Review: Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra

Today I'm reviewing the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra worth, as of the time of this review, £267.43 on Amazon UK.   The LTE version costs £329.99.  I received the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra LTE product as part of a review program in return for an unbiased review.  Mobvoi had no editorial rights to my review and they did not receive any preview copy of the review.

Pro:

• Extremely long battery life (upward of 3 days)
• Lightweight
• Faux leather/silicon wrist strap (if that's your style)
• Activity tracker
• An extremely readable secondary display

Cons:

• Short wrist strap
• The vibration motor is meh
• Protruding side buttons
• Leather wrist strap 
• Proprietary charger
• LTE version locked to Vodafone

TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra... that's quite a mouthful.  It seems the company is just tacking on words to the name.  It reminds me of this video by Mrwhosetheboss.

https://youtu.be/wadg_mLOPJQ

But I digress.  If you have the TicWatch Pro 3, the Ultra version is more or less the same as the TicWatch Pro 3.  Unlike the Pro 3, the Ultra has an internal compass.  They both have great battery life.  In fact, no watch to date beat Mobvoi's Pro 3 and Pro 3 Ultra in terms of battery longevity.

Style

The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra LTE has a dual-screen display.  The second low battery secondary display reminds me of the Casio non-smartwatches.

Unlike the non-Ultra version ie TicWatch Pro 3, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra's Secondary display can change colors.  However, that setting isn't in the main watch settings and is controlled by the Essential mode app.

To change the color:

1. Open the Essential Mode app (using its launcher icon)

2. Swipe left for settings

3. Scroll down until you get the option for backlight color

Thanks to u/DYNALogix on r/WearOS

If you want to boost the brightness of the screen, you can double-click the top page button.

The LTE version is made of faux leather/silicon hybrid.  Although it looks more stylish than the non-Ultra or non-LTE version, the leather band has a few caveats.

After about two weeks of wearing, it suffered some stress on the bands, causing marks around the holes.

Also, I find the buttons a bit protruding and uncomfortable under certain conditions.  The bezels on the watch are also large, making the watch a bit bulky.  However, unlike the Samsung Watch 4, the bezels are useless; it does not have a rotating crown.  Although the crown on the Samsung may be a bit of a gimmick for some, I use it fairly often, especially when it's raining since the touches may misregister if the screen is wet.

For me, the strap was a bit small.

In fact, out of the three watches I own, the Pro 3 Ultra is one of the smallest circumference bands.  However, you can probably get bigger bands aftermarket.

Technology

Activity tracking

As with the TicWatch Pro 3 (and just about most other smartwatches), this watch tracks heart rate, steps, activity, etc.  However, it comes with a few added features.  It has IHB AFiB Detection and 24 hours stress monitoring.

The step counter was fairly accurate and was about 50 steps off from the Galaxy Watch 4.  This is a small margin of error and can be attributed to perhaps me being more dominant on the arm that I wore the Galaxy Watch 4.  One good thing about the Mobvoi watch is that it syncs with Google Fit, unlike the Samsung watch.  Samsung Watch only syncs with Samsung Health and you need a third-party app like Health Sync.  In my experience, it didn't sense the sport that accurately and you have to manually select the sport.

Vibration motor

The vibration motor on this watch isn't that strong compared to the Samsung but it's strong enough.

Synergy with phone

One feature on the Samsung that I miss is the synergy with the phone.  The Samsung Watch syncs the do not disturb mode with the Samsung Note 20 Ultra.  In addition, with the Samsung, any alarms ringing on the phone also ring on the watch, which is nice.  The TicWatch Pro 3 and Pro 3 Ultra, however, lacks this feature.

Google Assistant

Unlike the Samsung watch, the Pro 3 Ultra comes with Google Assistant.  However, during my 2 weeks of use, I rarely use the assistant on my watch.  Although it supports control of my smart home devices, it does not support routines.  When I'm at home, I tend to use my Google Home Hub Max anyway and if I'm on the way, I will use my headphones to trigger the Google assistant from my phone.

4G/LTE

Although my version provided by Mobvoi is the LTE version, it is tied to the Vodafone network.  However, there is an unofficial workaround on Reddit.  The Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is slightly more open but I found out only certain networks and certain plans support the esim on the watch.  Your watch and your phone must be with the same provider.  

