Go out and ask about the launch of Ticwatch 2 smart watch in June. The performance configuration of the new machine maintains the previous generation MT2601 (1.2G dual core A7)+512M memory+4G storage+300mAh battery of MediaTek. However, it has reduced the size of the body and replaced it with an OLED screen. It has added 3G, GPS, off wrist lock screen, constant light mode, wireless fast charge and other functions, and the price has maintained a starting point of 999 yuan.
After half a month of use, I finally completed what may be the longest and deepest evaluation of intelligent products in history. There are a lot of popular science, as well as content and evaluation standards for industry and computer operators, resulting in a long space, You need to make good use of the floating directory at the bottom right corner of the page.
Comparison of Ticwatch, inWatch T and Apple Watch parameters
Packaging and accessories
Ticwatch2 has three versions of "Joyful, Classic and Fine Porcelain", each with different packaging. This time we got the classic version in the middle. The surface of the pure black box is convex fabric, and there are gilt slogans around.
The package is simpler than expected, and the accessories include instructions, wireless magnetic charging base, charger and power cord.
Both the classic version and the refined porcelain version have a built-in patch type eSIM card, which, like the mobile phone, has a network access license.
Cylindrical charger output power 5V/1A. In fact, the power of the base is very small, and the charging speed will not be significantly different with the charger of the mobile phone or even the USB interface of the computer.
The diameter of the magnetic wireless charging base is slightly smaller than that of the watch body. It is estimated that there are many metal components inside, and the weight and magnetic force are much larger than expected. The bottom is a whole piece of soft rubber pad for increasing friction. The watch can be held in the approximate position, which is more convenient to use
Appearance and workmanship
Ticwatch2 is a traditional watch with good overall appearance. The 42mm full round dial is one circle smaller than the previous 46mm dial, The screen accounts for 73.5%, and the official claims that it is the pure round smart watch with the highest screen proportion. The main body of the watch is made of brushed stainless steel (the Pleasant Edition uses an aluminum body). The left side is a round crown, and the plastic part of the right back is a hidden touch zone, officially named "flex".
There are two major features: the crown is placed on the left by default (the system supports left and right rotation), and the dial glass is about 2mm higher than the body. The former is to make way for the "flex" touch control bar, while the latter may be to reduce the thickness of the surface body and provide tactile cues at the edge of the screen.
In addition to the ceramic back cover used for the fine porcelain plate, the plastic material is used for both Yuedong and the classic Ticwatch2. The PPG optical heart rate sensor in the middle is provided by Pixart (original phase), which claims higher accuracy and anti-interference ability.
The machine adopts 20mm universal watchband. The original watchband has a quick release design. Whether it is a brown or black belt, the inside is light brown inside. The stainless steel watch button has a round shape and also has a brushed texture.
The design of Ticwatch2 is very pleasing. The bright metal case is just the front cover of the watch body, and the other 2/3 of the thickness of the back cover is black, greatly reducing the visual thickness. The machine model and electrical specifications are engraved near the strap interface. The top of the rear cover is a loudspeaker opening, and the bottom is Microphone and acoustic pressure equalizing hole, rather than noise reduction microphone on mobile phone. These openings are very small, but because of the high position and watchband cover, the problem of dust accumulation is alleviated to some extent.
Comparison, workmanship and wearing feel
Sony Smart Watch, LG G watch, famous Moto 360 and Ticwatch2
Ticwatch2, Moto 360, LG G watch and Sony Smart Watch watchbands
Ticwatch2 Although the size is slightly small, the thickness is not dominant. it The design style of the watchband is quite different from that of the other "old timers". The only thing in common is that the watchband is a consumable. Whether it is silicone or leather, there will be obvious traces of use after more than half a year of use. Especially leather watchbands, even if they are carefully maintained, their service life is relatively short.
The body skeleton of Ticwatch 2 is a traditional watch, Stainless steel wire drawing treatment has fine lines, Good workmanship. Although the Ticwatch 2 is only a 42mm dial and its screen is smaller than the Moto 360 with a 46mm dial, the latter is designed without ears, so it is closer to the hand when worn.
To be honest, the author prefers the appearance of the original Moto 360 and the original Ticwatch, especially their watchbands without stitches... But the Ticwatch 2 with more sensors has better volume control, and the watchband is also reduced to 20mm more suitable for Asians. Users with small hands and most women will not wear them too abruptly, which broadens the audience in disguise.
