This is a relatively old review when the TicWatch was new. This watch easily outperforms the Galaxy Ultra and even Oneplus 2R and musters in 4/5 days of battery life (looks sadly at my GW 6).
Some did report its app being not as good as S Health or Google’s implementation. However it’s main Achilles heel is the update problem. Pixel Watches, IIRC, get 3 years and Galaxy Watches get 4 years ; but TicWatches are lucky to get one major Wear OS upgrade and that too, delayed. Which is a Shame because the hardware here easily equals last gen Galaxy/Pixel Watches and in terms of battery life, will stand for many years to come.
In my country, Wear OS forms a tiny share of the market and Samsung has the biggest pie of it (it doesn’t help that watches aren’t considered for trade in here, so if and when I do upgrade to a new watch, my current watch becomes e waste and I pay full price). I did consider the TicWatch but seeing it’s relatively poor software support went with Samsung. However, damn if I said that I love Samsung’s battery life or charging implementation. The WPC mechanism wastes so much heat and throttles itself to heck in hot temperatures.
Instinct gang! I got an Instinct 2S Solar after being fed up with "smart"watches with 1-2 day battery life, now I get 10-14 days realistically even when frequently training with GPS. I’ve also returned to Gadgetbridge recently and it’s an OK experience, minor bumps here and there, but definitely something I can daily drive in exchange for having control over my data.
What I find nice is that the Instincts don’t need the phone to see all data and can function pretty much autonomously - everything important can be checked on the watch itself. And the watch itself is so rugged (among other things, it has a 10ATM water resistance vs 5ATM for a lot watches, and pretty much all of the WearOS/general smartwatches like Huawei), I don’t have an issue taking it for swimming, which is very important for me.
I just wish there were more watches like Instinct that would also match the functionality these series have. But unfortunately, looks like most people prefer fancy displays over a watch being practical and not needing to charge it as often as your phone.
This is probably not a popular opinion, but I really don’t understand why people want Oled on their watches to begin with… are the pro’s really worth more than the con’s here (just a few days battery life, getting burn-in very quick due to static images)? I know there’s pixelshifting and that sort of stuff happening, but still…
E-ink is such a beautiful thing! Better visibility with more light, very long battery life…i think that’s way more important on smartwatches.
I guess it is appearance vs. endurance, or something like that. I’m just happy that nowadays there seems to be a watch for everybody (unlike smartphones, where 99% are huge, have camera cutouts and Oled…).