TicWatch Atlas

Introduction

Mobvoi had decided to go down the same rugged route trodden by both Apple and Samsung, in the TicWatch Atlas.

If you’ve stayed up to date with our coverage of Mobvoi’s smartwatch output over the years, then you’ll know that the company hasn’t had the smoothest ride. The Wear OS 2-toting TicWatches of old would vary wildly in quality, and it wasn’t until the TicWatch Pro 5 came to market that it felt as if Mobvoi had finally found its footing by embracing Google’s Wear OS 3 revamp.

In the TicWatch Atlas however, Mobvoi has attempted to go after the same slice of the market currently occupied by the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra, not to mention the best Garmin smartwatches.

The question is, does TicWatch have what it takes to go head-to-head with these rugged smartwatch titans? After spending just over a month with the device, I can say that it’s something of a mixed bag.

Design and Screen

• More robust design to withstand the outdoors
• 1.43-inch AMOLED display
• Mobvoi’s design philosophy is starting to feel stale

Even just to look at the TicWatch Atlas, you can tell right away that this is a smartwatch designed for the great outdoors.

The bumper surrounding the screen is a fair bit thicker than the TicWatch Pro 5, with a thumb grip on the left-hand side for when you’re running and trying to keep the watch in place as you scroll through its various menus.

The aesthetic is matched by military grade durability and water resistance up to 5 ATM, and after taking the watch around with me for well over a month, I haven’t picked up so much as a scratch, and that included three long hikes. You’d have to go out of your way to put a dent into this thing, although I do wish that it was a bit more exciting from a visual standpoint. Mobvoi has relied on the same core design language for far too long now – it needs a shake-up.

The screen itself has also been upgraded with sapphire crystal, and from my experience it appears to be just as tough as the rest of the watch. Even though the watch itself feels beefier, the screen size has stayed the same at 1.43-inches, but that’s hardly to the Atlas’ detriment.

Thanks to its use of an AMOLED panel, text is crisp and watch faces are bright, and I never needed to squint to read workout information, nor did I have any issues with space and interacting with the various menus onboard. It’s a solid experience here yet again, and as you might expect, it’s paired once more with TicWatch’s signature secondary ultra-low power display.

This second screen sits on top of the AMOLED panel and is able to convey key bits of information at all times without being a major drain on the battery. As I’ve said before, this still feels like Mobvoi’s killer feature, and it’s very handy at a glance to see the heart rate zone you’re in via the coloured back lights. Sure, the technology might not be as fresh as it once was, but I’m still glad to have it nonetheless.

Performance and Software

• Works well in everyday use
• Boring take on Wear OS
• Available watch faces don’t compare to the competition

Despite the TicWatch Atlas being a more premium device, it still uses the same Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chipset found within the TicWatch Pro 5. Admittedly, in terms of day to day use, this consistency isn’t a major problem as everything runs just fine and I never had issues with quickly hopping from one app to the next, but what is starting to wear thin is Mobvoi’s rather boring approach to Wear OS.

Unlike what you’ll find with Samsung and Google’s wearable devices, there’s just a distinct lack of visual flair with Wear OS on TicWatches. There are no fun animations, menus look rather drab and worst of all, the watch faces themselves are terrible to look at. None of the available watch faces caught my eye in the way that those of Mobvoi’s competitors did, and it’s a real shame.

I still think that above anything else, a smartwatch needs to deliver on its core timekeeping function with watch faces that actually feel like they’ve had some artistic insight poured into them. Otherwise you’ll never have one of those moments where you stop and admire the watch face that you’ve picked out, and I never did with the TicWatch Atlas.

There’s another problem afoot which has plagued TicWatches for generations, and that’s just how slow the rollout of a new Wear OS update can be. The TicWatch Atlas originally came to market with Wear OS 4 in tow, but thankfully, it has been upgraded to Wear OS 5, although it does raise the question about when we might see Wear OS 6 come to the device.

Even though you can now pick up the TicWatch Atlas with quite a significant discount, it was originally priced at £329.99/$349.99, and if you’re paying that much then you should be getting a front row seat to the latest software developments from Google. Given that you can get exactly that when opting for a Pixel Watch or a Galaxy Watch, it’s worth bearing in mind if you’re investing in a smartwatch for the long term.

Tracking and Features

• Excellent heart rate tracking
• Quick to connect to GPS
• New Heat Map feature

While the software might not be up to scratch, one area where it’s difficult to fault the TicWatch Atlas is in fitness tracking. Every component works incredibly well which adds to a great package overall.

For starters, you’ve got no shortage of workouts that can be tracked, from classics like weightlifting and outdoor running, to sports including football and tennis. Having support for offline playback via Spotify just makes the TicWatch Atlas a great companion in these moments as I can rely on tried and trusted playlists for motivation, although I wish that you could change playback within the TicExercise app itself without having to jump out.

Even if you do forget to manually start tracking a workout, the TicWatch Atlas is very quick to pick up on any exertion automatically. The watch recognised when I was out for a walk much faster than any wearable I’ve used to date, which is great for getting a better understanding of exactly how many calories you’re burning throughout an entire day.

GPS tracking is also quick to latch on, as it never took more than 10 seconds for the TicWatch Atlas to find a connection in my testing. What really impressed me though, were the heart rate results that the Atlas was able to record. When also wearing the Polar H10 chest-strap monitor, the two devices were almost in sync.

Taking the two with me for a treadmill run and a stint on the elliptical machine, they both registered the same peak of 174BPM and 182BPM, respectively. Things didn’t quite match up as the TicWatch Atlas tended to be 1-4BPM short of the average registered by the Polar H10, but it’s good to know that your effort at the higher end won’t go unnoticed.

Alongside the workout tracking, there are new safety features in the form of Fall Detection and Emergency SOS. As you might imagine, this means that the watch can register if you’ve had a nasty fall and then contact the emergency services on your behalf. It’s standard stuff if you’ve had an Apple Watch, but it is nice to see the feature make an appearance here.

There’s also the new Heat Map feature that’s designed to show you where you’re most active on a pitch when playing sports. I’m not big into sports, so the feature isn’t one for me, but if you are and you obsess over every little detail in your performance then you might appreciate having this available.

Battery Life

• Roughly three days of use in smartwatch mode
• Charging is very fast

Battery life has long been one of my favourite aspects of the TicWatch range as they could leave the Apple Watch’s 18-hour stint in the dust. The problem is that in 2025, the bar for longevity, at least amongst the Wear OS crowd, has been raised significantly.

The outstanding OnePlus Watch 3 currently holds the top spot as it can last for up to five days at a time. By comparison, the TicWatch Atlas comes with a claim of under four days of use (90-hours) on a single charge, and while that isn’t quite enough to outdo OnePlus, it’s by no means lagging behind against the wider competition.

Mobvoi’s claims held up against testing too, as I was able to get from Thursday morning to Saturday evening before running out the battery completely, and that was after quite a few NFC payments, downloading songs for offline playback, alongside workout and GPS tracking, so it isn’t difficult to imagine stretching that period of use under less intensive circumstances.

Even when you do need to top up the TicWatch Atlas, it all happens at a blazingly fast pace. Starting a charge at 7%, I was able to get the Atlas back to a full battery in just 70 minutes. That’s perfect for giving the watch all the juice that it needs whilst you get ready in the morning. If you are in a rush however, it’s worth mentioning that the watch hit 47% from 20 minutes of charging, which is more than enough to get you through the day.

Should you buy it?

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