We tested Motorola's second attempt at wearables

Nov 7, 2015 13:01 GMT  ·  By
INTRODUCTION THE SMARTWATCH
HARDWARE THE FITNESS TRACKER
LOOK AND FEEL SOFTWARE
PERFORMANCE CONCLUSIONS

Wearables are still in their infancy these days, and most companies that are trying to benefit from the growth of this business focus on one thing and one thing only: make their devices feel natural, just like their non-smart counterparts.

Motorola tried the very same thing with the first-generation 360 smartwatch back in March 2014, when it officially took the wraps off the device. While most companies working on wearables had a hard time finding a design that makes more sense on such a device, Motorola decided to go for a more traditional approach and develop a smartwatch that's round, just like any other traditional watch.

It does make sense, actually. Motorola wanted something that can always double as a watch but that also has smart capabilities, such as phone notifications and fitness tracking (pretty much what every other smartwatch out there does right now). In Moto's case, the intention was very clear: a round watch that makes it look natural on the wrist and that shouldn't make you feel embarrassed when wearing it in public.

The first-generation model, however, was a semi-fiasco. Everyone complained about the poor battery life and how slow the device actually was. So the second model was specifically built to address the annoyances of its predecessor.

Unveiled in September this year, the new Moto 360 (Moto 360 2 or Moto 360 2015, as most people call it) brings upgrades exactly where it matters. The design has been improved (although not to the extent some people actually expected), and so has the hardware, which is supposed to make the watch faster and more responsive at all times.  

Display Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Backlit LCD
Mens 42mm and Womens: 1.37” (35mm), 263ppi (360 X 325)
Mens 46mm: 1.56” (40mm), 233ppi (360 X 330)
Case Mens:
46mm diameter by 11.4mm high
42mm diameter by 11.4mm high
Womens:
42mm diameter by 11.4mm high
CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU (APQ 8026)
Adreno 305 with 450MHz GPU
Battery Mens 42mm and Womens: 300mAh - Up to 1.5 days of mixed use with Ambient off. Up to a full day of mixed use with Ambient on.
Mens 46mm: 400mAh - Up to 2 days of mixed use with Ambient off. Up to a full day of mixed use with Ambient on.
Wireless charging with charging dock included
Memory 4GB internal storage + 512MB RAM
Connectivity Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Microphone Dual digital mics
Sensors Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Gyroscope, Vibration/Haptics engine

Moto 360 2015 charging dock
Moto 360 2015 charging dock

To make sure that it targets a wider audience with the second model, Motorola launched three different models, two for men and one for women. The former gets the Moto 360 within either a 42mm or a 46mm case, with a 20mm or 22mm band, respectively, while the latter has just one option - a 42mm case with a 16mm band. All versions are 11.4mm high.

As far as hardware upgrades are concerned, Motorola didn't pick anything too exotic, but it went for the standard in the wearables industry: 4 GB of internal storage, 512 MB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.0 support, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.

The processor, however, is the one that actually makes a difference as compared to the first generation. This time, the Lenovo-owned company installed a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU (APQ 8026) and an Adreno 305 with 450MHz GPU, both of which are supposed to contribute to that increased battery life and faster response that everyone was looking for.

And speaking of batteries, they vary depending on the version you choose. The 42mm and the women models come with a 300mAh unit, while the 46mm one features a 400mAh battery. A wireless charging dock, which is induction-based, just like in the case of the Apple Watch, is also offered in the box.

The first round watch without a round display.

The LCD display comes in the form of a 1.56-inch screen for the 46mm configuration, and 1.37-inch for the other two, with resolutions of 360x325 px and 360x330 px, respectively. It's still LCD, which makes it inferior to the Apple Watch, for instance, but this way, it should provide longer battery life. Gorilla Glass 3 is offered for additional protection.

Motorola is pretty much the first company in the world that has created a smartwatch with a round display that isn't round. The display features a non-touch black part at the bottom that's generally referred to as “flat tire” because it makes the screen look just like that. This non-interactive part of the screen houses an ambient light sensor, which is some sort of tweak that Motorola resorted to in order to have an excuse for the flat tire design. But it doesn't. The non-round display that's supposed to be round looks awkward with some watch faces, and that could certainly be a deal breaker for some.

And in case you're wondering why the flat tire, Moto's answer is very simple: the almost no-bezel design left them with no other option, and since an ambient light sensor needed to be on its face, this is the only solution they found. The problem, however, is the circular edge of the watch, which is being used because the display is approximately one millimeter above the case. Viewed from the side, it certainly looks great, but in some angles, it just gives a cheap look that's a bit unexpected when talking about a smartwatch supposed to be more elegant from the very beginning.

In terms of sensors, which pretty much define the capabilities of every smartwatch, there are an accelerometer, an ambient light sensor, a gyroscope, and a vibration/haptics engine. An optical heart rate monitor is also available.

The Moto 360 connects to your phone with Android Wear, which makes it compatible with both Android and iOS, but the latter is extremely limited and is not at all recommended if you plan to buy this smartwatch.

Moto 360 2015 side view
Moto 360 2015 side view

First and foremost, it's worth mentioning that Motorola achieved its goal of making the Moto 360 look and feel natural. The device has the traditional design of a watch and comes in multiple sizes that should help you choose the one that fits you best, depending on your wrist size. If you have ridiculously small wrists, the 42mm model is the one to go for, so there's no smaller version available.

We've read elsewhere that a 38mm case would be more appropriate for women, but the 42mm one is small enough to fit a child's wrist, so size shouldn't be a problem.