Wear
The Ticwatch 2 has a normal overall wearing feel, slightly worse than ordinary quartz watches, and is above the average level in smart watches. Three factors affecting hand feel:
Weight and weight distribution: Yuedong, Classic and Fine Porcelain (hereinafter referred to as "low, medium and high configuration") are respectively aluminum shell, steel shell, steel shell+ceramic rear cover, with obvious weight increase. The watch core with low configuration must be the lightest and most comfortable. Its weight is similar to that of an ordinary quartz watch, the weight of the medium configuration is similar to that of a mechanical watch, and the high configuration is the weight level of a gold watch. Only the high configuration version will have a more obvious drag feeling when shaking the wrist;
Profile: The part that fits the wrist is the plastic with polished curved edges. The contact area is small, and the foreign body feeling is light and comfortable;
Band: The leather strap has a good texture. It was changed to a sewing design, and the thickness has increased slightly, leading to more folds. The original leather strap is 20mm wide, and the narrower strap is undoubtedly more breathable and comfortable to wear.
Hardware and basic performance
The main hardware changes of Ticwatch 2 are as follows:
Built in chip type eSIM card, which can be connected to 3G independently, and can send and receive calls and SMS messages;
GPS is added for map and motion track recording;
An infrared sensor is added on the back for leaving the wrist lock screen (password is required after taking off the watch);
Other minor changes include the addition of PPG optical heart rate meter, wireless fast charging and linear motor.
screen
Ticwatch 2 replaced the previous generation's 1.5 inch TFT semi transparent semi reflective screen with a 1.4 inch OLED screen, with a resolution of 400 * 400 and a PPI of 287. The AMOLED screen seen on mobile phones at ordinary times is also a kind of OLED. Its advantages are thin, power saving and high saturation (bright color). For smart meters, the most important feature is that pixels can be turned off when displaying black, so as to improve contrast and save power.
Brightness: The system provides five levels of brightness adjustment. The maximum brightness is about 420 nits, which is higher than the brightness of most mobile phones with AMOLED screens. There is no pressure to watch time in daylight. However, the minimum brightness is high. The lowest brightness is enough to cope with 90% of the scene. It is suitable for cloudy days and indoors, but it is a bit too bright at midnight.
Fineness: Although the PPI is higher than that of the previous generation, it is likely to be Pentile arrangement. The actual PPI has to be calculated at a discount of 6.7. A little closer to the PPI, there is a clear sense of graininess. The problem of "split" between the font and the edge of the object is also obvious.
Color&visual angle : The color of the screen is bright, and the A screen is always blue-green, but the degree is not obvious. The viewing angle is good. After 135 degrees, there will be some brightness attenuation and color shift, but you can still see the screen content when you press it to about 170 degrees.
Reflective&Other : The light transmittance of the screen is good, and the reflection is not too serious. Of course, it should be reflective under the sun. Compared with the reflection, the thickness of the glass panel will be a bigger problem. Although it is impossible to confirm whether this is a full fitting process, there is a clear distance between the surface layer and the display layer, which reduces the sense of the phone on paper, and to some extent affects the limit viewing angle.
In general, this is a smart watch screen of medium to high level. Although the fineness is average, the brightness is enough and the color is bright. The most important thing is its OLED material, which is the physical basis of the constant light mode.
performance
System storage information
Hardware configuration: Smart watches often change their shells without changing their minds. Many products in the Android Wear camp use the core shielded version of Snapdragon 400. The Ticwatch 2, on the other hand, directly follows the performance of the previous generation, which is the MT260+512M memory of MediaTek+4G storage+300mAh battery. The CPU of the MT260 is 1.2G dual core A7, and its parameters almost coincide with the Snapdragon 400 on the watch.
Performance and smoothness: This configuration is close to that of the 1000 yuan machine in 2012, and its absolute performance is relatively weak. However, Android Wear and TicWear are both specially designed systems, with almost no background, and the smoothness and response speed are fairly good. It takes about 40 seconds to boot up, and it only takes 2 or 3 minutes to reset the system. The speed of map loading and WeChat in Android Wear compatible mode is average, which shows that the performance is tight. However, the built-in Alipay, which can only display two QR codes, is also slow to open, and optimization in this regard needs to be improved.
System and storage: The internal storage occupies 1.19G, and the analog SD card occupies 1.22G. The former is used to store application data. After 20 apps are installed, 860MB remains, which is almost impossible to use up.
Basic module: touch control, vibration, volume and sound quality
Touch test
Touch: The screen only supports single touch, and the touch response speed is normal. Through the test of drawing application, there is no broken touch position, but the screen edge sensitivity is general, and the edge is more sensitive to the tangent than the vertical line. However, the watch system does not need precise operation, and this feature has no impact on the actual operation.
Vibration: The strength must be enough, and it has become so strong that the author's obsessive-compulsive disorder is worried about the power and life. The system has two gears, strong and normal, but the vibration intensity seems to be the same (can't be adjusted because of the linear motor?)
Volume: The maximum volume is slightly weaker than that of normal people's indoor speech. It is OK for indoor use, but you don't need to expect the bell to remind you when you are outdoors.
tone quality: There is a slight broken sound at the high frequency, and others are not bad. It may be that the manufacturer thinks that there is little possibility for people to listen to music with watches. Many smart watches do not have speakers. Even if they do, the sound quality will not be very good, and few watches will have the ability to play songs independently.
