Watching and waiting for the competition

It's no secret that I am a fan of Apple. I own a lot of Apple products. I also own a lot of non-Apple products. I have owned iPhones before, but for the past few years, I have used Android phones. There is a lot of variety when it comes to Android phones. There are many companies making phones of all sizes, capabilities, and prices. The main reason I switched to Android a while back was because I wanted a bigger screen, and I wanted to know what it was really like to live with an Android phone.

When Apple announced the iPhone 6 back in 2014, I was very interested. Honestly, I was nearly drooling on my keyboard as I watched the keynote announcement. I was also very interested when Apple announced the Apple Watch at the same keynote. As interested as I was however, I did not buy either of these. My Android phone was working just fine, and I could not use an Apple Watch with my Android phone. Also, I was curious to see how the Android world responded to the Apple Watch. Where Apple seemed to be playing catch-up to Android in terms of phone size, I still remember when Android was playing catch-up to the iPhone in every other way: build quality, OS quality, app quality, usability, and product support, among others.

With the smart watch becoming a new market, I waited to see what the Android world would offer. It has been four years, and I am still waiting. That's right - I am still waiting for any Android watch, from any manufacturer, to even come close to the Apple Watch. As with Android phones, there are many companies creating smart watches in a range of different styles, capabilities, and prices. Unfortunately, when I looked beneath the surface of any Android watch, I continue to be disappointed. The reasons always seem to come back to the way Apple does things compared to everybody else.

There is ultimately only one company involved in the design, creation, marketing, and support of the Apple Watch, and that is Apple. When I look at Android watches, Google makes the OS, then hardware manufacturers use a version of that OS - and not with all the same features - on a devices with designs and costs which are all over the map. I have been doing some research to find the best "non-Apple" smart watch available today. I was sure that somewhere I could find something comparable to the Apple Watch. I mean, it has been years. Surely in all this time some company somewhere would have something close. I was wrong. I could not find anything even close the the Apple Watch.

I compared several categories: battery life, features, responsiveness, accuracy, build quality, design, watch bands, support, reputation, company vision, and price. I won't go into detail on all the smart watches I looked into, because the list is very long, but I will mention the one which came the closest - The TicWatch Pro, by Mobvoi.

The TicWatch Pro was announced in July 2018. It claimed a 30-day battery life, NFC for payments, support for Google Fit, the ability to answer calls and text, and it was selling for $250. That all sounds good, but from the very first interaction I had with this watch, it was all downhill.

First, the company's website had a button for "more information" on the watch. Clicking that link took me to Amazon. Wait, what? I was able to find more information on Mobvoi's website eventually, but it was not straightforward.

Next, the 30-day battery life was only if the watch was in "essential mode" which rendered the smart part of the watch off and displayed a second screen with only an LCD-style display, showing time, date, and some fitness info. This mode can be configured, and even disabled, so you are always in smart mode, but then the battery life goes down to one or two days. Ok, lets' just forget about the extended battery life. Fine. In normal smart mode, it has a normal battery life.

Making payments is done using Google Pay, which I am very familiar with, and which works fine on my Android phone. In demos of the TicWatch Pro, it takes a few seconds for the watch to fully switch into the payment mode. A few seconds is an eternity when you are in line and there are people behind you waiting for you to finish checking the time (as it would appear to them). In terms of fitness, it works with Google Fit, but as I found out, you first have to be running Mobvoi's fitness app in order to get the fitness data from the watch into Google Fit. Wait, what? Another app, just for my data?

Payments is just one example where responsiveness was not very good. This isn't so much to be blamed on the hardware as much as it is to be blamed on Google Wear OS.

So far, I haven't even mentioned the design of the watch. It comes in two styles - one with a round silver bezel, and one with a round black bezel. The watch case diameter is 45mm wide. Size is somewhat subjective, but this is too big for me. The Apple Watch is just under 40mm wide. It might not seem like a big difference, but this is not only a good size for a round watch, it is even better for the Apple Watch because it is not round - it is rectangular. This means that not only do you get a more manageable size watch, your content is not getting cut off as with a round watch.

The end result of all this analysis is that, despite the fact that I do not currently own an iPhone, and to get the benefit os using an Apple Watch, I know I would need to have an iPhone, I just can't find anything in the non-Apple world which comes anywhere near an Apple Watch in any meaningful way. This is really disappointing. First, I really did not want this to be true. After all, I have an Android phone. I use a lot of Google services. It would be great if I could find a smart watch which could work with the tech and services I already use. I just don't see anything - not now, and not on the horizon. Second, the lack of any serious competition means Apple has no strong motivation to add new features and improvements.

As my needs and interests change, I find that I'm starting to once again look to Apple. I may yet have some new Apple gear in the near future.