Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Which takes the Wear OS battery crown?

Among Wear OS watches, the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro represents a battle for the title of best battery life. Both can last several days in normal conditions or extend their lifespans with battery-saver modes. 

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra has plenty of upsides over the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro, primarily its more advanced software. But given that the Enduro has very similar specs and sensors to the Ultra, weighs much less, and costs nearly half as much, it's certainly a reasonable alternative!

While the Galaxy Watch Ultra is one of the best Android watches today, the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro gives it a run for its money as a premium smartwatch. Here are all of the main Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro differences to help you make your choice.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Specs

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Design and display 

Samsung's all-titanium Ultra case looks stylish and pleasingly contoured but painfully thick and a little too heavy unless you're used to heavy watches. Samsung claims it's only 12.1mm thick, but it's really closer to 16mm once you account for the unmeasured sensor bump.

The 11.95mm TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro also measures thicker than its spec sheet, but it's still about 1mm skinnier and weighs 15.8g/ 0.56oz less, primarily because Mobvoi used aluminum instead of titanium, except for the ridged steel bezel.

Samsung offers more band options than Mobvoi's single rubber option, including the thick, water-repellent Marine, comfortable and lightweight Trail, and more generic, sporty Peakform.

While aesthetics is a matter of opinion, the Galaxy Watch Ultra will look more stylish to most people, if a bit cartoonishly thick from the side, while the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro has more of a sporty, everyday appearance in line with other fitness watches.

Both watches have a claimed MIL-STD-810H rating. Samsung specifies that the Ultra can withstand "high/ low temperatures, altitude, humidity, immersion, salt, fog, dust, vibration, and drops," while Mobvoi doesn't specify how rugged it is in certain conditions or if it only withstands drops. We do know the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro has a more standard 5ATM water protection rating, while the Ultra hits 10ATM.

Mobvoi gave the Enduro a Sapphire crystal lens to protect the display, one of the few improvements over the standard TicWatch Pro 5 with Gorilla Glass. That matches Samsung's watch display for scratch protection.

Both watches only come in one display size, cutting out small-wristed folks who want better battery life and a lighter design. While Samsung's AMOLED watch display is slightly larger, they share the same pixels per inch (PPI), about 320.

Where Samsung clearly wins the head-to-head battle is brightness. Mobvoi doesn't advertise its display nits, so we assume it hits only 1,000 nits or less with adaptive brightness; Notebook Check only measured a 472-nit maximum on the TicWatch Pro 5, and we don't think Mobvoi updated anything besides the sapphire glass. By comparison, Samsung gave the Watch Ultra a vivid 3,000-nit max, making it really easy to read in direct sunlight.

Mobvoi's unique display quirk is its Ultra-low-power display, seated atop the AMOLED, for switching to "Essential" mode. You can choose from different backlight colors but otherwise the watch face will be black text, numbers, and symbols on a blank background, and it extends the watch's battery life by days, or even weeks.

Samsung's other display advantage (sort of) is its digital bezel around the edge, letting you scan quickly through Tiles by sliding your fingertip along it. Many people prefer the physical rotating bezel found in the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, but this solution avoids making the Ultra any heavier.

The TicWatch 5 Pro Enduro has a more traditional crown along the right edge, but only Mobvoi redesigned it from the standard Pro, so it's "less flush with the side casing and easier to scroll," according to our reviewer. It also has a secondary side button.

Compared to the Galaxy Watch 7's two-button layout, the Galaxy Watch Ultra has a third, orange Quick Button that enables shortcuts like pausing or restarting a workout or triggering an emergency siren, and it looks quite svelte. Our only disappointment is that Samsung didn't make this button a crown as an alternative to the digital bezel, so that you have easier controls during workouts.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Hardware, sensors, and battery life

Both watches have 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage but rely on different CPUs. Mobvoi employs the same Snapdragon W5 chip as the Pixel Watch 3, with four Arm Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7GHz and a 22nm co-processor (250MHz) for background tasks. Samsung developed its own Exynos W1000 CPU with one Cortex-A78 (1.6GHz) and four Cortex-A55 (1.5GHz). 

