{"id":634963,"date":"2026-10-19T05:06:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T05:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634963\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T05:06:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T05:06:35","slug":"i-tried-a-200-smartwatch-with-voice-recording-it-beat-the-apple-watch-in-a-few-key-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/634963\/","title":{"rendered":"I tried a $200 smartwatch with voice recording – it beat the Apple Watch in a few key ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"TicNote<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tMobvoi TicNote Watch\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t3.0
\n\/ 5 Good\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tPros & Cons\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tAffordable.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tGood quality hardware with vibrant AMOLED displays.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tAdvanced AI recording results are useful.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tSolid battery life for up to 24 hours of recording.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tCan’t record audio during an activity.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tLimited fitness metrics.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tNo third party app support.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Since early 2025, I\u2019ve been carrying around the Mobvoi TicNote AI voice recorder <\/a>to capture meeting minutes, important conversations, and other ideas throughout the day. It\u2019s a solid product, but is another accessory I have to carry around and keep charged. For the past few weeks I\u2019ve been getting the same AI voice note capture and processing experience thanks to the new TicNote Watch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also: The best cheap smartwatches of 2026: Expert tested and reviewed<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mobvoi TicNote Watch looks like a fairly standard smartwatch with a vibrant 1.43-inch AMOLED touchscreen display, three hardware buttons, wrist heart rate sensor, and a removable band. The secret sauce is the AI recording capabilities that supports up to 24 hours of recording with the 4GB internal storage and dual-microphones.<\/p>\n

Wrist-based note taking<\/p>\n

The TicNote Watch\u2019s dual mics record audio within three to five meters with voice-to-text transcription right on the watch face. You can also toggle off the live transcription, and a simple red dot appears on the display (even when the display turns off) so you can confirm the recording is active.<\/p>\n

Also: Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs. Garmin Fenix 9 Pro: I wore both rugged watches off-grid \u2013 it\u2019s a tough call<\/a><\/p>\n

While the watch has advanced audio recording capabilities, TicNote has privacy checks in place. Recordings only start, and stop, when you press and hold on the upper right button. There are no voice commands, always-listening keyword activation, or timers that launch audio recording, so a purposeful press-and-hold must be carried out to control the recording period. <\/p>\n

Mobvoi\u2019s encrypted servers process recordings with the data isolated for each user, so when you delete a recording, it\u2019s removed permanently. The company also says your recordings will also not be used to train AI models, nor be used for commercial purposes.<\/p>\n

\"TheMatthew Miller\/ZDNET<\/p>\n

In addition to recording direct conversations, you can record calls after you connect the watch to your smartphone via Bluetooth and answer the call on the TicNote Watch. <\/p>\n

Recordings automatically sync to the TicNote smartphone app, where all of the power of Mobvoi\u2019s system gets to work processing your recording in transcript form, as a mind map, in AI summary form with key points and action items, or deep research mode where further analysis and research is integrated into the recording.<\/p>\n

\"TheseMatthew Miller\/ZDNET<\/p>\n

You can even enable the translation mode on your smartphone and use the watch to listen to another language and show the translation right on your watch. I look forward to testing this in the future with trips in areas where other languages are spoken.<\/p>\n

Fitness watch features<\/p>\n

The Mobvoi TicNote Watch is more than just a voice recorder, it does have some fitness tracking features, but they are secondary to the voice recording. Unlike past Mobvoi smartwatches, this one does not run Google Wear OS, but Mobvoi\u2019s own operating system. You can use the watch\u2019s rear heart rate sensor, integrated GPS receiver, and other sensors to track your heart rate, blood oxygen level, sleep stages, stress, steps, distance, and active calories.<\/p>\n

\"TheMatthew Miller\/ZDNET<\/p>\n

More than 100 different types of activities can be tracked with the watch, but most of them work with the same basic metrics and there\u2019 s no customization of the data screens available to modify. That said, you can set time, distance, and calorie goals and then the watch face shows many of the core metrics you want for your activity. <\/p>\n

For running, for example, the watch shows your heart rate with a nice visual heart rate zone indicator, current pace, distance traveled, duration, calories, steps, cadence, and stride length. For swimming, laps are shown after you set the pool length before you start. For indoor rowing, strokes taken and the stroke rate are captured with my heart rate. If you choose one of the more unique activities, your heart rate and calories are the primary metrics shown on the watch.<\/p>\n

Also: This pocket-friendly AI voice recorder has changed the way I work and travel<\/a><\/p>\n

I ran, walked, biked, and rowed indoors with the TicNote Watch and compared it to other watches for location tracking and heart rate consistency. The data provided in the app is not that comprehensive, but it does provide the basics. Also, the TicNote app supports connections to Google Health and Apple Health, but not other third party services like Strava, and you can\u2019t export your workout data manually. <\/p>\n

A few limitations<\/p>\n

The AI voice recording functions are quite advanced compared to other smartwatches (as that is clearly the device\u2019s focus), while other features in the TicNote app are more limited. There is a speaker and two microphones on the watch so you can connect it to your phone and make\/receive phone calls, and notifications are available, but control of which ones appear and what actions you can take is limited.<\/p>\n

There are dozens of available watch faces to choose from, and you can use your own photo to create a background image for a standard watchface. However, you\u2019re unable to customize the complications and they are not actionable with a tap, so while you can find data rich options, they are also a bit limited.<\/p>\n

\"TheMatthew Miller\/ZDNET<\/p>\n

Support for third party apps is not available with the focus on the AI recording functionality. A calculator (without support for a handy tip calculator), flashlight (turns the display white), and clock options (alarm, timer, stopwatch) are the only apps beyond health and fitness utilities found in the app launcher.<\/p>\n

Final thoughts<\/p>\n

Mobvoi\u2019s previous TicWatch models were powered by Google Wear OS and offered some of the longest battery life of available smartwatches thanks to its unique dual-layer and dual processor design architecture. <\/p>\n

The TicNote Watch<\/a>, however, is an AI recorder first with some basic fitness and smartwatch functions. If you want a recorder first and watch second, this is a solid option for $200. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Matthew\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMatthew Miller\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tContributing Writer\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMatthew Miller started using mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned hundreds of devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes the latest and greatest foldables, wearables, and more, along with classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various social networks under the user name of “palmsolo.”
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tSee full bio\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mobvoi TicNote Watch 3.0 \/ 5 Good Pros & Cons Affordable. Good quality hardware with vibrant AMOLED displays.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[356,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-634963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gadgets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}