Thanks to the terrifying battery life of the Galaxy Watch 4, like many others, I learned about this particular watch and decided to give it a chance. As a former owner of the Amazfit GTR 3 Pro, which I had to return due to a significant bug, as I mentioned in my review, and other watches like the Amazfit Bip U Pro and all the Xiaomi Mi Bands before that.
First of all, for those who don't know what Google Wear OS means, let me explain that it is a mini Android phone on your wrist with all that entails. Imagine that when I receive messages from Viber, WhatsApp with photos, they appear normally on the watch. It also has the Play Store where you can download many things like Spotify, Shazam, watch faces, games, etc.
Just like with Android phones, there are pros and cons to smartwatches, but due to the operating system, you can have some control over settings and applications and find solutions.
The pros:
+ Original patent with the second LCD Always On display: This way, you can always see the basics like time and steps without consuming too much battery. When you start an exercise only through its TicExercise app, the same screen displays data such as distance, calories, heart rate, etc.
+ Maximum battery life in such a category: Just like the battery on your phone drains quickly when you have the screen on for a long time and press various things, the same happens with this watch. Generally, it easily lasts for 3 days, or they say 45 days if you only use the second screen, which no one does. I take it off at night when I sleep, and by morning, it has only lost 5% of battery. It immediately detects when you take it off your wrist and limits its functions until it eventually disconnects completely, and it resumes only when you wear it again.
+ Good experience with phone calls via Bluetooth: Like a regular phone, you can answer or make calls anywhere, and due to contact synchronization with Google, you immediately have all your contacts available.
+ Instant response in all its functions. I don't know if there is a watch in this category that is not fast, but this one truly doesn't lag anywhere and doesn't miss any notifications, so the latest Qualcomm processor it uses performs well.
+ Use of the Google Fit app on the watch: While I didn't need this extra app before, unfortunately, it has become very necessary for the reason I will explain in the cons, and I can say that I am very impressed with its reliability and helpfulness. Overall, it is very lightweight and efficient, and it tracks steps, distance, calories, heart rate, and automatically detects the types of activities you do.
The cons:
- TicMotion, or automatic exercise detection, simply never works, and that's why I deducted one star: One basic thing I expect from more expensive smartwatches is for them to be able to automatically and effortlessly detect what you are doing and accurately record the calories and heart rate because every step counts. And this is because either you forget or you are in a hurry and don't have time to manually select the activity every now and then. Note that the problem has been known for a year from various forums and sites I looked at, but I didn't expect it to not be fixed until today. Here I was saved by Google Fit as I mentioned before, which at least when I walk even a little, it detects and records it correctly. It also only consumes 1% of the battery.
- Automatic touch or screen lock: I don't know why this new trend exists in all modern smartwatches to have only manual screen lock, which requires a lot of searching and difficulty. I find it useful so that various things are not accidentally pressed when, for example, you wear a jacket or touch your wrist somewhere.
- Very limited and unprocessed available software and UI from Mobvoi: I would like more shortcuts in the control center or the ability to customize what appears. I would also like to be able to adjust the sensitivity and response of the watch in different functions because I believe that every person operates differently. There are some solutions if you download watch faces or tiles with option buttons that can be set as shortcuts.
- Does not support Greek menu and keyboard: Here I should note that of course I knew this from the beginning and it is not the watch's fault but Google's, which has included all the languages of the world except Greek in Wear OS. We all rely on a future update that will fix this problem. As for the Greek keyboard that is available for download out there, unfortunately, it does not allow me to install it due to incompatibility.
These are generally the most important points I could think of based on my own use and experience. The rest is known from the company's website or other reviews.
I believe it is the most balanced smartwatch device with Wear OS to date for anyone looking exclusively for something like this. The few differences with the cheaper Pro 3 are the quality of the materials, where the Ultra uses Gorilla Glass, has a better heart rate sensor, and gives you the option of color for the backlight of the secondary screen.
