Chinese AI company Mobvoi has launched a new Kickstarter project featuring two new Android Wear watches, letting you get your hands, or wrist on Android Wear for cheap.
The Ticwatch S and E – S for Sport and E for Express – are both powered by Android Wear, allowing you to access all the applications and games available for the platform as well as the built-in fitness tracking and notification goodness from Google. Mobvoi has a history with watches, launching the Ticwatch 2 with a forked version of Android called Ticwear last year. With Android Wear 2.0 on board this time, it’s the hardware that’s making the difference with the new gen Ticwatches.
The Ticwatch S and E come with a fully round 1.4″ OLED display with anti-scratch glass and are powered by a MediaTek MTK MT2601 dual-core processor and come with a seemingly Android Wear standard 512mb of RAM and 4GB of storage. They’re set to be a fitness fanatics dream though with built-in heart-rate monitor and GPS as well as accelerometer.
Both watches are also IP67 rated for water and dust protection so you can take these swimming, and there will also be health and fitness tracking apps from Mobvoi installed on the watches to help. Both watches will be using magnetic connectors for chargers, so expect another proprietary USB cable around the place if you decide to back these guys.
So, the watches are essentially the same under the hood, but it’s the design that’s different with these watches. The Ticwatch E
Starting at $119USD (about $155AUD), the Ticwatch E is the smaller of the two with a 44mm diameter ‘translucent case’ which is 13.55mm thick and weighing in at 41.5grams. The Ticwatch E is available in Ice, Lemon and Shadow colour options and supports interchangeble bands.
The Ticwatch S though comes in at $139USD (about $181AUD) to start, and measures 45mm in diameter but is slightly thinner at 13mm thick. It weighs in at a slightly heavier 45.5grams though 3.5grams difference between the two watches is negligible. Coming in Glacier, Knight and Aurora colour options, the Ticwatch S doesn’t support interchangeable bands, instead coming with a ‘breathable band design’, this fixed watch band is due to an in-built GPS antenna in the band that should allow for greater accuracy when using the in-built GPS.
Mobvoi have also put a pair of bluetooth earbuds called ‘Ticpods’ up as an addition to any Ticwatch project you back for an additional US$25. The Ticpods give you 6 hours of music, 6 hours of phone calls, or 120 hours of standby time, from a ‘less than 2 hour charge’. So, if that’s something you would like, you can add those on too.
If you want to get in on this, unfortunately the early bird options for both watches – which would have allowed you to get the Ticwatch E for $99USD and the Ticwatch S for $119USD – have both sold out, but you can back the next level from US$119 and US$139 for the Ticwatch E and Ticwatch S on their Kickstarter page now. The prices don’t include shipping costs, so factor that in as well. There’s no date for shipping the watches yet, but Mobvoi point out they shipped their last campaign within 3 months of completing the last campaign.
NOW THIS IS ANDROID WEAR!
Lets hope it actually comes to market.