The TicWatch GTH Pro is Mobvoi’s second-generation square wristwatch, which does away with Google Wear OS in favor of substantial health features at a low price. Those significant health features are the result of a partnership between Mobvoi and Australian firm CardieX, which uses CardieX’s technology to help assess artery health.
It does so using an additional optical sensor that, when combined with the main heart rate monitor on the rear of the watch, may provide a variety of information, along with an overall heart health rating, arterial age, and even activity capability.
While the readings appeared to provide reliable information in general, but lacked context & promised actionable insights. More crucially, the watch’s technology for transmitting that data lacks any kind of regulatory authorization for giving such health insights.
It’s essentially the same watch as that of the non-Pro GTH except for the health functions. That means you’ll have to cope with certain substandard wristwatch capabilities, such as a lack of GPS and lackluster sports tracking, as well as some software bugs.
It has a battery life of more than a week, but it’s a health-focused smart wristwatch that falls short of being complete.
What you will see here?
Price and release date
TicWatch GTH Pro was released in March 2022 for $99.99 / AU$139.99. In the United Kingdom, the GTH Pro is presently unavailable for purchase. That’s a little pricier than that of the original TicWatch GTH and went on sale in April 2021 for $79.99 (about £60 / AU$100).
Design and Display
The TicWatch GTH Pro doesn’t deviate much from the GTH’s design. The watch case is a square 43micrometres metal wristwatch case that is 10.5mm thick and only comes in black. This is paired with a 20mm TPU band, which can be replaced using a simple pin mechanism.
It’s a simple-looking watch that’s pleasant to wear daily, during exercise, and at night for sleep tracking. There’s only one physical button that twists (similar to Apple’s Digital Crown), but it doesn’t allow you to scroll through the watch panels.
1.5-inch, TFT touchscreen display
The screen is a 1.5-inch touch-sensitive TFT display with 360 × 320 pixels, which feels small due to the large black bezel that surrounds it. It isn’t the result leads display you’ll find at this price in terms of responsiveness, colors, and vibrancy, but it’s better than the GTH. Indoor visibility is better than outside visibility, and you can’t set the screen to always-on.
The inclusion of an additional optical sensor below the lone physical button is the most significant variation and alteration from the GTH. That’s the sensor that provides Arty artery health insights, which we’ll go over in more detail later.
5 ATM water resistance rating
Mobvoi has given the new GTH the same 5ATM water resistance rating, which means you can swim with it and it also comes with a pool swimming feature to track your time in the water.
If you’re seeking the most attractive watch and hardware at this price, you won’t find it here. It’s not a huge step up over Mobvoi’s first GTH offering. It appears that the focus is on developing software features as well as a secondary sensor to give it a more effective health tracking companion.
Performance and Software
Mobvoi has remained with the same RTOS operating system as the previous GTH, which means you’ll miss out on apps & features like smart assistant support as well as the general UI polish that Mobvoi’s Wear OS-powered smartwatches offer.
What you do get is a more stripped-down software that’s a little sluggish to work with. As well as a Mobvoi companion app that’s still poorly displayed.
You will have no trouble pairing the TicWatch GTH Pro with such a Samsung Android phone, although you will run into a few issues in the watch’s software. Some sports monitoring modes don’t operate properly, sleep tracking didn’t work at all, and real-time readings took ages to appear. A few times, we were also forced to redo the Arty trial readings.
At the very least, using the device is simple. You can swipe from the primary watch screen to display widgets for weather predictions, activity tracking progress, extra health information, and real-time heart rate statistics and daily trends by pressing the physical button.
Mobvoi also includes a fantastic selection of watch faces, including a few dedicated Arty faces which make effective use of the limited screen real estate. However, the basic smartwatch features available to you aren’t great. It employs the same notification functionality as the GTH. But uses a typeface that isn’t particularly screen-friendly and doesn’t neatly deliver notifications. Weather widgets, on the other hand, are well-designed, and music controls performed admirably in our tests.
If you’re looking for a superb smartwatch experience, you won’t find it here. There are probably smartwatches that perform better and provide greater value for the money.
Battery life
On a more positive side, the TicWatch GTH Pro performs admirably in terms of battery life. It has the same 260mAh battery as that of the GTH, and Mobvoi claims would last up to 10 days on a single charge.
