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
Techradar
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