You can find this review in full at GBAtemp.net:
https://gbatemp.net/review/ticwatch-pro-2020.1418/

As your average consumer of fancy things, smart watches have always been a plaything just out of reach. Often priced slightly too high with features I’d never think of using, they were an obscurity I could never justify exploring. Roll on to 2020 and thanks to a review sample provided by TicWatch, that’s about to change.

An evolution of their earlier TicWatch Pro, not much has changed in the way of design. You still have the generous dual layered 1.39 inch display, mounted to a bulky yet comfortable body. You still have the two chunky buttons protruding from the right side of the face, and you still have the delightful hybrid leather strap. It looks great because, well, it is great. It even has the same hardware inside, sporting the Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset and 4 GB of internal storage. If you’ve read our review of the original TicWatch Pro, you may be questioning exactly what’s new? What did they add to justify the extra 2020 moniker, and would it be worth upgrading were you to own the original? An extra 512 megabytes of RAM; that’s your lot! How much does that change? Well, let’s find out.

Out of the box, setup is simple. With Wear OS being Google’s own implementation of a smart watch OS, it’s as simple as setting up a new Android phone. The menus feel responsive and you’re good to go before you know it. I paired it with my Android 9 phone and have had no issues with connectivity or compatibility. My wrist buzzes promptly whenever I get a notification and displays it as I’d expect a smart watch to. On top of that, you have the usual features of a mid to high end smart watch. You’ve got your general fitness tracking, including onboard GPS and 4 GB of internal storage. These features allow you to go for a run without your phone and still have your music, and still have your session tracked. Given the current lockdown situation, my step count has been pitifully low, but it seems to be doing a good job of keeping track all the same. Of the watches I’ve had, the wrist strap stands out as being incredibly comfortable and premium-feeling. The hybrid leather is a combination of genuine Italian leather on the outward facing side, and silicone on the side facing your wrist. This gives you the benefits of both; style and substance. I’ve found it incredibly comfortable to wear over extended periods. I had no issues wearing it all day. No skin irritation, no noticeable weight on my wrist, just an occasional buzz and beep as it notifies me of the day’s exciting events.

Where the watch tries to stand out is in its dual-screen niche. The screen you expect to get is a lush 400×400 AMOLED display. It’s vibrant, colourful, and easy to read information from even in daylight. The additional screen, a thin layer mounted on top, is comparable to your standard digital watch of yonder years. With no backlighting to support it, it presents you with the most basic of information you’d want from your watch and tracks your fitness essentials, all for a fraction of the battery life. By default, the watch keeps this display on while it is not actively in use, with the main display coming on as you wake it up. If you’re not a fan of this, you can of course keep the AMOLED display on constantly by tweaking the settings, but expect the battery life to take a significant hit. With regular use using the watch’s default configuration, you can expect it to keep going for a few days. Where things really start to look impressive is the essential mode. Completely disabling the AMOLED display, the TicWatch Pro 2020 can keep going for up to 30 days, while still tracking your fitness and, of course, telling you the time. You miss out on your music, Google Pay, and many of the other benefits of a modern smart watch, but if you want to disconnect from the world for a while without putting down your watch, it’s a decent option. You can always just disable essential mode if you need to go pay for something on your travels. 

When it comes to customisation, you have a few options in making the watch your own. Thanks to the use of Wear OS as its operating system, you have an astounding wealth of watch faces to pick from using apps like Facer. On the video game side of things, you can expect everything from the Pokétch of Pokémon Diamond and Pearl, to the spy watch of Goldeneye, to even the distinctly obscure face of Termina’s clock tower. Everything is accounted for, and I still find myself jumping from face to face. 

With the features and aesthetic discussed, the part I left for last is perhaps the single most burning question of all: how does it run? With the previous model struggling to perform smoothly with 512 MB of RAM behind it, can doubling that number really make all that much of a difference? The short answer is yes. In my few weeks with this watch, I’ve come across no issues, and I really mean that⁠—none. No stutters, no missed taps, no slowdowns or crashes. From day one to now, it’s run flawlessly. It’s genuinely difficult for me to believe the previous iteration of this watch struggled as it did when so little has changed, but it just goes to show how much having that gigabyte of RAM matters for the modern smart watch. 

All in all, the TicWatch Pro 2020 is a great smart watch, and a necessary, if only minor, improvement over its predecessor. To people looking for a smart watch to dive into the world of fancy peripherals, I can do nothing but recommend it. For owners of the original TicWatch Pro however, the line begins to blur. While the difference in performance is noteworthy, there isn’t much else separating the two models. If you find yourself wanting the upgrade, don’t let me stop you, but don’t go expecting something entirely new; the TicWatch Pro 2020 is everything you loved, now with the performance to back it up.