Call sound quality: When using the built-in chip type eSIM card to make a call, the sound quality is better than that of a phone call (the latter is the double damage of Bluetooth+speakers), and the overall sound quality is relatively ordinary.
Ringing tones: The aesthetics of several ringtones are good, but there are only four ringtones and you cannot import other music files by yourself.
RF module: Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi and 3G
If there is no accident, all these RF modules are integrated on the SoC MT260 of MediaTek. Because the back of the fuselage is plastic, the design difficulty of the antenna part will be lower than that of the previous generation, and the signal strength should also be better.
Screenshot of sports app, GPS track record on the far right
Bluetooth: There is no Bluetooth disconnection problem in half a month of use. The connection distance is only 6 or 7 meters, close to the low power consumption products such as Xiaomi bracelet, and weaker than the smart watch products such as Samsung Gear Fit;
GPS： The speed of satellite search is slow, the position accuracy is relatively general, and the overall availability is not high. One of the official propaganda points is that users can go out to run and exercise only with a watch, but it may be the strength and accuracy of GPS. After the actual sports mode is turned on, the app will suggest users to connect their mobile phones and use the Internet. However, even if the mobile phone is connected, the cold start time of GPS will take more than 10 minutes, and poor signal or too fast speed (in the car) will cause very obvious position drift.
WiFi and 3G: It is difficult to observe because the frequency of use is too low and the intensity is not directly displayed. But at least the number of WiFi signals found was close to that of ordinary mobile phones, and the communication module did not show a disconnection prompt in the elevator and garage. Of course, because the bottom layer China Unicom's service is used. In places where China Unicom's 3G coverage is poor, such as second and third tier cities, it can only run 2G.
Sensors: motion sensing, compass, heart rate sensor
Gravity sensor, gyroscope, accelerometer: The sensitivity of the three sensors used to sense the spatial position and movement will directly affect the somatosensory functions such as raising the hand to light up, shaking the hand to wake up the voice assistant, but if the sensitivity is too high, the power will be burned. The sensitivity of these sensors of Ticwatch 2 is only the level of a normal smart watch/bracelet. There is no obvious difference between the speed of raising hands and the Xiaomi bracelet 2/Gear Fit and other products No, there is a clear gap between Apple Watch and Apple Watch;
Magnetometer: It is also called electronic compass, which is obviously added for independent navigation function. However, our testing machine is often inaccurate after cold start, and has to be restarted to solve the problem, which leads to low availability. We don't know whether it is an individual case or a common problem. If it is a software problem, we hope to repair it as soon as possible;
Heart rate sensor: The accuracy is relatively high, which is close to the heart rate data of the Gear Fit sports bracelet. It can normally measure relatively accurate data even when running. But the data is updated every 10 seconds, which is slower than many sports bracelets. In addition, I don't know whether it is a bug or an algorithm to correct the results according to the speed of the movement. When the author enters the motion tracking mode while sitting in the car, the heart rate value will be significantly higher by about 20 times, which will reduce the credibility of the data.
Integrated SIM card
The Ticwatch 2 with medium and high configuration has a built-in chip type eSIM card, which uses China Unicom 3G network (GSM and WCDMA) for people's livelihood communication. In the second and third tier cities, the lack of 3G network is a high probability event. Fortunately, the watch function has low demand for network speed, and running 2G is not a big problem.
To register, you need to register on WeChat official account or official website of Minsheng Communication. The process is summarized as follows: The ICCID (actually the ID code of the SIM card) and personal information on the package, Select numbers and packages, Take photos of packaging, ID card and own The group photo of is uploaded for real name authentication review.
Number information: First batch number Belonging to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen 170/171. On August 7, the optional range was 17191010 0XX-7XX, and the audit time ranged from a few hours to more than half a day. In addition, it is recommended to select the number on the official website of Minsheng Communications (with number filtering function).
Fees and packages: When buying a number, 30 yuan is a required prepaid phone bill. There are two kinds of packages available: 0 monthly rent and 9.9 yuan. The voice is 0.15 yuan/minute, the traffic is 0.15 yuan/MB, and the SMS is 0.1 yuan/piece. The answer is free. The 9.9 yuan package includes 30 minutes of calls and 50MB of traffic, which is the setting of many children's bracelets.
Go out and ask the official for 100M of traffic, which is valid for 6 months. In addition, the caller ID is 5 yuan/month, but it is not meaningful, so it is not recommended to check it. Alipay, WeChat and UnionPay payment are supported, and the phone bill is also paid online later. It should be noted that after activating the number, the goods cannot be returned, and maintenance and replacement may encounter some problems.
