What you need to know
- In a cryptic teaser posted on X (formerly Twitter), Mobvoi shared that a new smartwatch-related announcement is just days away.
- The smartwatch shown in the teaser suggests that the upcoming announcement is related to the TicWatch Pro line.
- The current generation TicWatch Pro 5 is almost a year old, so we could see a debut of the TicWatch Pro 6.
Mobvoi is back to shake up wearables week with an announcement. In a teaser posted on X (formerly Twitter) early Wednesday, the company says, “The future is coming in a few days,” hinting at the unveiling of a new smartwatch. The post doesn’t reveal much, but it does contain an outline of a smartwatch that closely resembles the current TicWatch Pro 5. Therefore, we could soon see a successor or at least a new variant of the current model.
Annual smartwatch releases are becoming the norm, with Google and Samsung finding a rhythm with an annual update schedule. Mobvoi released the TicWatch Pro 5 at the end of May 2023, so an upgrade is due if the company is looking at an annual upgrade. This and the teaser’s graphics seem to suggest that the TicWatch Pro 6 reveal could be just a few days away.
A new era is dawning. The future is coming in a few days. pic.twitter.com/uOxwo2rtxTMay 1, 2024
While casual smartwatch buyers may not know Mobvoi or TicWatch as household names, it’s clear that the TicWatch Pro 5 is a truly impressive smartwatch. In addition to a real multi-day battery life, the watch has a clever dual-screen design. Additionally, it is powered by Qualcomm’s best smartwatch chip, the Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen1 platform, which also powers the Pixel Watch 2.
The problem that Mobvoi has not been able to solve so far is software support. The TicWatch Pro 5 still doesn’t have official Wear OS 4 support, even as we wait for Wear OS 5. TicWatch Pro 5 users will soon be able to beta test Wear OS 4 – but they will have to fill out a questionnaire and agree to an NDA. If hardware is the limiting factor here, a new TicWatch Pro 6 could debut with Wear OS 4 and may even include a path to Wear OS 5 upon release.
Speaking of Wear OS 5, the operating system upgrade is scheduled to be released this summer, as Google basically confirmed in its event schedule for I/O 2024. More recently, there have been signs that Samsung is currently testing Wear OS 5.
This could be the Wear OS 5 test firmware for the Watch 6 Series @thesammyfans @SamMobiles @tarunvats33 @BennettBuhner pic.twitter.com/vo5V3vTQJ1April 29, 2024
However, at the moment it is still largely speculation. Mobvoi’s teaser likely refers to a new TicWatch Pro device, but we won’t know for sure until the official announcement in the coming days.