We discovered a daily battery drop-off of roughly 10% and this was with fitness tracking, occasional sports tracking, continuous heart rate monitoring, and skin temperature monitoring all in use. We should also mention that you will have trouble using sleep and stress monitoring consistently, which drains the battery even more.
Finally, there is a watch that can last for up to a week before needing to be recharged. The charging solution is the same as on the GTH, which is still a little too fragile .
Health and Fitness tracking
The health features on the TicWatch GTH Pro are the main story. Mobvoi has partnered with CardieX, a health-tech firm that specializes in cardiovascular illness and hypertension. It has developed medical devices that can measure arterial stiffness & central blood pressure and have been approved by the FDA.
A second optical PPG sensor on the GTH Pro delivers a variation of that technology that can provide general health-specific arterial health data. The benefit of doing so is that it will assist you in making better lifestyle choices that will improve your heart health. As previously, while CardieX’s technology approves FDA, the GTH Pro’s assistance is not.
The Arty app uses to assess artery health, and it requires a trial reading until it can begin providing information. To acquire your artery health readings, put your index finger just on the sensor on the side of a wristwatch case for 10 seconds. To achieve the greatest results, it’s best to take readings first thing every morning.
When the measurement is complete, five separate insights generate. Arty score, eCAP, HSX, TruHR, and ArtyAge readings are all included.
TicWatch GTH Pro: the 100-point scale that measures
An Arty score is a 100-point scale that measures your overall heart health. It’s preferable if you can get as close to 100 as possible. The TruHR measurement is your beat-to-beat pulse rate. This is measured similarly to an ECG reading, according to Mobvoi. eCAP is a fitness test that measures blood circulation to the heart’s inner muscle; HSX is a test that measures the extra burden on the heart caused by artery stiffness. Finally, there’s ArtyAge, which is an artery stiffness-based assessment of arterial age.
We compared these measurements to the heart monitor on a specialized pulse oximeter as well as the ECG sensor just on Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 to see if they were accurate. You will see that these measurements for devices like TruHR were generally comparable to those of the other devices. Most readings showed a variation of 1-2 BPM.
Exercise capacity measurements felt reliable, yet ArtyAge values ranged from 20-30, 30-40, and 40+ years, indicating a lot of variation on the front end. While Mobvoi explains what these measures imply and how broke down. You will not receive the promised actionable insights, which would allow you to make it through these measurements. Trends see over time, and that was all there was to it.
The main point here is that the lack of FDA approval raises serious doubts about how much you can trust the data to inform you regarding your general and vascular health.
No GPS
Aside from the health features, the experiences with the TicWatch GTH Pro were similar to those we had with the GTH. There are 14 monitoring options for sports, and the lack of GPS meant that distance tracking for outdoor exercise was lacking. Heart rate monitoring worked well for steady-paced activities but failed with high-intensity sessions.
A dedicated panel displays calories burnt, step counts, and distance traveled for fitness tracking. In general, step counts on the Oura Ring 3 or step monitoring on the Garmin Epix were within 500 steps. We can’t get to capture any sleep data despite putting it to bed every night for sleep tracking. So that’s an issue that has the fix.
TicWatch GTH Pro: SpO2
SpO2 tracking, which matches results from a specialized pulse oximeter, is another benefit. The GTH Pro recorded 10bpm greater real-time measurements on most occasions, indicating that resting heart rate was frequently higher than our comparator devices. When compared to a thermometer, skin temperature measurements felt more dependable than the GTH.
So the TicWatch GTH Pro is a smartwatch that provides some additional artery health data. But the readings can be unreliable at times, and we didn’t obtain the actionable insights promised. It’s not ideal for sports monitoring, and we encountered some troubles with its fitness tracking support.
Conclusion
The TicWatch GTH Pro is affordable and can provide a nice blend of health, smartwatch, and sports tracking capabilities. The Arty integration would provide some novel and interesting insights into the heart and overall wellness. It’s a well-weighted watch that doesn’t feel unpleasant to wear at any moment, despite its unattractive appearance.
While many of the GTH Pro’s measurements appeared to be accurate. There were enough inconsistencies to raise doubts about its trustworthiness. There are better options than the GTH Pro if you want a stylish smartwatch on a budget. If you also want to track your workout time. The GTH Pro is a challenging sell due to a lack of GPS and several bugs.