Summary of hardware
After trial and error of previous generations, Ticwatch 2 has many targeted designs and clearer choices. The visual thin body has a good appearance, and the weight control and material control are remarkable. However, you can see the trade-offs for endurance on the hardware everywhere, such as the same processor and battery as the previous generation, speakers with moderate sound quality and volume, Bluetooth and GPS with weak signal strength.
In return, the overall volume of the watch is one lap smaller than that of the previous generation, and the overall endurance is slightly better than that of the previous generation. However, the overall endurance is only the midstream level of the smart watch, which will be detailed below. After all, this is just a table, and the author still agrees with the product choice idea of going out and asking.
system
Ticwatch 2 is equipped with the ticwear 4.2.0 system based on Android 5.1, which is essentially a customized version of Android Wear. The system has almost no background, because there is no Home button. In addition to apps such as navigation and motion recording, 99% of applications actually exit after returning to the desktop, which will consume much less performance and power.
The system of smart watches is much more lively than that of mobile phones. The above is the main classification of smart watches. Tencent OS is directly under Tencent, and QQ and WeChat support will be better. Because the Chinese version of Android Wear has the origin of going out and asking, even if There are only hundreds of third-party apps on the ticwear platform, but AW Most Android Wear applications can run in compatibility mode.
It is worth mentioning that only Android Wear, tiwear in compatibility mode and Tencent OS of relatives can view WeChat records and replies, while others can only view WeChat in the form of notification push, and cannot reply.
Connection and management
Early smart watches running full-size Android can directly run mobile apps without mobile management, but now almost all smart watches need mobile management and application installation. Domestic inWatch, Tuman and other products equipped with the Android kernel deep reform system all have their own mobile clients, and there are few third-party apps (the former only had 8 apps when it was evaluated at the beginning of the year).
The products on the Android Wear branch are connected and operated in a similar way to the Apple Watch - the mobile phone is the protagonist and the watch is the supporting actor. If the app on the phone has a watch version, the latter will be automatically installed on the watch synchronously.
Ticwatch client
Ask app store screenshot
Ticwatch 2 requires the mobile phone to scan the QR code to load into the system when it is powered on for the first time. After changing the mobile phone, the watch must be restored to the factory before reconnecting. Fortunately, the recovery speed is only 2 or 3 minutes, and there is cloud backup. Because there is no unified app store and "mixed" Android Wear app resources in China, the experience of installing and managing apps is not friendly, and it may be difficult to improve for a long time:
Bilateral installation of: The watch app has its own app store. When downloading it, I wonder why it is so large. It was originally that after downloading the mobile phone app, I synchronized their watch versions to the watch.
Not necessarily able to install: The Ticwatch Ask App Store is the official partner of the Chinese version of Android Wear. The apps in the store can be directly used by the BOC version of Moto 360/Huawei watch and other machines, but some apps will be misplaced on Ticwatch, or even cannot be installed. This leads to some applications that can be seen in the mobile application management list, but not in the watch.
Unloading involvement: To uninstall the watch app, you must ask the app store or a special management app. When uninstalling, the mobile version will be uninstalled together
Uninstall trouble: The mobile app is unloaded from the desktop, but the watch app will stay on the watch itself. At this time, it may not work, but you can't unload it. You need to install its mobile version again, and then ask the app store or special management app to uninstall it
In addition, it is the support for Apple mobile phones. Although it has become the best Android watch for Apple, there are still many more restrictions on connecting iPhone than Android phones: unable to access third-party apps and dials, unable to answer SMS and WeChat, no third-party app shortcut cards, and no GPS track record.
Interaction mode
In addition to the touch screen, Ticwatch 2 also has a crown and a touch control bar on the right (the official name is "Tickle Scratch"). The first two are common settings for smart tables, and the third is unique to Ticwatch:
Touch screen: Click, slide and long press are the same as those of mobile phones, but multi finger control is cancelled. The left edge is drawn to the right to return, which may be familiar to iPhone users.
Crown key: Click the crown to return. Double click is a screenshot. Three click is to directly soar to the highest brightness and keep it for about 10 seconds. It is used to deal with the situation that the dial cannot be seen clearly when suddenly running into the bright sun. Press and hold to enter the power menu, and the restart/shutdown/power-saving mode/reset switch is inside. These settings are very good, but the double click and triple click functions are hidden functions without prompt. Normally, instructions should be provided in the activation or settings. I hope this can be improved.
Flex the touch bar: The plastic part on the right side of the watch body is a hidden touch area, which can be used to slide and click (zoomed in and out in the map). Even the crown is moved to the left (the direction can be changed by setting), which is worth praising in industrial design, but is not practical. There is no return operation for the touch bar. It should be used in conjunction with the touch screen, and its purpose is limited to the page with a list. After a week of testing, the author turned it off to save a little electricity because there was no need to touch it accidentally.
The main problem of "flexing" is that it can not completely replace the touch screen. 99% of the cases require the touch screen to be used together. If you add double click return, it may be more practical, but there will be a problem of false touch. In order to ensure the operation accuracy, it takes a lot of fingers to slide the long list. These are the limitations of this scheme, so the author is not optimistic about the future of this scheme.
