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Motorola's Moto 360 smartwatch proves that wearables can be as fashionable as Android Wear is
functional, making it the first Google-powered watch worth owning.
Its
circular watch face takes cues from stylish designer wristwatches with
analog tickers, not square-shaped smartwatches. The very
computerized-looking Samsung Gear Live and LG G Watch are no match for what Motorola has up its sleeve.
Moto
360 is appropriately just in time too. While the company originally
scheduled to have it ready for a summer release date, this ambitious
watch is launching a little later than expected: today in the US and
early October in the UK.
That's less than a week before Apple is expected to preview the iWatch along with the iPhone 6, and the same week that LG is expected to put is round LG G Watch R into production.
Wearable
early adopters, however, can hardly say no to the long-awaited Moto
360, especially for the asking price. It's $249 in the US and £199 in
the UK (about AU$267). That's only a little more expensive than Android
Wear's extremely limited smartwatch pickings, all of which can't compare
to Moto 360's stylish design.
Display
From
day one of Android Wear, Moto 360 has been all about its unique
circular display, an enterprising move by the reborn Motorola. Now we
finally know the official specs that go along with the once-mysterious
round screen.
It clocks in with a 1.56-inch LCD protected
by Gorilla Glass 3. That's not the fancy OLED screen or sapphire glass
that some people were hoping for, but it's a better trade-off given the
on-point price. And the backlit LCD technology looks solid nonetheless.
Filling
that circle is 205 pixels per inch with a 320 x 290 resolution. That's
roughly the same resolution as the smaller Gear Live but fewer pixels vs
the Samsung watch's 278ppi. The difference is noticeable in any
side-by-side comparison, but for once it's not about what's inside the
watch face that counts as much as it is about what's gives it its outer
beauty.
Design
The Moto 360 watch frame is
stainless steel, eschewing earlier rumors that is might go the cheaper
route of substituting in plastic to reduce the price. Matching that
quality is genuine leather straps by the Chicago-based tanner Horween,
known for making NFL footballs. It really contrasts with the tacky
plastic housing and rubber straps found on the Gear Live and G Watch.
Motorola
is making the leather straps available with its smartwatch today in the
US and at launch in the UK. The first colors being introduced are gray
leather and black leather. That doesn't mean you won't be able to
upgrade to the metal bands or different colors when Motorola launches
those, for a slightly higher price and at a later date.
Even
with the premium materials on-board, the Moto 360 weighs 49g (1.7 oz).
That's actually lighter than both the Samsung Gear Live 59g (2.1oz) and
LG G Watch 64g (2.2oz). Motorola still packs in comparable specs on the
inside too.
Specs
There's a Texas Instruments
OMAP 3 processor making this digital smartwatch tick, 512MB of RAM and
4GB of internal storage. It connects to Android smartphones running
Android 4.3, Android 4.4 and the Android L beta through the Android Wear app and Bluetooth 4.0.
Moto
360 has one physical button unlike the buttonless LG G Watch, and it
turns the display on and off. It's an alternative method of doing the
same by tapping the screen to turn it on and palming the entire display
to quickly turn it off.
It crosses over from smartwatch
to fitness band with health-motivating features like a pedometer inside
and an optical heart-rate monitor on back. It can be worn all day, even
in wet conditions thanks to its IP67 water resistance rating. It's not
completely waterproof, but it can go a depth of 1 meter for about 30
minutes before you run into trouble.
Battery life and wireless charger
The
Moto 360 battery life gets about a day per charge thanks to a 320mAh
battery. It's slightly bigger than the Samsung Gear Live battery of
300mAh, but smaller than the LG G Watch 400mAh battery, but it gets the
job done as long as you charge it nightly. Pebble Steel and the original Pebble remain the smartwatch kings of longevity.
At
least there's a novel way to recharge the Moto 360. It comes with a Qi
charging dock that is perfect for resting on a nightstand. It dims the
display so that you can get to sleep, but also see the time as you sleep
away into a dream.
It doesn't have the more practical micro USB port that the newly announced Sony Smartwatch 3
is going to have, but the Moto 360 charging method is much more
futuristic and cool. That better fits the stylishing theme that Motorola
is going for with its watch.
Early Verdict
We've
had about 12 hours time with the final Moto 360 smartwatch and haven't
taken it off yet for two reasons. The battery that we wish as longer
hasn't fully depleted after using multiple Android Wear apps on it and,
more importantly, we fancy the circular design.
The
cut-off horizon line at the bottom of the smartwatch, which houses the
screen tech, doesn't bother us either as much as we thought. It actually
pushes the pixels out to the edges of the smartwatch screen with a nice
effect. If you've been holding out on Google new smartwatches, Moto 360
has finally started ticking and the Apple iWatch has some serious competition before its expected unveiling next week.
Thanks, that was a really cool read!
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