In other words, if you want to use the watch to make independent calls, you need to be with a certain network (on your phone) and you have to pay more to support the watch.  Last I checked, none of the supported providers support the watch on their PAYG plan.  You need to be in with a contract with the network.  There isn't a PAYG plan just for the watch.

I miss my Huawei Watch 2 when you can simply pop a sim into the smart watch and use it as a phone.

Battery life

The TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra has no contender in the battery life category.  It has extremely long battery life.  With its 577 mAh battery and secondary FSTN display, the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra is the king of battery life.  Mobvoi says it would last 72 hours in normal "smart" mode and 45 days in the essential mode.  The essential mode only uses the secondary display and allows you to see your steps and battery life along with the time and date.

Wear OS version

The watch comes with Wear OS 2.33.  However, no other smartwatch apart from the Samsung Watch 4 comes with Wear OS 3.0, so I'm not going to count this as a con, unlike other review sites.  The TicWatch Pro 3 and Pro 3 Ultra are slated to be upgraded to Wear OS 3 later this year.

Watch Specs

These are the watch details from Mobvoi's website.

Model: TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra GPS

Dimensions (mm): 47 x 48 x 12.3

Weight: 41g

Color: Shadow Black

Watch case: Stainless steel and high-strength nylon with fiberglass

Screen: Corning Gorilla Anti-fingerprint Cover Glass

Operating System: Wear OS by Google

Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon Wear™ 4100 Platform and Mobvoi dual processor system

Memory: 

• RAM: 1GB
• Onboard storage: 8GB

Display: 1.4“ 454x454 326ppi Full Color Always On Display AMOLED + FSTN

Connectivity: 

• Bluetooth 5.0
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n (Wifi 4)
• GNSS: GPS+Beidou+Glonass+Galileo+QZSS

NFC Payments: Google Pay

Additional features:

• Speaker
• Mic
• Vibrator
• Barometer

Sensors: 

• Accelerometer
• Gyro Sensor
• HD PPG Heart Rate Sensor
• SpO2 Sensor
• Low Latency Off-Body Sensor
• Barometer

Battery capacity: 577mAh

Durability: IP68, Pool Swim/MIL-STD-810G

Conclusion

Mobvoi is a champion with battery life and their dual-display technology is extremely legible even in bright sunlight.  TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra continues this trend of excellence in the TicWatch Pro 3.  It has a couple of negatives though.  The watch is slightly bulky and the wristband is smaller than other watches, including the TicWatch Pro 3.  Also, unless you're with Vodafone or plan to switch to Vodafone, don't get the LTE version.  The Bluetooth version will suffice and you will save a couple of bucks as well.  For a more in-depth review, please see Brian Burriston's excellent review on Notebookcheck.net: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobvoi-TicWatch-Pro-3-Ultra-GPS-in-review-Small-update-of-a-good-smartwatch.574006.0.html.

If battery life is your main concern, get the TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra.  If you have a Samsung phone and would like the greater synergy between your phone and watch, get the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 classic.

This blog participates in the Amazon affiliate program and if you buy through the links, we may earn an affiliate commission.  This does not affect the quality of the review, however.

Review: Huawei Nova 5T. Great phone, camera letdown

I received this product as part of a review program in return for an unbiased review.

Pros:

• Flagship level performance
• Crisp clear screen
• Fingerprint reader on the power button
• Large screen
• Great value for money
• No notch
• Long battery life
• Dual sim capability

Cons:

• No waterproofing
• Camera is OK
• No wireless charging
• No headphone jack
• Punch hole camera does not provide 3D facial recognition.  Also, face unlock doesn't work without ample lighting

On paper, the Nova 5T has an impressive specs sheet.  It shares the same Kirin 980 processor and memory size (6 GB ram and 128 GB storage) as Huawei's other flagship phones.  It also packs a camera with a quad-camera layout:

• 48 MP, f/1.8, 28mm (wide), 1/2.0", 0.8µm, PDAF
• 16 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), 1/3.1"
• 2 MP, f/2.4, 27mm (wide), dedicated macro camera
• 2 MP, f/2.4, depth sensor

And it is almost half the price of Huawei's flagships.