System structure
The system structure of a smart watch can be imagined as a card arranged in a cross pattern. Some products will have different arrangement. Ticwatch is the structure shown in the following figure. The clock home page is divided into control bar (shortcut cards are also inside) and notification bar, voice search on the left and application drawer on the right:
Clock: The machine comes with 25 models. The third-party dial has more cow hair. Some dials also support customization. The system supports displaying month/week/hour/second, steps/weather/electricity, but it can't display to-do items like Apple Watch, and even third-party applications haven't found relevant functions for the time being. This is a pity and regret. I hope the official can fill the hole as soon as possible;
Dial and Dial Shop
Control Bar: The two setting cards are fixed at the front and cannot be modified. They respectively control "Flight/Do Not Disturb/Self contained Signal Module", and set/ring tone/brightness control/retrieve the phone (make the phone ring remotely)/raise the hand to light the screen switch. The shortcut card can be customized. It is essentially an application icon. Click it to enter the original application.
The system has 6 cards, including music, news, weather, Alipay, health and sports. But the sports card is only displayed when entering the sports mode. It is difficult to distinguish between naming and health, and the design logic is quite puzzling) What's worth praising is that the location, store, movie, flight, transportation route and other information of voice search can be added as cards, which is more convenient;
Notification bar and application drawer Just as the name implies.
The hierarchy diagram set is as above. The system design is relatively complete, which is not fundamentally different from Android Wear, but there are still some areas that need improvement:
Location waste: 10 items are set in the menu, but none of the 4 items "Change dial/Reset/About/Permission management" is meaningful, wasting the location of the first level menu
Uneven distribution: almost all advanced function switches are put down in the preference settings, and the content is the most, which can be disassembled into several items
Redundant levels: some are set with the fourth level menu, which can only be accessed after three clicks, but only one switch after entering... like the power trigger line of intelligent power saving mode, it can be directly tiled to the upper level to simplify logic
Quick control bar: Set the flight, Do Not Disturb, ringing tone, and retrieve the phone in the card are very low frequency functions. Remove them to save the next page
The system has its own app
In addition to the system level voice search and settings, there are 14 built-in apps. What's more special is the phone app like the dual card mobile phone (reading the phone's call record and address book directly) and the deep health of functions (you can find the functions such as sitting reminder and movement target only when you draw to the right inside, which can actually be put into the system settings). Other app functions and interactions are relatively simple, so I won't repeat them here.
Screenshot of system and third-party app
Application market and expansion
Ticwatch downloads and uninstalls apps through its own Ask App Store.
Compatibility: A small number of apps do not support ticwatch well, which may cause display dislocation or even failure to install.
Quantity: Regardless of compatibility, there are not many resources in the App Store. In addition to the dials, there are only hundreds of models in total. Experienced players can finish the task in a few minutes. Of course, the number of competitors who are not Android Wear kernels, such as Tencent OS, is still second to none.
Quality: dials, JD, what is worth buying and other major lifestyle applications are still well done (although there are few opportunities to use them), but the overall quality is uneven. The game applications are just imitations of the fappy bird, dodgeball, etc.
Android Wear compatibility mode
Because the bottom layer and Android Wear Similarly, after manual switch and restart, you can enter AW mode and use most Android Wear applications. However, this mode consumes a lot of power (depending on the model and use status, the endurance of both watches and mobile phones may be weakened by more than 2-30%), so it is off by default. For most users, AW mode is for WeChat reply function. After it is enabled, you can view groups and history, reply to expressions and voice, and send text in the form of voice to text.
Screenshot of mobile WeChat
However, there are still compatibility problems, such as unable to open the large picture, unable to open the WeChat on the PC end of the voice sent (the prompt is damaged), the default opening of "no push when the screen is lit" (no push when the phone screen is lit), and the fallback from AW mode will cause some apps to flash back, etc. After experiencing something new, the author still gave up the AW mode and WeChat reply function: first of all, the practicability of this function is not high. It is too painful to read messages on the mobile phone, but it is really practical to respond to messages, but the power consumption is too impressive. If the mobile phone itself continues to crash, it will be even worse.
stability
During the half month of testing, the machine was smooth most of the time, and there was a jam in "larger" apps such as just started up and Maps/WeChat, but there was no crash. After the AW mode is switched, the power detection app flashes back and can only be reinstalled.
On the whole, the system itself is not a big problem, but the gap is still in third-party apps. Some dials, watch management apps and games may break the watch's endurance (more than 10% of the speed per hour is standby and power is lost). You have to struggle to catch the "killer". After unloading, you can revive, but you have to struggle to be unfriendly to ordinary users.
