It might be cheap, but its poor fitness tracking means the TicWatch GTH is hard to recommend, no matter how tight your budget.
The Mobvoi TicWatch GTH might look a little like an Apple Watch at first glance, but the similarity ends there. This is a cheap device, and you’ll get what you pay for. Some of its tools work well enough. Its sleep monitoring is acceptable, tracking periods of light and deep sleep so you can monitor patterns throughout the night. Unfortunately, its fitness tracking leaves rather a lot to be desired. There’s no on-board GPS, meaning you have to carry your phone on runs, bike rides and walks so the TicWatch can piggyback on its GPS receiver. When it does, results can be quite inaccurate, shaving half a kilometer off our pre-measured 5km route. While that might not matter so much if you’re new to running or riding, if you’re training for a mid-distance event that margin of error is a real concern. Heart rate monitoring also proved spotty. The TicWatch GTH was slow to respond to changes during a spin session, and although its readings were mostly consistent, we saw some alarming peaks during a post-workout cooldown The estimate of calories burned was also suspiciously low. While it’s easy to overestimate much energy you use during a workout,75 calories for a half-hour interval session is much less than we would have expected. The TicWatch GTH was released globally in April 2021, and is available for $79.99 / €79.99 (about £60 / AU$100). That’s a little more than the similarly-specced Amazfit Bip, but less than the TicWatch G2, which is one of the cheapest smartwatches around running Google WearOS. The TicWatch GTH has a smart, minimalist design, with a rectangular case measuring 43.2 x 35.2 x 10.5mm. That’s very similar to the larger version of the Apple Watch 6, which measures 44 x 38 x 10.5mm. However, the TicWatch GTH has a considerably larger bezel; whereas the 44mm Apple Watch has a 1.78in AMOLED display, the TicWatch GTH’s LCD display measures just 1.55in. On the reverse, you’ll find the standard optical heart rate monitor, plus a sensor for measuring skin temperature. It’s operated using the touchscreen, together with a single physical button on the right-hand edge that can be pressed or held to perform different functions. The TicWatch GTH has a 20mm-wide silicone band that feels slightly stiffer than that of the Apple Watch, and is secured with a conventional stainless steel buckle rather than a post-style fastening. The case and band are only available in black, and only one strap size is included in the pack. The watch charges via a USB cable with two small contacts that attaches to the back of the watch via a magnet. This has to be aligned carefully to work correctly, and in our tests it became disconnected from the watch quite easily. In terms of smartwatch features, the TicWatch GTH is quite basic. There are third-party apps either pre-installed or available through an online store, so you won’t be streaming your Spotify playlist through it, but you can use it to control your phone’s media player, which is useful during workouts.
