TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Battery, Software Tweaks Update the WearOS Watch - CNET

The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro, which Mobvoi announced on Wednesday, is a slightly revamped version of last year's Pro 5 model that brings battery life improvements, simpler health tracking and a few hardware refinements. It runs on WearOS, costs the same $350 as the original Pro 5 and goes on sale Wednesday through Mobvoi's website and Amazon.

While I liked the original TicWatch Pro 5 for its display and battery life, I was particularly overwhelmed by how its fitness and wellness tracking features were spread out across multiple apps. For the Enduro, Mobvoi has revamped both its TicExercise app and TicHealth apps for faster access to fitness and health tracking features, respectively.

I'm especially happy to see consolidation in the TicHealth app because the prior watch separated health tracking features between three separate apps: TicHealth, TicPulse and TicOxygen. Those latter two Pulse and Oxygen apps are now gone, although the Enduro does still have a separate One-tap measurement app for taking vitals.

The TicExericse app has improved how the various exercises it tracks are organized, while including a refresh to its user interface.

The TicWatch Pro 5's secondary screen used in Smart Mode.

While the Enduro has a similarly sized 628mAh battery to last year's watch, TicWatch says the Enduro should get 90 hours of battery life with its Smart Mode setting. That's up from the 80-hour claim of the prior watch, and is met by using its secondary Ultra-low-power display as an always on screen that shows key data. That allows the more colorful but power-intensive OLED display to switch on when you are directly interacting with it, while still being able to check quick information like the time on the secondary LED-like display.

TicWatch is also touting that the Enduro has received several hardware tweaks, but I find them a bit harder to notice when placing it side by side with the prior TicWatch. These include a redesigned rotating crown and a sapphire crystal glass display. It's still a nice design with tactile controls, which include a customizable side button, but it's not different enough from last year's TicWatch Pro 5 that those owners should upgrade to this model. The watch also comes in a similar jet black "obsidian" color, which again looks much like last year's watch.

The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro (left) and the prior TicWatch Pro 5.

The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro ships with WearOS 3, but the Enduro and the original Pro 5 are both compatible with Mobvoi's WearOS 4 beta program. There isn't an official release date for WearOS 4 on the TicWatch yet, but it's a relief to see that a program is indeed in the works. This beta program follows a more turbulent update schedule for the TicWatch 3, in which its promised WearOS 3 update didn't arrive until December 2023.

The watch also runs on the same Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 processor, which was a capable enough chip to power the prior watch, and it's good to see these continued software improvements.