I’m a die-hard Apple fan, but after years of using the company’s watches, I decided to take a walk on the wild side and test out Google’s Wear OS with the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra. My Apple Watch Series 7 works well, but the interface is getting boring. I wanted to try out the many cool-looking watch faces that are available on the Google Play Store. Also, the sameness of the Apple Watch’s square design needed some changing up.
Design There’s no getting around the fact that the Pro 3 Ultra is big and bulky. At 47mm by 48mm by 12.2mm, it’s got a rugged, outdoorsy look. The watch’s 47mm casing is made of stainless steel, nylon, and fiberglass, and attaches to a 22mm rubber strap. You can use any 22mm strap, but the GPS model I own only comes in black. The LTE model has a slightly more expensive-looking brown leather strap.
Choose your OS I spent time using the Pro 3 Ultra with a Google Pixel phone running Android and my iPhone 12 Pro Max. I tend to use my iPhone as a daily driver, so it was a pleasant surprise that I didn’t feel like I was missing out on much by using Apple’s OS with the Mobvoi. You can download apps from the Google Play Store. The Pro 3 Ultra also comes loaded with some handy apps baked in, including fitness basics like step counting, exercise measurements, heart rate, and a blood oxygen monitor.
Battery and charging Coming from the Apple Watch 7, the battery life on the Pro 3 Ultra was stellar. I used the wireless charger supplied with the watch to top it up in about two hours. The charger is just a chunk of black plastic and doesn’t do much to show off the good looks of the Pro 3 Ultra. The cable is also a little awkward to position on a nightstand, but at least it matches the minimalist design of the Mobvoi.
Ha, a really better battery is the Garmin Instinct Solar. More than two weeks.