REVIEW: The Moto 360 Is The Most Beautiful Smartwatch Yet, But That Doesn't Mean It's Perfect
But ever since Motorola unveiled its Moto 360 in March, we've seen a handful of new smartwatch designs that stray away from the overdone boxy shape to focus more on a more premium look. Take LG and HP for example. Both manufacturers have recently unveiled round-faced smartwatches of their own within the past few weeks.
When you look at the Moto 360, you'll understand why it's attracted so much buzz. The watch is elegant, simple, and most importantly- it looks like something you'd want to wear.
The Moto 360 is a step in the right direction for wearables, but by no means is it a perfect product. Here are my impressions after spending a few days with it.
The Most Beautiful Smartwatch Yet
The Moto 360 is outlined in a stainless steel casing while its watch face is covered with Corning Gorilla Glass, which the company says will keep it scratch-free. The band is made of Horween leather and is interchangeable. It's also worth noting that the Moto 360 is dust and water resistant, meaning it'll work just fine after getting wet so long as you're not swimming with it.
The 360 is still significantly thicker than your average wristwatch, but it's something I could imagine seeing on the wrists of cocktail party guests or dinner attendees. It's one of the few smartwatches that doesn't look like a tech product or a sporty wristband.
That being said, the circular watch face is bulky. On a small wrist like mine, it looks gigantic. It almost looks like someone strapped a pocket watch to my wrist with a leather band.
In general, the Moto 360 feels comfortable enough to wear throughout the day. The screen turns off when it's inactive, but lights up again when you turn your wrist toward you.
Other than its thickness, the main drawback to the Moto 360 is the small section at the bottom of the watch face that's cut off. This is particularly noticeable when you're using a bright background, especially the white watch faces.
What It's Like To Use It
The Moto 360 is one of the first smartwatches to run on Google's Android Wear software. Android Wear is a version of Android that's designed to be used on wearable devices like smartwatches instead of smartphones. This means voice dictation is a large part of how you interact with it.
The Moto 360 can do a number of things, such as display incoming calls and texts, measure your heart rate, pull up directions from Google Maps, count your steps, and tell you the weather. The idea behind Android Wear is that the watch should display contextual information before you even need to ask for it. So, for example, if you're favorite baseball team is playing at 7 p.m. tonight, Android Wear would display that information on your wrist automatically.
Saying the "OK Google" trigger phrase tells the watch to listen up for your commands. Don't think of this as a voice search feature; it's designed for telling Google specific instructions such as "Navigate to the Empire State Building" or "Remind me to water the plants at 4:30 p.m."
In most cases the voice recognition technology worked just fine, but there were a few occasions in which I had to speak louder and repeat myself.
I found the Moto 360 to be most useful for setting reminders. It was convenient to tell my watch to remind me to call someone back or clean my room at a certain time without having to interrupt what I was doing.
I could easily see why the Moto 360 would come in handy for navigation. It was much easier and quicker to glance down at my watch to make sure I was walking in the right direction rather than having to take out my phone every few steps or so. However, I came across a major issue when using Google Maps on the Moto 360.
The heart rate monitor feature is also a convenient addition for those who want to stay on top of their health. Simply saying "OK Google, show me my heart rate" tells the watch to measure your beats per minute instantly.
The ability to easily switch between different watch faces and customize them within Motorola's Connect app also makes it easy to cater the watch to your own personal taste.
While I enjoyed using Android Wear overall, there were a few instances in which the software crashed. In one scenario, I was presented with an error message that said "Unfortunately, Android Wear has stopped." I also found it strange that you need two separate apps to fully set up and manage your Moto 360. The Android Wear app allows you to manage the apps you use with your Moto 360, but you need Motorola's Connect app to pair your Android phone with the watch and edit your watch faces.
The Moto 360 can do a lot, but don't expect to get much out of its battery. The watch died after just about one full day of moderate to heavy usage. This wouldn't be too troubling for a phone, but something that you're going to wear on your wrist should be able to last for more than a day. If you receive tons of notifications will probably get even less out of the Moto 360's battery life.
Conclusion
That being said, the Moto 360 still has a long way to go before I'll be ready to cough up $250 for it. The battery life needs to be a lot better, and Android Wear still encounters its fair share of bugs. The Moto 360 looks nicer than any other smartwatch I've tested, but I'd be more inclined to wear it if it was a bit slimmer and lighter.
Interacting through voice dictation and glancing at notifications throughout the day feels more natural than using touch gestures just like I would on my smartphone. But the bottom line is that the Moto 360, and other Android Wear watches, still can't do much more than my smartphone already can. It's more like a shortcut to the things I would usually check on my phone rather than something new. The Moto 360 is one of the best smartwatches I've tested yet, but I'm still waiting for something that's compelling enough to buy.