Over the weekend we spotted a tease from Mobvoi, makers of the TicWatch range of Wear OS smartwatches, amongst other things, hinting at what looked to be a new Smartwatch. Overnight in London, Mobvoi took the wraps off two products at their #lookup event, The TicWatch C2 a follow up to the TicWatch Classic Smartwatch and the retail release of their fully wireless earbuds the TicPods Free.
TicWatch C2
The latest Wear OS device from Mobvoi the TicWatch C2 is an update to the original TicWatch Classic with premium Stainless steel styling in 3 colours and leather bands standard across the line. The C2 comes in 2 sizes a 20mm design in Black and Platinum and an 18mm in Rose Gold. Both feature a 1.3″ AMOLED 360 x 360 display, NFC for Google Pay and a 400mAh battery and both run on the Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC as expected.
RAM and storage aren’t specified but we expect it will come with 4GB and 512MB as per most Wear 2100 devices. Other features include IP68 weather protection, a heart rate sensor and all of the standards connectivity you’ve come to expect as well as GPS. Check out the full specs below.
| TicWatch C2 20mm | TicWatch C2 18mm | |
|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | 42.83 x 42.83 x 13.1 | 42.83 x 42.83 x 12.8 |
| Colors | Black, Platinum | Rose Gold |
| Watch Case | Stainless Steel (front) | |
| Watch Strap | Genuine leather 20mm (interchangeable) | Genuine leather 18mm (interchangeable) |
| SoC | Snapdragon Wear 2100 | |
| Display | 1.3″ AMOLED (360 x 360 px) | |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth v4.1, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n | |
| GPS | GPS + GLONASS + Beidou | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Heart-rate sensor | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| Battery capacity | 400mAh | |
| Weather resistance | IP68 | |
The big surprise here is the pricing, Mobvoi is keeping with their aggressive pricing model with the TicWatch C2 coming in at $299 AUD RRP. You can either pre-order now with a 10% discount, bring the price down to $269.99 AUD, or it will be available in Australia in the first week of December, just in time for Christmas shopping, via Moboiv’s online store with free direct shipping to Australia. The TicWatch C2 will be running the latest version of WearOS which we think is a huge improvement over WearOS v1.6.
This makes the TicWatch one of the most affordable NFC enabled and likely best Wear OS device officially retailed in Australia, and with a smaller wrist friendly model with an 18mm interchangeable band on offer I think I know what Santa is getting my wife for Christmas (she’ll love Android one day if I just keep buying her stuff).
TicPods Free
The second product ‘announced’ is the retail availability of the TicPods Free which was originally a crowdfunded campaign from Mobvoi that has now made it to the retail channels. The TicPods Free are fully wireless earbuds using Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity available in Blue, Red, and White finishes.
Each charge of the earbuds gives 4 hours playback with the case holding an additional 14 hours of charge for a total play time of 18 hours between recharges. The TicPods Free use a “stem design” with a touch user interface for controlling volume, media and phones calls.
Gesture controls include:
- Swiping up and down on the stem to adjust the volume
- Double tapping on the pods to answer or end a call; when not on calls, double-tapping will skip to the next song in your playlist
- Long pressing for two seconds to reject calls; or, when not on calls, to activate your phone’s voice assistant
The TicPods Free also include noise-cancelling microphones for clearer phone calls, stereo phone calls, in-ear detection for automatic play and pause of media when you put your pods in or out, noise isolation design for clearer audio and quick access to the Google Assistant (not the same as Assistant built-in).
The TicPods Free are $199AUD and are available for sale starting today from online store for immediate delivery with free shipping.
We’ve been impressed with Mobvoi and their products thus far, not only are they respecting the Australian tech enthusiasts as a first place consumer, their products are highly specced and reasonably priced. We’ll be giving both the TicWatch C2 and the TicPods Free a review so keep your eyes out for future coverage.
Beware. I took up a similar offer from Mobvoi in May via Indiegogo. Still waiting for the goods. Customer serviceand communications stink.
That black watch face looks pretty good. Might hold off for a bit and hopefully a smart watch with a new processor is just around the corner.
I tried moving to the wearOS ecosystem after getting a Mobvoi Ticwatch S.
I just can’t handle 1-2 days of battery life. Not to mention I use sleep tracking every day. I really hate how wearOS disregards battery life so much.
I miss my Pebble 🙁
yeah, very different products trying to do different things.
Thanks Duncan, the watch looks very interesting. I thought your sentence “Ticpods Free are $199” was amusing. Obviously the “Free” part has nothing to do with the price.. is it just part of the name because it sounds attractive??
“Free” as in wire free was my assumption, fully wireless EarPods 🙂
Still far too thick. 10mm or bust.
Opinions on the use of the 2100?
Wanting to buy my first WearOS watch but am concerned about the dated processor.
Nope, sorry. Look at the clusterf#$%^ that is the roll-out of the latest wear os upgrade. They don’t care about their customers, that much is clear. Pointblank refuse to fix broken areas in the system, completely overwrite the swipe left, swipe right systems of wear os 2 to suit their own, broken, battery hogging fitness app (which again they refuse to fix)
Their support is atrocious. I had to send back 2 dud Ticwatch E’s. The second replacement has taken over 3 months to get shipped to me. There support team would just ignore me. Had to pester their social media guys to get a response. To their credit they did come good and have shipped me my replacement. Hopefully it arrives soon. Also hope that mine is an isolated experience.
That is disappointing, I had no issues so I too hope that’s an isolated incident.
Interesting I bought a TW Pro on release day, apart from swapping the health app which they have promised to revert or give an option for ‘in a future update’ what other issues have you had post update? I love WearOS 2.0
They have no gone back on that promise and said it won’t be fixed.
Really? I’ve missed that, that is disappointing
Getting very close to being good enough to replace my Moto 360 (second gen) but it’s missing some really useful features like a light sensor and wireless charging.
I honestly don’t miss the light sensor post leaving the moto, I to am a Qi charging fanatic but I’ve adapted to the clip on using a 3D printed holder, that said I would LOVE a Qi charging version again.