Moto 360 Android Wear Smartwatch Review

Earlier this year, Google announced the Android Wear platform and Motorola promptly joined the smartwatch party by announcing the Moto 360. The whole idea behind smartwatch is not exactly new. Over the last two years, companies like Pebble, Samsung and Sony have released their own version of smartwatches. Pebble had  successfully kickstarted the Pebble E-Paper Watch for iPhone and Android on 19 May 2012 while Samsung and Sony had introduced the Samsung Gear and Sony SmartWatch respectively.

Currently in the market, you will find both Moto 360 and LG G Watch R leading the game. When it comes to design, my vote goes to Moto 360 for its stylish circular design and Qi compatible wireless charging.

The Package

Perhaps Christmas is round the corner, the Moto 360 packaging looks like it is ready to be hung on the Christmas tree. I think it should be a great Christmas gift!

Within the Moto 360 package, you will find the following:

1. Motorola Moto 360 Android Wear Smartwatch with your choice of watch strap.
2. Wireless charging base unit.
3. Power adapter.
4. User guides and manuals.

The Design

The Moto 360 comes with a backlit 1.56 inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 320 x 290. This makes it pixel density to be 205 ppi which is much lower than today’s smartphone but it is definitely sufficient for a watch as you would not be viewing high resolution photos or movies on it. The black strip at the base of the LCD display contains some of the watch’s sensors (i.e. ambient light sensor) and internals. The black strip would be less obvious on a black watch face. The entire display is protected by Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3.

Powering the watch is a 320 mAh battery which Motorola claimed that it can last all day with regular usage. The Moto 360 is charged through Qi wireless charging which makes mid-day charging a little better/ cooler. Just pop it onto the supplied wireless charging base or any Qi wireless charging and the Moto 360 would recharge itself.

On the back, you can find the optical green LED heart-rate monitor. Optical heart-rate monitor is not new, sport watches like Mio Alpha, Basis Peak, TomTom Cardio Runner utilises the optical HRM for continuous heart rate tracking. Compared to the Polar Heart Rate Monitor I had, the results are pretty much the same but it seems like the initial read from Polar HRM is faster.

The Battery-life

Battery life was a lot better after upgrading to Android Wear 5.0.1. The Moto 360 was able to last me from 0715hrs to 0026hrs the following day with 28% juice left!

The software estimated that the Moto 360 can run for another 7 hours. Working the sums, it seems to suggest that the Moto 360 can last 23 hours on a single charge. I don’t hang out that late after work so the Moto 360 would be able to last me an entire day at work.

The Conclusion

I got to say that the Moto 360 is the best-looking Android Wear smartwatch compared to both the LG G Watch R and the Kickstarter-edition Pebble watch that I own. The massive amount of free watch faces on the Internet certainly spice things up a little as you can easily change the watch face to suit your outfit.

Battery life wise, it seems like different people have different mileage. It really depends on the amount of notifications that you receive. If you wish to avoid the situation of the Moto 360 running flat on you, pick up a Qi wireless charger and leave it at your workplace. One bummer is that you can no longer charge on the go (i.e. on transportation). I used to charge my Pebble using my battery bank. You can still do that with the Moto 360 but you got to lug around the Qi wireless charger.

Lastly, give the Android Wear platform some more time and it would get awesome.

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