Enhancements and selling points
On the left is the movement and map, and on the right is the corresponding low light constant light mode
Dim light is always on: After the screen is locked, the time will be displayed in low brightness black and white. Because it is OLED, it saves power (the experience will be much better, and the endurance loss is acceptable. It is recommended to keep it open). In maps and sports apps, the original information will be displayed in black and white after the rest screen, which is very cozy and practical.
Cloud push: As long as the mobile phone and the watch are connected to the Internet, the mobile phone can also receive WeChat, SMS and notifications if it is forgotten. Unfortunately, the incoming call is not a push notification. In the cloud push mode, some mobile phones such as Samsung cannot receive the push notification when they call, nor can they answer the call remotely. It is recommended that the phone number be directly transferred to the watch number. In addition, in AW mode, WeChat messages cannot be pushed to the cloud.
Built in sim card: You can make calls and surf the Internet without a mobile phone. Calls are transferred to the watch. You can answer emergency calls even if you forget to bring your mobile phone. You can also use voice and search without mobile phones and wifi. These two functions are seldom encountered, but once encountered, they will both be practical.
Off wrist lock screen: After opening, if you take off your watch without a password, you can only watch the time. After you bind Alipay and the address book, it is very necessary to keep this function open. The design is very careful.
Quick payment: The watch Alipay QR code can be used offline, and the installation effect is outstanding.
Private push: After the push comes, the details will be displayed only when you raise your hand to see it, which can prevent the push from being accidentally seen by others (but it is not necessary for individuals, and it will make the message push details pop up slower, so it is closed).
Summary of system
Ticwear is a highly customized version of Android Wear. Although its degree of completion is far from that of Apple Watch, the system (shortcut cards, switches, etc.), voice assistant, and built-in applications can complete Android Wear, Tencent OS and other similar systems.
Its short board is still the support of third-party apps, which is much better than other domestic rivals, but it is significantly different from the original Android Wear, and application management is more troublesome. The default mode cannot be replied by WeChat, and the AW mode consumes too much power.
Voice search
Voice search is the business of going out and asking questions. Some users may have downloaded their mobile apps, so it is expected that Ticwatch will place voice search at the highest level and use it as a selling point. Scrawling to the right on the surface of the clock, shaking your wrist twice or using "Hello to ask" can wake up the voice assistant.
In addition to the search engine, voice search can only be performed after voice is converted to text and keywords are split, and it is more connected with sentences before and after, so it can talk for many times like human beings. In essence, Ticwatch 2 is a specially optimized special device that extends search scenarios for going out to ask questions. Voice search includes the following four measurement points:
Speed: The actual recognition speed is extremely fast, and the recognition can be completed within 0.5 seconds after the voice falls, which is the fastest speech recognition that the author has ever experienced. However, the buffer time is very short. You have to think about what you want to ask in advance, or the machine will run to search before you finish.
Accuracy: At the upper middle level, long sentences can be corrected by themselves, and short sentences of 5 or 6 characters can be recognized as long as Mandarin is not too boastful. What is more impressive is that it has a high recognition rate of places. Chegong Temple, Guangzhou Gangding and other special places can also be identified quickly.
Sensitivity and noise filtering effect: This is related to the normal use of outdoor, roadside and other noisy environments. The actual effect is unexpectedly good. Under normal indoor conversation volume, it can also wake up and recognize at a distance of nearly 1 meter. The noisy environment is more than 20 cm away from the watch, and the normal volume can also be correctly identified, which is quite similar to the feeling of using Moto X.
Multi round dialogue: Even Google is working hard on this. Ticwatch and its voice assistant have just been able to connect the upper and lower sentences for semantic supplement. When searching for continuous conversations, you can use more complex, more colloquial search words such as "just now, what was said above, and how". However, it only increases the user's goodwill, which does not mean that it has brought much change. After all, the success rate of contact is not high, and after several failures, it will return to the traditional keyword sentence.
If you insist on finding fault, it is a pity that there is no Cantonese and English recognition, nor can you just recognize the voice of the host, and the wake-up words of "Hello, ask" cannot be changed by themselves.
Ticwatch and 99% of voice assistants can do the following things. When considering whether to use such apps and devices, you can refer to them:
Search query: News, jokes, movies, celebrities/things. More humanized is the end number of the line, the number of Olympic medals, PM2.5, stock index, double color ball, exchange rate conversion;
Productivity : schedule, reminder, countdown, open the stopwatch (the second counting will start immediately after recognition, which is a good comment);
Map class: Navigation, personal location, nearby food, ATM, hotel, gas station;
Transportation: Bus routes, subway starting and ending flights, high-speed rail, and air flights;
Application startup and system information query: Heart rate measurement, dialing, text messaging, step count
The following are special:
take a taxi: Ticwatch can bind Uber and Didi accounts, and the voice assistant can directly complete the car call task;
Nearby Beauty: Connect to Huatian, and use card style to view the sister paper, but the image resolution is very poor, and the details and large images should be sent to the mobile phone to see;
Language translation : Translate the speech into other languages, and multiple target voices are optional;
Egg : Can understand that "big health care" is to look for massage, and find the toilet can also give the location of nearby McDonald's and KFC
Almost all search results can be added to the shortcut card by long pressing for future viewing. The author also uses it as a favorite. When I think of something, I search it. Simple information is scanned at a glance. If it is too long, I add it to the shortcut card, and then I look at it slowly.
