Have we reached a smartwatch saturation point? This question has been asked the past couple of years since we haven’t really seen anything new in terms of technology and even design with the wearables that are available in the market. The Android Wear OS, now called just Wear OS, in particular, hasn’t brought innovation to the table, or rather the wrist. Chinese AI and voice company Mobvoi is now trying to shake things up a bit with their newest device, the Ticwatch Pro, and its two screens that are on top of each other. The main point is to actually conserve the smartwatch power so that is a major concern for you, then this is a device that you might want to check out.
The main OLED display of the smartwatch is what you would normally see in most wearables in the market like time, notifications, activity tracking, etc. It runs on the standard Wear OS and lets you make mobile payments through NFC technology, it tracks your steps throughout the day (or rather when you wear it), and it can even monitor your heart rate. But on top of this display is a FSTN LCD transparent display like you would see on old electronics and clocks. This means when you turn the main display off, you’ll still see information on the low-power screen on top and it will show you the time, fitness information, and heart rate. When you need to use the main display, just switch it off and you can go back to regular smartwatch programming.
The other feature for the second screen is something they call the “Essentials Mode”. When you activate it, then the Wear OS features of your smartwatch will be turned off and you’ll only see the aforementioned top display. For now, what it will be able to do is just show you the step count and heart rate but they’re planning on adding more simple things that you can do when it’s only this screen that’s working. But if you need to go back to the regular Wear OS tasks that you need to do, then you’ll have to fully boot to switch back. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as tapping or swiping. It sometimes takes a minute to “reboot”.
The problem that the Ticwatch Pro is trying to solve here is battery life. But a lot of users are already satisfied with just having your smartwatch functioning for a day or two so power is not really a problem. What some people are complaining about is the battery drain on your connected smartphone. While there are some workarounds like reducing screen brightness and turning off notifications, it may sometimes defeat the purpose. Wear OS is still a bit buggy and glitchy so maybe it’s something that should be fixed first before Google or other OEMs can start looking into innovation and new features.
But if what Mobvoi is doing with its Ticwatch Pro is something you might be interested in, you’ll have to wait until it launches this summer. It is expected to sell at around $300 and an LTE version will supposedly arrive in the US later on. What other feature or change in Wear OS smartwatches would you want to see in the future?
VIA: The Verge
