Has the Apple Watch won your heart yet or will you stick to Android Wear?

Sep 10, 2014 11:36 GMT  ·  By

Earlier today we started a series of articles in which we compare Apple’s new Watch with the plethora of Android Wear smartwatches, like the ASUS ZenWatch, Samsung Gear Live, LG G Watch R, Sony SmartWatch 3 and Moto 360.

In our earlier piece we detailed the design of these wearables and now it’s time to take a look at what these devices offer in terms of screens.

Which smartwatch comes with a better screen?

We’re going to have to talk about the Moto 360 first, because this is the first smartwatch to have been announced with a circular form factor. This choice made the wearable look more natural, maintaining the traditional timepiece look most of us are quite fond of.

But what about its actual specifications? The Moto 360 officially comes with a 1.56-inch screen and a resolution of 320 x 290 pixels. These numbers might seem a little strange on paper, but the real deal is quite aesthetically pleasing.

The screen is big enough for you to swipe your finger back and forth, and there’s no annoying circular bezel like it’s the case with the Sony SmartWatch 3.

Sure, Motorola had to use certain tricks to hide some of the stuff that goes below the hood of the watch, like the black strip at the bottom, underneath which live the ambient light sensors.

Apple, on the other hand, didn’t offer us the details about size of the screen and resolution, so we can only wonder. However, they brought the Retina name into discussion to highlight the clarity of the display.

We should also mention the Apple Watch shares one characteristic with the latest Samsung smartwatch, the Gear S, as they both have curved displays. Despite that, we’re not bringing the Samsung Gear S into discussion here because the watch runs Tizen OS and not Android Wear.

The display of the Apple Watch is covered by sapphire in order to boost things up in the clarity department, but also to make it more durable. Apple said the display is intelligent enough to make the distinction between a hard push and tap because it is pressure sensitive.

We’re not particularly sure how this will translate into real life use, but this remains to be seen.

Moving on to the rest of the Android Wear smartphones, the LG G Watch R takes advantage of a 1.65-inch IPS LCD display with 280 x 280 pixel resolution, while the Gear Live has a 1.63-inch AMOLED display with 320 x 320 pixel resolution.

Sony’s new spawn comes with a 1.6-inch TFT LCD transflective display with 320 x 320 pixel resolution, while the ASUS ZenWatch brings to the table a 1.63-inch AMOLED display with 320 x 320 res and 278 ppi.

Judging by the specs of these watches, we might as well speculate the Apple one will have a screen of around 1.6-inches too.

Is it really important what tech the smartwatch display uses?

However, it remains to be seen if the AMOLED, LCD or Retina technology actually makes a difference to customer experience.

After all, the screens are quite tiny, so a lot of details are lost that way. As long as the app icons and graphics aren’t pixelated or blurry, you shouldn’t see any other problems, display-wise.

Apple Watch and Android Wear Smartwatches with Displays in Active Mode (7 Images)

Will you choose Android Wear over the Apple watch?
Samsung Gear Live with display onSony SmartWatch 3 with display on
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