In actual use, although the experience is much better than pulling out the mobile phone to search, I thought that such a convenient search would greatly increase my search frequency, but in fact, I only use my watch to search on the road. When sitting at home or in the office, the computer is faster and more accurate. Author uses The highest frequency and It uses the schedule and alarm clock to remind you all day long. You can finish it by saying it, which is much faster than your mobile phone.
To sum up, this is the most available wearable device for voice search.
Raise your hand to light the screen, turn your wrist and navigate
This is a power saving setting inherited from the era of smart bracelets. The smaller the wrist turning range, the slower the need speed, and the faster the wake-up speed, the more natural it will be to use. The price is that the higher the sensitivity, the more power consumption, and the power consumption and touch problem of false wake-up. The actual performance of the machine is medium to low, which is on the same level as the Xiaomi bracelet and Samsung Gear Fit. There is still a long way to go between the machine and the top machines like Apple Watch and Gear Fit2 that wake up instantly.
Look at the watch when you hang your hand (walking and standing). The worst watch can wake up, just the difference in wake-up speed; When standing flat (this is almost the case when sitting in the office, watching movies, etc.), Apple Watch can wake up as long as you roll your wrist, while Ticwatch and most bracelet products can wake up only with qualified actions. Every day, you will encounter a lot of embarrassment of raising your hand but not showing it clearly, which will seriously affect the use experience, so you would rather sacrifice about 15% of the endurance, and the author also turned on the twilight constant light mode
For Ticwatch 2, it may be to save power, and there are many restrictions on raising the hand to light up. It is characterized by recognizing only the last surface angle and having a cooling time of a few tenths of a second:
Surface angle: this It is the biggest problem and has a great impact on the use. Even if you raise your hand when walking, no matter how fast you move, as long as the final surface does not slightly incline to yourself, it will not light up, even if the surface is horizontal... The official can completely relax the angle range, after all, in many cases it will not turn to such a large angle, hoping to correct relevant problems as soon as possible;
Acceleration: Not demanding. Even if it is a deliberate slow motion, as long as the final surface angle exceeds the level and faces slightly towards itself, the screen will light up, which is good;
Action cooling time: This is also a big problem, which is the main reason why the screen does not light up when it is moving. When the meter moves from a standstill, the machine will judge whether the screen lights up after the acceleration is generated. If the continuous acceleration does not stop, the screen will not light up even if the angle of the wrist turning meets the requirements at this time... This is also the main reason why the screen does not light up when you continuously shake your hand while sitting. Only the screen does not light up when you roll your wrist for the first time, It won't light up even if you keep turning your wrist... This phenomenon is not obvious in Gear Fit2 and Apple Watch.
For products with similar problems, it is recommended to test the characteristics of the machine, so that the wrist can be turned in a targeted way (the machine design is defective, and the user can only do it himself). For Ticwatch2, when turning the wrist, remember to make the angle of the surface to stop slightly face yourself, as long as it slightly exceeds the horizontal plane, it is enough to wake up the machine.
Somatosensory
In addition to raising the hand to light up, Ticwatch 2 has added the following actions:
Turn your wrists twice - call out voice assistant
Wrist down - call out quick card
Wrist up - call out notice bar
In the call interface, turn your wrist twice - answer the call
In the call interface, turn your wrist twice - hang up the phone
Under the notice bar interface, turn your wrist up and down - page turning of the notice bar
In the shortcut card interface, turn up and down - switch the shortcut card
It is easy to use the meter to turn off the screen, and the vertical hand to turn off the screen (when the hand is down, the screen will turn off automatically) is designed well and smart. However, only two wrist turns in the "wrist turning movement" have practical value (and faster wrist turns are required). Other movements require great movement and speed, and the success rate is very low, so they are basically unavailable.
Navigation
Many people expect that watch navigation may be better than mobile phones before they use smart watches. This may be true abroad where Google Maps is available, but in China where Baidu and Goddard have limited credibility, mobile phones are better. In addition, the picture of the watch is too small, so it is troublesome to zoom in and out, check and verify the route, and even more troublesome to change the route. In addition, the compass of Ticwatch is unstable, so the author gave up directly after using it once.
Endurance and charging
In terms of hardware, the SoC and battery capacity of Ticwatch 2 are the same as those of the previous generation. The good news for the endurance is that Ticwatch 2 has replaced a smaller and more power-saving OLED screen, but it has added infrared, GPS and 3G modules (the last two are opened on demand, with little impact), which will theoretically be slightly better than the previous generation's endurance. Many settings, such as the off screen of the vertical/cover meter and the strict lighting conditions, are set to save power. In addition, there is wireless fast charging.