But this is where the similarities end.

Design

The Nova 5T has a notchless 6.26 inch 19.5:9 screen.  Instead, it sports a punch out in the left corner of the screen for the 32 MP front-facing selfie camera.  The display is crisp and bright.

The back of the phone is clad in 2.5d hard glass, and there is a distinct camera bump for the 3 cameras + LED flash and depth sensor.  However, despite the metal backing, the phone doesn't have Qi wireless charging.

Overall the design of the camera is curvy and easy to hold.  The only concern I have is with the bump which juts out from the phone.  Therefore, the phone doesn't sit flat on the table.

On the side of the phone is the power button, which also doubles as a fingerprint reader.

The reader works like a charm.  It quickly and accurately unlocks the phone.

Camera

This phone has 3 cameras and one depth sensor.  In theory, the 48 MP camera would mean great pictures, but in practice, I noticed that the camera quality is a bit lacking.

Fruit taken with adequate lighting

Nova 5T night mode.  Blurry as hell

Picture of the peg taken under daylight

Nova 5T 48 mp (Ultra Clarity mode)	Shot of my neighborhood (48 mp)
Mate 20 Pro	Google Pixel 4

The camera performs well under adequate light, but once lighting drops, the phone starts to struggle.  Also, unlike the Mate 20 Pro, the Nova doesn't perform that well if your subject is close to the lens.

The front-facing camera lacks 3D sensing capability.  Therefore, the face unlock won't work in dull lighting.  However, the aforementioned fingerprint in the power button makes a nice backup.

Performance

Nova 5T is powered by Kirin 980 and has 6 GB of ram and 128 GB of storage.  This is the exact same specs as in Huawei's flagship phones.  Thus, the interface is as smooth as butter.  One thing I like about this phone is that it has dual sim capability.  That means that I can have two sims in the device, one for my main phone and one for a back up.  Therefore, I can use different network providers to improve my coverage.

Summary

This is an excellent device with flagship-level performance.  However, its camera is a bit poor, especially in low lighting.

Google Assistant the singer

Google assistant is a spunky rival to Siri and Cortana.  While not the new kid on the block, she (or he as you can set a male option too by saying "OK google change your voice), is an excellent singer.  Just say "Sing [name of song]".

Below are some of the songs (I picked the funniest) she could sing:

Update: Review: Fallout Shelter on Android

This is an update to my review of Fallout Shelter on iOS.  In that review, I said that the game constantly crashes on my iPad Mini.

When the game came out on Android, I had to give it a try.  I installed the game on my Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (N1080) and started it.

The game went through a quick tutorial before letting the player do what they want.  While the experience was better in the sense that it didn't crash, it was not much different from the other resource-based games like Virtual Villagers.  You have to build rooms for the resources (food, electricity, and freshwater).  Achievements are a good way to quickly build up your shelter.

I have also bought the Mr. Handy robot to gather resources when I'm offline.

Fallout Shelter gameplay.  Vault resources are shown along the top of the screen.

A notification appears when a room produces resources.

However, after a day of playing the game, I quickly became bored.  The game requires me to do the same task repeatedly.  To "spice things up," the game occasionally throw monsters at you that you have to defeat.  But it feels like a treadmill.  You'll just keep fighting the same Raiders and Radroaches you fought thirty hours ago, and maybe you'll now kill them 25% faster with all your fancy new gear.

Also, there is no peace in your life if you decide to play the game.  The game frequently prompts you to return to it.  Also, if I'm not on the game, I have a sort of withdrawal symptom where I worry that if I'm not on, my colony would be doom.  At the back of my head, I get the nagging feeling is the raider gone for too long and thus is dead?  Is my colony starving?

In the end, although the game is "better" than the other open-ended resource-based game in the sense in that you don't have to pay to "win" the game, I decided to free myself from the chain and uninstall the game from the tablet.

As Paul Tassi from Fobes.com said in A Warning To New 'Fallout Shelter' Players On Android, "It’s the dumbest kind of addiction ... . I wouldn’t have anyone else do the same before figuring out what a shallow experience the game really is.  One day is enough, and it’s the developer’s fault for not making it any deeper than that."

