Moto 360 Review

The First Round Smartwatch

Motorola's first crack at the smartwatch industry is the Moto 360, the first smartwatch to feature the more traditional round face we are accustomed to seeing on classic timepieces. The tl;dr is I like the watch a lot, it is useful, stylish, convenient, and I love wearing it everyday, however for most people $250 is just too much.

Design

I love the design of the watch, and until you get a notification it is much more subtle than other reviewers are saying. I've had it over a month and I have yet to have somebody notice it without the screen drawing their attention when it lights up. It looks good, its comfortable, and you don't look like a complete geek for wearing it. 

Selection

Against traditional watches, the Moto 360 isn't much larger

The band I have is the black leather band that comes stock with the black version. The leather is Horween Leather, it is very comfortable, doesn't irritate the skin at all and is durable. The Moto 360 has to elements to it, the watch and the band. The watch is available in black, stainless steel, and gold. Originally you could only get the bands in black or grey leather. However, Motorola recently released new replacement bands if you'd like to move to a metal band. The metal bands come in three widths, 18mm, 22mm, and 23mm, presumably the 18mm are designed for women who typically have smaller wrists and only come gold or silver metal. The 22mm bands are the leather bands that come in black and stone grey. The 23mm bands are metal and come in black or silver/ The new metal bands are very nice looking and I'm hoping I can get my hands on one soon.

Watchfaces

As for the watchface itself, you can customize them easily to look however you want. Some opt for
the Mickey-Mouse style, others like me look for a minimal elegant style. I will admit I have some "flashy" faces in case I want to show off a bit. The customization is endless and right out of the box Motorola Connect offers an easy solution and other apps are available to do the same job.

The Moto 360 design isn't too big or flashy and it now comes in all kinds of colors. There are options available for women now as well, and this watch won't pop out on smaller wrists as much as you might think. If you're in the market and style matters to you, this should be at the top of your list. 

Performance and Specs

Processor: TI OMAP 3

Memory: 512

Storage: 4GB

Size: 46mm Diameter

Weight: 49g

Screen: 1.56" LCD IPS (320x290)

Battery: 320mAh

OS: Android Wear

Note: IP67 Certified, Bluetooth 4.0, Heart Rate Sensor, Pedometer

Past the Spec Sheet

The watch uses stock Android Wear, so all of your Google Now cards are there and overall its a very minimal UI. The interface is smooth, very few hiccups at all and I never have crashes or lag. However, I have found that the phone you connect it to may be cause some slowdowns. I'm still using my Samsung Galaxy SIII and despite my efforts to root and speed it up, it still has its slow moments. When I go to do a voice command it might take longer to process since Google Now goes out to the internet to do anything. Otherwise there is not much to report, I can play a flappy bird knockoff at a smooth framerate, and swiping through my Google Now cards is smooth.

Custom Watch Face

Screen

The screen is very nice and get extremely bright. Motorola made a good choice going with an IPS display rather than AMOLED since IPS performs better in direct sunlight and bright conditions. The sacrifice is battery life as AMOLED screens save power using darker colors and turning off pixels to show a true black where IPS cannot do that. This leads me to my next point, Ambient Display. It is a new feature we are going to start seeing on all new phones with Android 5.0 and is on the newest version of Android Wear. Ambient Display essentially dims your screen, turns all the colors to a greyscale, and fades in and out. It decreases battery life since the screen can't save power by showing darker colors. I don't use Ambient Display because of another cool feature Moto built in. The little sliver of screen missing at the bottom of the watch actually houses a few sensors. One of which helps the watch detect that you're looking at it. If I roll back my sleeve the watchface flashes on for a few seconds to show me the time and any notifications then goes away. If I lift my watch to my face the same thing happens, and if all else fails it has tap to wake. Thus, there is no need to have Ambient Display on since it just leaves the screen on when you're not looking at it. 

Battery Life

Let start by saying that smartwatches won't have battery life like traditional watches for a very long time (because it'll happen, trust me). I can't tell you how many reviewers have knocked the battery life for being short. It will absolutely last you all day that much I can say for sure. When I first got it and I used it non-stop I killed it, but now that I don't constantly play with it, I get about 36 hours on one charge, It got me through two whole days recently but I can't expect it to do that every time. The downside is since it is wirelessly charged you either have to tote your Qi charger with you when you go out or you can't recharge. As far as smartwatches go it certainly is not the best, but I guarantee it'll outlast your phone.

A quick note about other reviews I've read, the reviewer knocks the watches battery life, and that it doesn't do anything when the phone is dead. So if it outlasts your phone, isn't battery life irrelevant. Not saying there aren't special circumstances but we can't rate the watch based on "that one time." Just some flawed logic on the part of some reviewers.

While charging, the Moto 360 is a good bedside clock

My Thoughts

I love this watch, I wasn't sure at first after reading lots of other reviews. I was afraid I would be throwing down money on something that will be ditched in a few months (Samsung's Galaxy Gear). If anybody is anxious to get a smartwatch but afraid of being too early, you're not. Of course new stuff will come out, the LG G Watch R just released and is a great competitor. However, even though I could have gotten a full refund and got the G Watch R I stuck with my 360 because it is a truly great gadget. Android Wear is very much incomplete and every release the battery life gets better and the experience gets better, Motorola gives you something that is good and getting better with time.

One thing people ask me all the time is, "what's the point? Can it do anything my phone can't?" No, it can't, unless the heart rate monitor and fitness tracking abilities matter to you then this watch does nothing different. Fortunately, that's not the point. The Moto 360 is a watch, that does way more. It replaces your current watch with something that can do a bit more. You're not just checking the time, your glancing at your phone. You can send a quick voice reply back for hit "open on phone" and reply or see what your notification is. It lets me adjust the volume of my music, pause, skip, or replay a song. I can read a new email, get a quick weather update, and see my calendar appointments with a voice command to my wrist. It's just easier and its not like I bought the watch because I'm too lazy to pull out my phone it was because I wanted something that could enhance my phone. Interest in these watches is still confined to the early adopters, the Moto 360 is still a step towards the next big thing, but we're not there yet. Smartwatches are still getting going, if you're looking for a watch that also has cool smart features this is the watch for you. If you're looking for a smart device that happens to tell time on your wrist and offers you something special, this isn't for you. 

End Notes

This is the first review I've written, please leave a comment below with what you liked about it. I am going to try a different format with a different device where I link to a review and offer "My Thoughts" to a reviewer. Let me know what sections you liked; if you cared about my thoughts, whatever it is. If you liked it please +1 and comment, the more encouragement the more I'll write. Also ask any questions you want about the Moto 360. Thanks for reading!