not sure there's much difference.

ajprice

33,574 posts

227 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
I've seen a lot of ads for it on Facebook with the Amazon price, and it does look interesting.

I've currently got a Sony Smartwatch 3, bought it a couple of years ago. It's a square screen, it's not getting an update to Android Wear 2, weird things are happening with the battery now (Wear it for a day, battery over 50% at the end of the day, turn it off, next morning the battery is about 7%. If I leave it on overnight, its fine for the second day).

Anyway, the Ticwatch is on the list. The E looks like it has a normal strap fitting with pins so I could replace the strap, or is it some custom fitting that only takes their straps?

NiceCupOfTea

Original Poster:

25,607 posts

282 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
It will take standard straps, not sure of the exact size but has "quick release" pins so no tools needed.

Just set up Strava and think I will probably use that for running now.

s2kjock

1,857 posts

178 months

Friday 16th February 2018
quotequote all
I have been umming and arring about smartwatches for a couple of years, but quite like the look of this as it is a good bit cheaper than most others with similar features - be interested to hear how you get on, but at that price I can probably justify giving it a go without being too painful if I end up not seeing value int he whole smartwatch concept.

Hopefully they won't go the same way as Pebble.

I notice they currently have discounts available on their own website, which give a similar price to Amazon at the moment - I reckon Amazon would be easier for returns though so will probably buy from them.

One thing that does frustrate me with smartwatches is the desire for health and fitness gubbins - I see the value in notifications and communication functions, but it seems to get these I also need to pay for (weight/size/price) heart monitors, step trackers, none of which I want.

Meoricin

2,880 posts

200 months

Saturday 17th February 2018
quotequote all
Well, all I'm using mine for is spotify control and whatsapp, but I'm liking it so far. Never used another smartwatch to compare though.

zedx19

3,050 posts

171 months

Thursday 1st March 2018
quotequote all
Been considering a Ticwatch E for a while now, was going to buy today but prices seem to have shot up now! Previously had a Pebble Steel and then an Apple Watch, but ditched Apple late last year and went for a Pixel XL. Will wait for the price to drop again I think but curious on peoples views of the Ticwatch now they've used it a while.

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

176 months

Thursday 1st March 2018
quotequote all
Likewise, just when I decide to get one they seem to have ended all their promotions rolleyes

Oh well I'm sure there will be another in a week or two, easter promo maybe?

ajprice

33,574 posts

227 months

Friday 13th July 2018
quotequote all
It's 30% off on deal of the day today (£102.19). It's Prime Day on Monday. Hmmm, what to do.

zedx19

3,050 posts

171 months

Friday 13th July 2018
quotequote all
Going to putting my Ticwatch on ebay this week, found it laggy, poor battery life and uncomfortable. Bought a Huawei Watch 2 instead which has a massively better battery, typically on 60-70% remaining after the same days use as my Ticwatch, lot more comfortable as well. Have noticed there's a Ticwatch Pro been released now though, unsure what that's like?

C0ffin D0dger

3,440 posts

176 months

Friday 13th July 2018
quotequote all
zedx19 said:
Going to putting my Ticwatch on ebay this week, found it laggy, poor battery life and uncomfortable. Bought a Huawei Watch 2 instead which has a massively better battery, typically on 60-70% remaining after the same days use as my Ticwatch, lot more comfortable as well. Have noticed there's a Ticwatch Pro been released now though, unsure what that's like?
Still haven't bought one, saw the deal come up today and I'm now wondering if I should or shouldn't. The reviews on the S/E are a real mixed bag, some saying it's great others not so. The Pro doesn't sound much better either. Whilst it does have a considerably better battery life due to the dual display it sounds like it's quite slow / laggy.

Until this deal came up I'd pretty much given up on the idea of one and was going to get a Garmin Forerunner as running will be the main use for the watch. What to do?

ajprice

33,574 posts

227 months

Friday 13th July 2018
quotequote all
Went for it, it will arrive on Monday.

NiceCupOfTea

Original Poster:

25,607 posts

282 months

Wednesday 29th August 2018
quotequote all
Had mine for over 6 months, and on balance I'm glad I did, but also glad I didn't pay much more than £100.

I have the screen always on as I got pissed off with the crap wake gesture. Most days it lasts the day if brightness is set to minimum, but I don't use it a huge amount.

Strava works well although the client isn't the best.

GPS lock generally good but sometimes for no reason it takes 10 or 15 mins which is very annoying when you've gone for a run.

Adaptive brightness - important omission, it is always too dim to read or ridiculously bright.

Android Wear is just a bit st to be honest, and I generally like android. I just don't find anything easy to get to on the watch. For example, would be nice to be able to answer calls through my watch when I'm running but can't find an easy way to do it without going through loads of menus.

Things seem to change randomly - volume (I prefer the watch as a silent device), notifications (sometimes they work, sometimes they don't).

The Bluetooth is flaky - just says "disconnected" sometimes and i can't get it to reconnect to my phone. Also upsets my car radio which connects to my phone. It's supposed to support multiple connections but it doesn't work properly.

So it works ok for me, but I basically use it for notifications, Strava, and a nice watch face. It just seems like a massive missed opportunity (think this may be android wear though). Not really found any killer apps for it either.

I like the idea of the new ticwatch which has an eink display as well so battery can last longer. Potential for proper sleeper tracking and vibrate to wake alarms (still use my pebble for that).

I suspect I may end up buying a Garmin or something as it's better for running etc and doesn't have any of the flaky stuff that doesn't seem to work.

Ps - best watch face I have found is ksana sweep - it's not free but very configurable, nice to look at, and displays loads of info without being cluttered - I've got steps, day/date, weather, and phone/watch battery levels.

paulrockliffe

16,654 posts

258 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
quotequote all
I have the Ticwatch Pro. It's OK, but not exceptional.

It's quite laggy sometimes and the dual screen will sometimes stop returning back to Android Wear, you end up rebooting it.

I got it for Google Pay, but that won't work. Possibly down to the card though, it worked for a few transactions and now fails. The bank say it's setup right at their end, but who knows?

The phone is annoying, I can answer a call, but there's no option to answer on the phone (while you get it from your pocket) or answer on the watch because the phone is elsewhere.

There isn't an offline music player on there by default, which is a bit daft given there's so few good apps for it that you'll never fill the memory without putting music on.

Good for Strava and activity tracking and I like the heart rate monitor.

Ray Singh

3,084 posts

261 months

Thursday 30th August 2018
quotequote all
My daughter saved hard and bought a Tic watch E.
It arrived and looked good. She has set it all up and it works really well. Paired up with her Android phone, loads of battery life and lots of apps.
She has different skins for the faces and is really enojying having it.

It was about £150 via Amazon, but money well spent.

ajprice

33,574 posts

227 months

Tuesday 28th May 2019
quotequote all
I noticed this morning that there are 'Tiles' on swiping left from the watch screen, with options to show steps, weather, heart rate, news, events. Must have been an OTA update as I haven't restarted or accepted an update on the watch to get it. Future updates to the E and S might be sketchy though, there's a Wear OS update to System H that the E and S won't get because its a Mediatek processor, not a Snapdragon. https://www.reddit.com/r/WearOS/comments/bbc2pm/ti...

As a watch I'm happy with what I've got, and this System H looks like a few battery saving and low power tweaks, not a big update like OS 2.0 was https://support.google.com/wearos/thread/563800?hl...

The watch has been around for about 18 months? I've had mine less than a year, I know phone OS have a quick version turnover, but no future major system updates (probably) already is a bit off.