The Motorola Moto 360, alongside the Apple Watch, the Samsung Gear S and the LG G Watch R has ushered in a new world of connectivity.
Motorola Moto 360: Design and build
This is certainly an area that Moto has thought a lot about, given the attention to detail and the premium styling of everything from the box (a circular, almost hermetically sealed vault) through to the strap and buckle.
So, for the record, we're talking – stainless steel buckle and watch case, gorilla glass screen with a mirrored plastic back. Instead of a winder/crown there's a pushbutton that is low profile enough to not gouge into your wrist. We tested the black version, which teams black stainless parts with a black leather watchstrap. There's also a brushed steel and grey strap version, which might be more sartorially flexible.
Unboxing the Moto 360 reveals a micro USB adaptor and matchbox-sized Qi wireless stand, so you can use a travel charger if you wish. You can also use any other Qi compatible charger, both neat tricks. On startup a setup wizard on the watch tells you to download Android Wear, then a combo of the two talks you through setup, Bluetooth syncing and how to swipe through the screens. Then you're off.
At 43mm across and 11mm deep, it's not the most massive watch one can buy, but it's far from understated. All in black it's quite noticeable on the wrist, and the slim strap at 20mm wide only accentuates it's girth.
That said, it's a premium enough package to justify the price, and if you made the screen smaller that'd create another range of problems.
Motorola Moto 360: Screen
The gorilla glass-fronted LCD screen has a resolution of 320 x 290 and is 1.5in in diameter. At normal watch distance the resolution is fine, but if you peer too closely you can tell the resolution ain't up to the best phones. Still, it's adequate, and gives us all something to look forward to in the Moto 360 two. Clearly having a higher res screen would have an effect on battery life, which is already under serious pressure.
Another detail you’ll notice is a small dead area at the base of the screen, a conscious design trade-off which gave Motorola somewhere to put daylight sensors. Without this the bezel would have been deeper. It’s a good trade, we think.
Motorola Moto 360: Battery
The big one, this. Moto themselves simply went with a 'lasts all day' claim rather than getting bogged down in the details, and at first touch that claim is pretty much accurate. Sometimes it's only just making it through (down to 25%, but it's thereabouts. That’s with all alerts on and synced to a busy inbox and multiple social channels. Clearly the 320mAh battery will age, but from new we’re pretty impressed – obviously you’ll need to charge everynight, and Moto have clearly anticipated this by adding a bedside clock- style function to the charger. When wirelessly docked, the display flips sideways and shows a calming blue clock, which may prove still too bright at night for some, but it’s not an unpleasant effect.
Motorola Moto 360: Chipset
The biggest bad news lurks here, with Motorola delivering a four year old TI OMAP 3 chip (OMAP3630) in the Moto 360, rather than the Snapdragon 400 gracing the Samsung and LG. This is responsible for the occasional lag and jitter while swiping around, and more than likely isn’t helping the battery life.
Motorola Moto 360: What is it like?
Well, it's very much like Android Wear and Google Cards smashed up in a box on your wrist. It's occasionally brilliant, like mirroring media controls automatically when listening to Spotify, or navigating using Google maps and getting vibrate alerts when a direction change is required. It's occasionally random too, demanding you look at the days weather again, and endlessly pointing out how many steps you've done. Using Runkeeper via your wrist is surprisingly compelling, albeit confusing if you try stacking Google Maps navigation and music on top of it. Overall it’s a slightly confusing experience, as Google tries to predict the information card you’re likely to want next, with varying success. However, finding the info you do want requires swiping away till you get to it. This is very much software rather than hardware though, and will undoubtedly improve.
The biggest disappointment comes from trying to activate apps from the watch. All too often Moto has decreed that the experience will be so awful that you simply run into an ‘Open on phone’ icon. This is understandable, but does consistently remind you of how limited smartwatch functionality currently is. Google voice search is as accurate as ever (about 80%) but often performs web searches for apps rather than opening them.
The HR monitor does what it says on the tin, with the usual caveat that you need to position it away from the bone in your wrist, and the step counter is as reliable as any wrist-mounted pedometer bands. In fact, given you can easily spend £100-£150 on a fitness band, the Moto 360 looks pretty good value.
Sadly the leather strap isn’t ideal for getting all sweaty over, but it’s held in by standard watch pins, and finding alternative 20mm watch bands on the internet/any watch shop isn’t very hard.
Motorola Moto 360: Verdict
We were surprised how useful the Moto 360 was in everyday use, and we didn’t encounter any of the battery issues that others have reported, getting a full 7am till 11pm day with charge to spare. Wrist alerts are weirdly compelling, as is the fitness aspect of the Moto 360 (strap excepted). Google Wear is clearly still in its infancy and Motorola’s open source policy here has left the ball very much in Google’s court. Until the Apple Watch lands in early 2015, this is the smartwatch to beat.
Motorola Moto 360: Specs
Screen size: 1.5-inch, Gorilla Glass 3
Resolution: 320x290 pixels
Processor: TI OMAP 3
Features: Bluetooth 4.0, dual mics, vibration motor
Battery: 320mAh (one day)
Software: Android Wear
Weight: 49g (leather strap model)
Memory: 4GB internal storage + 512MB RAM
Water Resistance: IP 67
Dimensions: 46mm x 11.5mm
Sensors: Pedometer, Optical heart rate sensor
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