Mobvoi just unveiled the TicWatch C2, a sequel to
the TicWatch 2. It’s a Wear OS timepiece that includes most of the features you
might want from a smartwatch while keeping the price in check. You can
pre-order it right now at US$ 200/€ 200, it will ship on December 6. The TicWatch C2 has a 1.3” AMOLED
screen (360 x 360px), which fits inside a fairly small case – 42.8mm. For
comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Watch has a similar 1.3” screen in a 46mm case.
It’s a stainless steel case, by the way that
measures 13.1mm or 12.8mm. The Rose Gold version is the slimmer one and it also
uses 18mm straps. The other two colors, Black and Platinum, use 20mm straps. In
both cases, the straps are made of genuine leather.
The watch has a built in GPS receiver, a heart rate
monitor, as well as NFC for use with Google Pay. Some of these usually get cut
to meet such a low price tag. The one thing it doesn’t do is go in the pool –
the watch is IP68 waterproof, but that’s not enough for swimming. The Huawei
Watch GT is rated up to 5ATM and costs the same, but runs a proprietary OS.
The Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset is now quite old,
but basically all other Wear OS watches use it too (save for this US$ 1,000 luxury
offering). The 400mAh battery still promises 36-hours of use, which is par for
the course.
The Mobvoi TicWatch C2 supports Spotify, so you may
want a good pair of headphones to go with it. The company unveiled the TicPods
Free truly wireless earbuds. They have 18 hour battery life and support fast
charging (15 minutes gets you nearly an hour and a half of play time). The
earbuds are rated at IPX5, so you shouldn’t be afraid of working up a sweat.
The TicPods Free support touch gestures, one of
which summons your phone’s assistant – be it Siri or Google. You can grab a pair today at US$ 130/€ 130. Note that the initial stock seems to be limited to 1,000 units per
color.