In other words, even though Samsung's new chip isn't clocked quite as high, it has one extra high-end core that helps speed through tasks quickly. Because of that, both watches speed through tasks and load apps quickly.

Samsung gave its watch better connectivity options than Mobvoi: The Ultra supports LTE, Wi-Fi 5GHz, and Bluetooth 5.3, while the Enduro has no cellular option, defaults to Wi-Fi 2.4GHz, and has Bluetooth 5.2.

In terms of health and fitness sensors, both share an accelerometer and gyroscope for tracking arm movements, GPS and a compass for tracking and navigation, a barometer for elevation data, continuous heart rate data, and blood oxygen and skin temperature data at night. 

Only the Galaxy Watch Ultra has dual-band GPS tracking, which performed well in our fitness testing against a dual-band Garmin watch and for heart rate data against a heart rate strap. 

The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro has a serious fitness focus. Its detailed TicHealth app allows you to track your workout progress without a subscription, even if it's not as popular as Samsung Health. We simply wish it had dual-band GPS, as well.

Both have irregular heart rhythm warnings, though only Samsung has an active ECG sensor for clearer confirmation of any issues. Samsung has a body composition sensor (BIA) for calculating your body fat and muscle percentages, though we've found it to be fairly inaccurate compared to smart scale data. Unfortunately, you'll need a Samsung phone to access your AFib data, which is a frustrating choice for Samsung.

The big question, of course, is battery life. The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro has an extra 38mAh capacity, a slightly smaller display, and a dimmer backlight than the Ultra, which theoretically helps it last longer. 

According to each company's spec sheets, the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro lasts 90 hours in the standard Smart mode or a whopping 45 days in Essential mode with the secondary display; the Galaxy Watch Ultra lasts 60 hours with the always-on display (AOD) active, 100 hours in Power Saving mode, or 16 hours with dual-band GPS.

In practice, our TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro reviewer called it "the Energizer bunny that just keeps going" and praised how it consistently lasted a few days per charge. The Galaxy Watch Ultra had issues with power drain initially but became much more efficient with post-launch updates. It actually lasts longer than its 60-hour w/AOD estimate, though it still won't quite catch the Enduro for longevity.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Software

The Galaxy Watch Ultra launched with Wear OS 5 and will receive four major OS updates, plus four years of security updates. Google and Samsung coordinate on annual releases, so Samsung is always the first to receive new software, and Samsung watches let you choose between Google or Samsung apps for default functions, like Google Assistant or Bixby.

The TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro launched with Wear OS 3.5. Although the Pro 5 series began an internal Wear OS 4 beta test in April 2024, we've yet to see an official release. Wear OS 4 adds better data backups and transfers between phones, Gmail and Calendar apps, and (most importantly) Google Assistant support. At the moment, TicWatches can only use Alexa as an assistant.

However long it takes Mobvoi to implement Wear OS 4, it's clear that the company will never catch up with Samsung and Google for software. Our reviewer harped on this issue in particular, saying he hadn't expected Mobvoi to release a new watch version without fixing its software delays first.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra vs. TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro: Which should you buy?

The Galaxy Watch Ultra is a long-lasting smartwatch in terms of software, battery life, ruggedness, and its future-proofed CPU. That might be enough to justify spending its high $650 price tag, especially if you can find a good trade-in deal to cut down on the price.

Still, the TicWatch Pro 5 Enduro costs hundreds less and is often found on sale, while offering comparable performance, battery life, and display quality, along with a lighter design and the upside of its low-energy dual display and crown controls. If it weren't for the software issues, the Enduro would be an easy recommendation.

Considering those, it's tricky to suggest buying the Enduro when we have no guarantee about Wear OS 4's timetable or the possibility of future updates. It depends on whether you need a Wear OS watch for cutting-edge smarts and voice assistant commands or if you're happy enough with actionable notifications and a ton of health data.