ISSUE 50 • ANDROID ADVISOR 91REVIEWSmartwatches and treadmills are not happy
bedfellows – they cannot use their GPS and don’t
know how fast the machine is running – but we gave
it a try just to see how it would cope. As expected,
the Ticwatch struggled, believing a 5km run was
only 3.7km. But you can’t expect much better than
that without syncing with the machine, or training a
smartwatch with your stride length (which takes time
and will only improve, not fix, the problem).
For comparison, our well-trained Apple Watch still
underestimated the treadmill run but less egregiously:
it reckoned we’d done 4.3km.
Verdict
The Ticwatch Sport has a clean, simple look and
feels good, robust and lightweight on the wrist, and
the price is decent for a watch with GPS and IP67
water resistance (even if Mobvoi doesn’t recommend
swimming). However, we’re not huge fans
of Wear OS in general and its usual
interface issues are present here,
such as the awkward method
of changing faces. And we’re
not entirely convinced
by the accuracy of the
tracking, despite the
vaunted benefits of
integrating GPS into the
strap – which can’t be
changed. A decent fitness
watch, but not an outstanding
one. David Price