Rant: Samsung and the case of the disappearing MicroSD Card

I have noticed a trend with major smartphone manufacturers to exclude MicroSD card slots from their phones in order to differentiate the different varieties and sell phones of different storage capacities.

What is a MicroSD card?  Well a MicroSD card, such as the one pictured to the right, is a type of storage device that allows you to store pictures, movies, music, etc on it.  Once upon a time, when internal storage was meagre, MicroSD Card was all the rage.  It allowed manufacturers to get away with less internal storage.  However, with smartphones, the apps are typically stored in the phone's internal storage, making the MicroSD card external storage quite useless for the task.

Then came Apple, whose first smartphone, the iPhone, didn't come with external storage.  Instead of allowing expandable storage, they sold their device with varying capacity of storage, where the user have to "predict" the amount of storage they might need in the future and buy the appropriate model.  I have heard too many a tale where iPhone users have "ran out of storage" since their storage needs have grown since they last bought the phone.  Also, each iteration of the iOS operating system that powers Apple's mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) were heavier than the last.  Thus, they ate more of the internal storage, leaving less space for the user.

If the iPhone had external storage, the user could have just bought an external storage card and offload all their photos onto that.  Some may argue, "but wait there's USB OTG (on the go), which allow you to plug in your USB storage device like flash drive."  To that I say, ha!  Would you seriously want to carry a USB pendrive around just in case you want to show your friends photos or playback music that you have "archived" since you no longer use them?

But thank gods that Android phones all come with a MicroSD card slt.  But wait, it seems that the MicroSD card slot is slowly growing missing.  In the mainstream Android market, the Nexus devices were first the one to do away with the slots.  First gen Motorola G and Moto X didn't come with the slots either and neither did the HTC One (M7).  However, those companies found the error in the ways and brought back the slot in later models of the devices.

However, it seems that Samsung, whose phones had always had an MicroSD card slot, is doing away with them.  The S6 and S6 edge device didn't come with the slot, much to my chagrin.  Instead they feature a metallic look that harken to the Apple iPhones.

While I'm not a big fan of the Samsung's physical button and their layout of the back / app switcher is opposite to 99% of non Samsung devices, in the past I was willing to give Samsung phones a go (I had one but swapped it for an Xperia Z2), but without the MicroSD card, it's bye bye Samsung. I am a long time Android user and my first smartphone phone is a Samsung device.  And plus, Samsung did a backward step here with the S6 and S6 Edge. The Samsung S5 had waterproofing whereas the S6 doesn't. On the other hand, Sony has done the opposite. The Xperia M doesn't have waterproofing while the M2 Aqua and all the latest range has waterproofing. In addition, the M4 has a capless waterproofed charger port. That means the only components that are hidden behind the caps are those you rarely touch i.e. the sim card and the MicroSD card slot.  It seems Samsung is trying to mimic Apple and "be cool" with their "redesign" turned out for the worse.

But enough about Samsung, the infamous (or famous depending on how you see it) OnePlus "smartphone killers" don't have the slots either.  OnePlus also relied on a clunky invite system, but that's beside the point.

By now you might be asking why would the company do away with the slots?  There could be a couple of reasons, simplifying of designs.  But the biggest factor is profits.  The MicroSD card stood in the way of storage differentiation.  With the slot present, if you need a larger storage, you could just go to a store and get a larger capacity card.  That means less profits to the smartphone manufacturers (and more to the MicroSD card producers).  Without the slot, the smartphone manufacturers can force user to buy a more expensive phone in anticipation of the storage that the consumer may need as in the consumer's eye, it's better to have more storage than less (and this is true).

So no matter how the company spin it, taking out the MicroSD card slot is an attempt to squeeze more money from the consumers.

Rant: Luxury smart phones

I am appalled with so call "luxury" phones like the Vertu Ti Android Ferrari.  They can fetch of up to $11,999.99, which seems quite a lot for a simple phone.

But what's so great with the phone?  Specs?  Nope.   As seen from the chart below, the specs fall in with other mid range phones, such as the Google Nexus 4, which came out a few months ago.  And the Google Nexus 4 have a cheaper price tag of around £135.00, depending on whether you want it brand new or used.

