The latest statement on the company's part is actually rather strange

Sep 10, 2014 13:17 GMT  ·  By

If you've been keeping track of the wearable gadget market, you've probably read all about the Moto 360 smartwatch from Motorola. We now have an update on the latest controversy to surround that particular device.

There were actually several of them during the months leading up to the release of the product, which only happened recently, five days ago to be precise.

One of them regarded whether or not the watch would truly be made out metal. Some even said the straps would be made of plastic instead of the metal initially promised.

The truth turned out to be in the middle. The strap wasn't made of metal in the end, but it wasn't plastic either. Instead, it's leather.

That's not what we're going to look at now, though. It's the battery that concerns us actually. Specifically, the fact that instead of a 320 mAh one we got a 300 mAh model.

The conundrum of the watch battery

We actually reported on this yesterday, September 9, 2014. After the folks at iFixit tore the thing down to its base parts, they discovered that a 300 mAh battery had been used instead.

Motorola has since issued a statement, but their explanation might not hold much water, depending on your point of view.

The company's argument is basically that the battery is capable of 320 mAh despite being “officially” a 300 mAh one.

To elaborate, the battery has an output that can spike all the way to 320 mAh, but the minimum is 300 mAh, and Motorola only wrote the minimum to play it safe as it were. It says that the battery was too small to write both the minimum and maximum values, as it’s usually done.

We're not sure how much weight that argument holds, considering the label itself, as is apparent in the attached photo. There seems to be more than enough room on that particular line.

The white lie

Whether or not it's a lie we'll leave to you to decide. Chances are Motorola never expected anyone to actually open up their watch, since it's so hard to put back together afterwards (repairability score of 3 out of 10). Alas, the turkey is among the chickens now.

At least the watch delivered on all other promises: round display, multiple watch faces, wirelessly rechargeable battery, and ambient light sensor. All these in addition to the usual list of capabilities (fitness tracker, message / phone call alert giver, etc.).