The Apple Watch Series 5 is the ultimate smartwatch to go with iPhone, but it's expensive. The Ticwatch C2 is more affordable and has good features.
The Apple Watch Series 5 is a compact smartwatch with premium features that will challenge even the best that Samsung, Fossil or Mobvoi (the makers of the Ticwatches) can offer.
The Ticwatch C2 is more of an entry-level smartwatch as compared to the Apple Watch Series 5.
The Apple Watch Series 5 is an amazing watch. That Apple was able to put so many features and offer a great battery life in such a small package is a real marvel.
The Ticwatch C2, on the other hand, offers great value. For a fraction of the cost of the Apple Watch, you get useful hardware that can help you become more productive.
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Hardware and performance
“You pay for what you get” really shows off here.
The performance of the TIcwatch C2 isn’t lacklustre, but it definitely doesn’t have any lustre on it.
In fact, it has the lowest-end smartwatch chip out there — the Snapdragon Wear 2100. Fossil has moved all their smartwatches on to the newer, Wear 3100 but not Mobvoi.
In practice, the smartwatch still works well. But it won’t multitask very well and so sometimes you have to tolerate how slow it responds when you have a Google Play update going on in the background.
And there’s always a wait to activate Google Assistant. It might say “Speak now” but in reality it is as unresponsive as a rock.
The Apple Watch is a lot smoother. Everything is fast. Call up Siri, Apple’s voice assistant, and you will get a response immediately.
The Apple Watch has one button and a crown that also acts like a button, while the Ticwatch C2 has two buttons and no crown. The crown is actually a very useful navigation tool which Ilike on my smartwatches.
Both watches have an NFC chip which can be used for contactless payment.
Winner: Apple Watch Series 5
Wear OS vs WatchOS
Google’s Wear OS has improved significantly over this year. It’s much smoother now and has amusing apps such as the Hand Wash Timer.
The WatchOS is a beautifully designed smartwatch operating system that is much better looking than the Wear OS. The difference ireally feels like Windows 98 versus Windows 10.
But while the TIcwatch C2 will pair with Androids and iPhones, WatchOS will not pair with anything but iPhones.
Both smartwatch OSes have the most comprehensive app store. If you need a functionality that doesn’t come by default, chances are you are most likely to find it in the Ticwatch C2 or Apple Watch Series 5’s app store.
The added advantage of using the Ticwatch C2 is its access to Google apps. If you are a fan of Google Maps, keep notes in Google Keep or like Google Translate, you will find them on the Wear OS.
Winner: Tie
Text and emails
It’s very convenient to receive notifications on your wrist and even better when you can reply to them without reaching for your phone.
I recently wished for this ability when I was at the beach. Rifling through my bag to find my phone was a pain and I wished I could just reply to them on my wrist.
Why couldn’t I?
Because the Ticwatch C2 (and all other smartwatches except Apple Watches) will only allow you to read but not send replies when paired to an iPhone. On an Android, yes, you can reply.
This is a major advantage the Apple Watch Series 5 has over the Ticwatch C2. Replying with the Apple Watch Series 5 is easy because its speech-to-text system is accurate and fast.
Alternatively, you can reply to messages using the Scribble function which allows you to hand write letters. It’s much slower but mostly accurate. Still, at that point I’d prefer to use my smartphone.
Also, with the Apple Watch Series 5, you are able to access your message logs and email logs on the smartwatch. This is a nice-to-have feature, but I always find that if I wanted to see old messages, I would just use my phone.
Winner: Apple Watch Series 5
Speaker and phone calls
You can make phone calls on the Apple Watch Series 5 because it has a speaker.
It’s quite convenient to have this option because sometimes you don’t want to go hunt for your phone or you just want to have a conversation without carrying your phone around,
Having a speaker also means that you can use the voice assistant and hear its responses.
The Ticwatch C2 does not have a speaker so you can’t take calls on your wrist. That’s too bad but it’s generally expected on an entry-level smartwatch.
Winner: Apple Watch Series 5
Voice assistant
The Ticwatch C2 has Google Assistant while the Apple Watch Series 5 has Siri.
Both of them are very good voice assistants. They can help you do similar tasks such as set timers, find information on the internet and find directions.
Siri is a much more pleasant experience because of how the Apple Watch Series 5 has a speaker and also how much faster it responds.
Google Assistant, while useful, can be frustrating when you are stuck on the “Speak now” screen and nothing happens.
Winner: Tie
Sports and health
Both smartwatches have their own internal GPS and are waterproof for swimming which is really useful.
The base model Apple Watch Series 5 comes with a silicone strap and is waterproof but the TIcwatch C2 comes with a leather strap which Mobvoi says you need to swap it out before going into the water.
Apple Watch’s GPS is also much faster to get a lock while the Ticwatch C2’s internal GPS takes a few minutes to get a lock. If you have your phone paired to the watch, then you won’t have to use the internal GPS, saving you time before you start your workout.
The Ticwatch C2 has two suites of apps meant for tracking workouts and sports — Google Fit and Mobvoi’s TicExercise/TicHealth/TicPulse.
Apple has one suite with a Workout app and a
n Activity app.
You will find parallels between the software on these two watches. The Activity app tracks calories burned from movement, exercise minutes and inactivity while the Ticwatch C2 tracks steps, exercise and active hours.
Both smartwatches also track many different exercises. That is really useful if you want to keep track of your activity over time.
The Apple Watch Series 5 will also suggest to you to do breathing exercises periodically. It will also track the noise in your environment and warn you for any noise hazards.
The Apple experience feels much more comprehensive and integrated as compared to Google and Mobvoi’s implementation on the Ticwatch C2. Not only is the data analytics better on the Apple Watch, there is less fragmentation like on the Ticwatch C2 where you can get
Winner: Apple Watch Series 5
Verdict
Got an Apple iPhone? Got money? Then you should go for the Apple Watch Series 5. It’s smaller than the Ticwatch C2 but packs more features than the Ticwatch C2.
Plus, the integration between Apple products is superior. Everything works when you pair the Apple Watch with an iPhone.
But just like a high school clique, the Ticwatch C2 just can’t penetrate the iron curtain of cliquiness and hang out with the cool people.
Luckily, the Ticwatch C2 offers great value and fantastic features for its price. I think it’s a feature-rich watch that unfortunately doesn’t have a speaker. But otherwise, it has some of the best software Google can offer.
