Mobvoi has unveiled its latest budget smartwatch, the TicWatch E3, which comes complete with new tools for tracking fitness and wellbeing. 

The Wear OS smartwatch is just the second device to feature Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 4100 chipset under the hood, following the TicWatch Pro 3, and replaces the E2 that launched in 2019. 

It retains the same cheap price tag that has helped Mobvoi distinguish its devices from the rest of the pack - priced at £179.99 / $199.99 and available to buy in black, yellow and light blue - though, interestingly, it could also wind up differentiating itself for the wrong reasons. 

With Google recently announcing the merger between Wear OS and Samsung's Tizen, and backwards compatibility for watches (including the TicWatch E3) remaining up in the air as a result, it's a curious time to launch a new device.

Either way, the capabilities of the TicWatch E3 have certainly extended over its predecessor. There's now NFC to help support contactless payments and all the latest Wear OS improvements that have been introduced, too, such as Tiles.

Arguably the biggest leap forward has been made in the tracking department, though, with the E3 arriving with the suite of wildly-named, eponymous apps. The most notable - from a health perspective, at least - are TicOxygen, which will help monitor blood oxygen saturation, and TicZen, which is essentially just heart rate variability tracking.

TicWatch E3

Alongside these are dedicated features for heart rate tracking, stress analysis, sleep logging, environmental noise listening and an exercise app, TicExercise, which features 20 different modes.

This raft of proprietary apps should allow the smartwatch to deliver a much more rounded tracking experience than previous devices managed, all with the same battery life (more than one day, with the option to extend with different battery saving modes) and at a very affordable rate. 

As we say, however, though the inclusion of Qualcomm Snapdragon 4100 and the suite of tracking apps are welcome, the state of Wear OS at present does also leave a big question mark over any new devices like this one.