See comparison here.

Vertu claims to be made in England by a single craftsman who makes each unit by hand (like sculpt it by hand? I'm sure you can't make the battery by hand... or the processor) at the company headquarters in Hampshire. In addition, What sets the Vertu apart from other competitors, other than the titanium and sapphire crystal, is its "live personal assistant on-call" at the press of a button. Vertu's Concierge Services enables the user to call a live person in the same region as the user to do functions, such as booking exclusive hotels and dinner reservations that can easily be done via apps.

Another example is the Bellperre Touch, which like the Vertu, has abmismal specs. According to the website, its specs are:

• Dimensions: 138.0 x 69.4 x 9.4 mm
• Weight: 166 g, Micro-SIM
• 4.9 inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
• 48 GB MEMORY + 2 GB RAM
• 3.5mm jack, NFC, Multitouch
• GPRS Class 12 (4+1/3+2/2+3/1+4 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
• EDGE Class 12
• Speed: HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA; LTE
• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct
• DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
• DISPLAY, 720 x 1280 pixels, 16M colors
• 2G Network: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
• 3G Network: 850 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
• Bluetooth: v4.0, A2DP, EDR
• Android OS, CPU Dual-core 1.5 GHz
• MicroUSB v2.0 (MHL), USB On-the-go
• Autofocus CAMERA 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, LED flash
• Simultaneous HD video and image recording
• 1080p@30fps Video
• Secondary cam: 1.9 MP, 720p@30fps
• Accelerometer sensor, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
• GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
• Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
• TV-out (via MHL A/V link)
• MP4/DivX/XviD/WMV/H.264/H.263 player
• MP3/WAV/eAAC+/AC3/FLAC player
• Organizer, Photo/video editor
• Document editor (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF)
• Stand-by: (2G) / Up to 330 h (3G)
• Talk time: (2G) / Up to 14 h (3G)
• Music play: Up to 48 h

In conclusion, are luxury phones worth it? Definately not. Unless you're looking for a phone for a permanent showcase, they quickly get outdated. And an advice for luxury phone makers, please make your phones specs worth the price. You could maybe stuff your phone with like 4 GB no 8 GB of ram, 128 GB or 1 TB of internal storage with microsd card expansion, and the top of the line custom octo-core (8 cores) processor with a clock speed of 3 GHz or greater.

Review: Samsung S5 - the Windows 8 of the Galaxy Range

 Today I received my Samsung S5 and to be blunt, I hated the general interface. It's like Windows 8 of the mobile world.

Samsung had changed things a lot, and not for the better. For example, the volume keys are mapped to take photos rather than the zoom controller of the previous iteration. Then there's the menu section. It's a jumble of settings strewn everywhere.  Also, frustratingly, the phone maps the menu to the left of the menu and the back button to the right. This is the opposite of stock Android. Almost all other phones have it the other way around.  In addition, the location causes me to accidentally mash on the keys when in landscape mode. 

However, the waterproofing is a welcome though. I am also a fan of the multi-window view for Samsung phones.

I like the Sony Xperia Z2, but the battery is it's Achilles heel. When on mobile Internet, even when charging, the phone battery drains rapidly.

Fix it: Deleting manufacturer bookmarks

I bought a Sony Xperia SP and when I launched the browser Chrome, I noticed there was a folder named "Sony" that I couldn't delete. Nothing in the browsers could be deleted. And to make matters worse, Chrome keeps defaulted to that folder most of the time I launched it.

I searched Google and I came upon this forum post on the XDA forums. As mentioned in the forum, to disable the folder, go into settings then apps find the app "com.android.providers.partnerbookmarks." Then click "Disable" and then "force stop." You could reboot the phone if necessary.

Fix it: Hijack of the "default" page on stock Android browser

After installing some Android apps, you may notice that the "default" home page has been changed to www.searchmobileonline.com or the likes. To get rid of the "default" home page, perform the steps below.

1. Open Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All (tab on top) or Settings > Application manager as shown
   
2. Go to the "All" tab on the top and scroll down to "Internet"
   
3. Click "clear data" in the resulting window
   

Credits for the instructions go to Getting rid of "search mobile online" browser hijack in Android.