It looks as if Mobvoi could be about to drop its first Wear OS 3 smartwatch – and it could be the first to run the new Snapdragon W5+ processor.
A new leak via Twitter leaker Kuba Wojciechowski has revealed a render (below) of what’s purported to be the TicWatch Pro 5. If you’re wondering what happened to the Pro 4, it seems that was skipped thanks to superstitions in China.
A new TicWatch has already been teased by Mobvoi, at the launch of the Snapdragon W5+ in July, so this leak hasn’t come out of the blue – which makes us a little more likely to give this credence.
The design has subtly changed, with a single crown pusher, rather than a pair of buttons. It’s too limited a render to make any design conclusions, but it does look like a pretty standard Wear OS smartwatch.
It should be noted that Mobvoi is yet to update its existing smartwatches to Wear OS 3, which it promised back in 2021.
> Wear OS 3 smartwatches and compatible devices
Sadly, there are no clues to the specs of the new TicWatch Pro 5 from the leaks themselves – but it could be the first smartwatch to run Snapdragon W5+.
When Qualcomm announced the new chipset, it said that Mobvoi would be one of its first partners. So it seems nailed on that the TicWatch Pro 5 could show the world what Snapdragon W5+ is capable of.
Mobvoi has pushed the boundaries of Wear OS battery life, and offered around three days on its TicWatch Pro 3, which ran Snapdragon 4100.
A big promise of W5+ is even better battery efficiency – so Mobvoi should give us an idea just how much superior it is.
The headline benefit of the W5+ platform is the promise of 50% better battery life on Wear OS watches. This is achieved by using a Cortex M55 22nm co-processor, that handles more of the core smartwatch tasks. How well-equipped Wear OS 3 is to take advantage of that, is anyone’s guess.
We’ve always been impressed by Mobvoi’s previous TicWatch smartwatches, but the performance of Wear OS previously has let them down. So we can’t wait to see how a new TicWatch, Wear OS 3 and a totally new Snapdragon platform performs together.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.