Mobvoi TicWatch Pro vs. TicWatch C2: Which should you buy?

A smartwatch is about balancing form with function, class with compatibility, excellence with elegance. While we haven’t found a single watch that can do it all and do it affordably, Mobvoi’s TicWatch line has given us two watches that try to satisfy different priorities.

TicWatch Pro

Bulky battery-sipper

$250 at Amazon

Pros

Hybrid display gives best of both worlds
Larger screen is easier to navigate with
Battery for days, even without Essential Mode
More robust fitness tracking

Cons

It’s huge, especially on slimmer wrists
Rebooting Wear OS from Essential Mode takes forever
Not as formal or beautiful

The TicWatch Pro was a tank I expected to wear for a month and send back, but that hybrid display and seemingly endless battery were too wonderful to give up. Yes, it’s a huge watch, but it’s a huge watch that can do more and do it better than most of the current competition.

TicWatch C2

Classic congeniality

$200 at Mobvoi

Pros

Smaller profile with more sophisticated design
Two size options accommodate more wrists
Fits NFC, GPS, and HR tracking into more compact, affordable watch

Cons

Fewer sensors overall, but most noticeably no ambient light sensor
Only 188mm model is the Rose Gold version
Battery only stretches to 2 days on minimal use

The TicWatch C2 can’t fit quite as many sensors or features into its smaller frame, but the two sizing options and beautiful metal housing make it a more flexible watch. This is a watch you can wear to formal events or nights out with friends just as much as to the gym.

I’m going to say more about these watches, but at the end of the day, your choice here is going to come down to one simple question: How big of a watch are you willing to put up with? We can talk about battery, we can talk about screen sizes and navigation and fitness, but none of it is going to matter if you can’t stand a big watch.

It’s OK if you can’t. Neither of these TicWatches are bad products, but your size tolerance and your feature dedication is going to count for a lot when deciding between them.

Is battery worth the bulk?

The TicWatch Pro’s quirky hybrid display and the black magic it weaves with the battery is wonderful and I am genuinely hoping that it becomes the standard for Wear OS because it is just that good. Using an old-fashioned LCD to display the time and step count instead of some minimalist AMOLED always-on display is brilliant and does wonders not only for battery life but the overall glanceability of the watch. This retro watch face is easy to read in hard sunlight and dim classrooms, and at far more angles.

The benefits to the battery from this hybrid display are immense, and the larger 1.39-inch screen make it easier to read and especially to navigate Wear OS on the TicWatch Pro. It’s also got just about every fitness and tracking sensor you could imagine inside this tank of a watch, and you feel that bulk with the Pro far, far more than you do with the C2. The C2 is still a thick smart watch, but it sculpts itself in ways that hide watch’s pudgy plastic underbelly against your wrist.

Price	$250	$200
Dimensions	45mm x 12.6mm	42.83mm x 13.10mm (20mm)42.83mm x 12.8mm (18mm)
Colors	Black/Black, Silver/Black	Onyx, Platinum, Rose Gold
Watch housing	Stainless steel bezel and backplatePlastic frame	Stainless steel front and frame Plastic backplate
Display	1.39″ OLED 400x400pxFSTN display	1.3″ AMOLED 360x360px
Chipset	Snapdragon Wear 2100	Snapdragon Wear 2100
Memory	RAM: 512MBStorage: 4GB	RAM: 512MBStorage: 4GB
GPS	GPSAGPS	GPS + GLONASS + Beidou
Connectivity	Bluetooth v4.2Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GhzNFC	Bluetooth v4.1Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/nNFC
Battery	415mAh2 days on regular Wear OS30 days on Essential Mode	400mAh1-2 days
Water resistance	IP68 dustproof, waterproofNot recommended for swimming	IP68 dustproof, waterproofNot recommended for swimming
Sensors	AccelerometerGyroscopePPG Heart Rate sensorMagnetic SensorAmbient Light SensorLow Latency Off-Body Sensor	AccelerometerGyroscopeHeart Rate sensor

The TicWatch C2 is a testament to how far we’ve come with “cute” smartwatches.

Before the TicWatch Pro came into my life, I was flip-flopping between an aging but prettier LG Watch Style and a cheap but health-tracking TicWatch E. The TicWatch C2 is a testament to how far we’ve come with “cute” smartwatches. When I bought my LG Watch Style in early 2017, I had to make a compromising choice between a watch that worked good and a watch that looked good. The TicWatch C2 may not be the perfect smartwatch by any means, and yeah, its battery life isn’t going to beat the TicWatch Pro’s hybrid evolution. But the TicWatch C2 works perfectly fine, has GPS, Gyroscopic, and HR fitness tracking — and NFC payments, which I really wish I used more — and it looks good doing it.

The TicWatch Pro is a bigger, better watch. The hybrid screen is amazing and I’m going to be hard-pressed to give it up anytime soon, but I’ve put up with brutish, shackle-sized smartwatches for years. And if you don’t want to do that, then don’t think twice about buying the C2 instead. It’s an adequate, affordable, and potentially adorable smartwatch that should serve you well for years to come.

The only reason I’d consider holding off on buying a smartwatch right now — any smartwatch right now — is waiting for the first real batch of Snapdragon Wear 3100 watches to be announced at CES in January and MWC Barcelona in February. The Wear 2100 in both the C2 and Pro has been fine for me for 6 months, but the 3100 is the first significant processor bump in a while, and it’d be wise to see what manufacturers can turn out with it before dropping $200 on one.