After all, the battery is too small. When the screen is used, even at the lowest brightness, the maximum screen brightness time is less than 1.5 hours. However, the watch seldom lights up the screen for use, and what more affects the endurance experience is the standby power failure. The endurance of Ticwatch 2 is complicated. Whether 3G/wifi/Bluetooth is on or not, and whether AW mode/twilight is on or not, will have a direct impact on the endurance. When Bluetooth connection is maintained, Wifi is turned off, and the minimum brightness is reached, and only power monitoring and application management apps are installed, the endurance statistics are as follows:
The most economical daily use mode in the first column turns off 3G, constant brightness and wrist turning; In the second column, the constant light, 3G and wrist turning movements are added; The third column turns on AW compatibility mode, 3G and all somatosensory movements. The overall endurance of the machine belongs to a slightly above average level in smart watches. If you don't connect your mobile phone, you can charge it every three days, but it's better to buy an ordinary watch.
The power consumption after AW, wifi and 3G is impressive, and the normal use experience cannot be maintained at all. In addition, some third-party dials and apps will cause an abnormal drop in power, which may cause the watch to power down at a rate of more than 10% per hour.
PS: 2016.12.13 updated. At the end of October, ticwear began to have a monthly updated development version system similar to MIUI, which can be selected and switched by itself. The November update introduced the Doze mode (which can be generally understood as the tombstone mode of forced sleep), which made the standby performance soar. The normal link mobile phone gesture light screen, 0-9 o'clock power saving mode, daily power failure in 25% - 30%, can easily adhere to more than 3 days.
Power saving mode: Only the black and white time display is retained, and the screen will light up only when you press the crown. This mode allows you to stand by for 8 hours and power down about 3%, and the alarm clock still works, which is great. It is automatically triggered under the preset power (4 gears of 5%/10%/15%/20%), and the time will not be lost due to power failure.
Charging speed: 0-100% charging, 13% in 10 minutes, 24% in 15 minutes, 48% in 30 minutes, 68% in 45 minutes, 93% in one hour, and 65 minutes for full charge. There was no trickle down process in the whole process. Almost all of them ran at a speed of 9% every 5 minutes, which was worth praising. The highest temperature during charging is just warm, and the temperature control is OK.
Charger: The machine should adopt the mainstream Qi standard, which can be charged on the wireless charging board of mobile phones and smart cups. Taobao collects dozens of wireless charging boards, and you can put one in your home and one in your office to charge at any time. If you have a mobile power supply that supports wireless charging, it will be even more perfect. But the bad news is that its charger may be too small in area or power, and neither S6 edge nor Note5 can recognize it.
In addition, there is no obvious difference in charging speed when using the computer USB interface (5V/0.5A). Using the mobile phone's wireless charging board, the charging speed will be slightly faster about 5 minutes, but the temperature will also be higher.
summary
After using more smart watches, you will find that“ The appearance of the traditional watch, the battery life of one or two days and various similar functions ", these The main reason why smart watches are highly similar in hardware is that At the current technical level, the best balance of "volume, performance and endurance" can only be this way. They are mainly used for phone transfer, SMS/WeChat/QQ message reminding, remote music control and dial changing.
For users who are used to charging the bracelet once a week, the endurance of the smart watch is really too diabetes insipidity, not so comfortable to wear, and not having the sleep monitoring function. Many people imagine that the watch has a mobile phone card, and the mobile phone can also transfer calls when it is not powered, but in fact, the watch is more likely to be powered down first than the mobile phone, and the special charger also makes the watch unable to use the mobile power In addition to the appearance, smart watches are now in an awkward position in terms of practicality. Such functions alone cannot make people willing to spend money on them and charge them every day, Gear Fit、 Weile Now2 and other smart bracelets with more functions are much more practical than smart watches.
therefore Similar products are trying to find killer features, such as Android Wear series WeChat reply, mobile payment, voice assistant, and its own 3/4G network. What we need to pay for and endure the endurance of smart watches is probably just one or two functions for taste. For the author and many business users, it is very convenient to add and remind the schedule, as well as search experience anytime and anywhere.
The Ticwatch 2 is the only smart watch in China that has rich third-party app resources, except for the Moto 360 II and Huawei Watch. The first two rivals do not have the advantages of a more grounded system, a better voice assistant experience, and a 3G network. It is one of the smartwatches recommended by the author in China. Of course, this is largely because the domestic counterparts are too weak, and the castrated national banks Moto 360 II and Huawei Watch are too expensive.
As for whether its 3G version is worth buying, the author's answer is no, the use frequency of 3G network is really too low, and watches are more likely to lose power than mobile phones