The Moto 360 sure feels comfortable, and there shouldn't be any problem wearing it all day long. It can fit both the left and the right wrists, and it feels extremely light (believe it or not, Motorola hasn't released the actual weight of the device, but it shouldn't be much heavier than the first generation, which tipped the scales at 49 grams/1.79 oz).

Partially responsible for superior ergonomics is a mix of the aircraft-grade stainless steel case, the new bands (which are specifically designed to make the watch feel comfortable), as well as the new lugs that are very well designed to better fit small wrists. There's a new pin that makes it possible to quickly release bands and swap them with others to fit your style.

And this leads us to the next chapter: customization. The watch comes with different bezel styles, and you can choose from rose gold, black, and silver cases. Bands are also available in a variety of colors and models, including stainless steel and genuine Horween leather. Overall, there are more than 300 combinations, Motorola says, so the chances are that you'll never find someone with a Moto 360 looking exactly like yours.

Moto 360 2015 notification
Moto 360 2015 notification

Now that we've learned about its hardware and found out that the Moto 360 is quite a comfy device, let's see what happens when you actually turn it on. And what better way to start the discussion than to jump right to the conclusion? The Moto 360 is just the perfect device when it's not on.

Motorola's second attempt at the smartwatch market looks good, feels good, but certainly doesn't live up to expectations as far as its performance is concerned.

The moment you turn it on and set it up for the first time, you start discovering why.

While the watch feels snappier than before, it's the operating system that ruins the experience. Android Wear feels like an OS that's still in beta testing these days, so as you explore your smartwatch capabilities, you also understand that there's still plenty of room for improvement.

One of the top features on the Moto 360 is the high personalization level that Motorola tried to enhance with its very own faces that are available by default. You have a nice collection of faces at your disposal, some of which can be further configured by choosing different colors and widgets (which Motorola calls Live Dials). In just a few words, they are small widgets that can be added to your watch face and see information such as step count, weather, or time around the world.

Additional faces are available in the store, and thank God, there are a lot to choose from. The best are available for a price, but there still are plenty of them offered for free.

But Android Wear is still extremely limited in terms of the apps. You can barely find apps in the store that could enhance the functionality of the device, and this is exactly the thing that Google must significantly improve in the next version of its wearables OS.

To get back to the point where we discussed how the Moto 360 disappoints, it all starts with the display. The watch features the same “rotate your wrist” mode that makes it light up when you move your wrist to check the time, but there's also an ambient mode that keeps the time always on. This is very similar to the watch mode available on the Microsoft Band, and it's the feature that everyone wants on the Apple Watch (but impossible for now because of the display technology used by Apple).

Pixels, pixels everywhere.

While it's certainly helpful, to make sure that battery life isn't impacted, Motorola developed a low-bit mode that dramatically lowers the quality of a watch face to keep the time on on the display. The only problem is that this low-bit mode is terrible and makes the watch look and feel extremely cheap, with dials and on-screen information looking extremely pixelated. OK, we do know that this is becoming a trend that everyone seems to like (*closes Crossy Road*), but it makes the Moto 360 feel like a knock-off. It happened to us several times to be asked why the watch display looked so bad because of the ambient mode, so you might want to keep it off (this also helps increase battery life, so it's a double win type of setting).

As for as the display itself, it looks good, but that's all about it. It's not impressive in any way, and you might actually notice that some watch faces aren't as sharp as you'd expect them to be.

Another feature that needs to be improved is the wrist movement detection. While we found the Apple Watch to be extremely sensible to every single move, which lighted up the display all of a sudden at random times, the Moto 360 is at the opposite pole. I've tested the device on my right wrist, and it failed to detect the wrist raise every once in a while, and this was extremely frustrating. Pressing the side button was a workaround, but it just involves an additional step to check the time.

The performance of the Moto 360 is generally good, but it barely impresses as far as speed and screen quality are concerned. We've read reviews claiming that the flat tire doesn't matter because the watch looks good anyway, we've heard people saying that ambient mode is the best innovation ever. We're not saying that you shouldn't trust these statements, but don't take them for granted. They're both more of love it or hate it features of the Moto 360, and for us, it's the latter part.

Battery life isn't by any means impressive. It can last for about one day and a half if you use it just for notifications, but if you're an athlete who also wants to monitor exercises, it can barely get you through the day. On average, we've recorded 22 hours of battery life with the Ambient mode activated and 28 hours without it, with standard notifications configuration and 30 minutes of running per day.

Moto 360 2015 phone notification
Moto 360 2015 phone notification

If you have an Android phone and looking for a smartwatch, the Moto 360 might be a choice. If you're currently on iOS, it certainly isn't the right one.

Moto 360 works with both platforms, but to get the best it has to offer, an Android phone is required. Android Wear doesn't feel very polished right now, and it lacks some essential features, but if you're ready to get past these setbacks, you might find the Moto 360 a rather decent choice.

In terms of smartwatch capabilities, the new Moto does almost everything you'd expect it to do. It shows notifications from all apps running on your phone (Bluetooth connection is needed, Wi-Fi also works when not in range), but there are at least a couple of drawbacks here too.

First and foremost, there's no way to clear all notifications at once, so if you're in a meeting and receive more than just a message, you can't clear all of them together, but have to do it individually. This is a shortcoming of Android Wear, but it could be fixed with a future update.

Notifications are there, but not really the way you expect them to be.

Then, there's the notification sync between the watch and the phone. We've noticed that, most of the time, although we receive messages on the phone, and we read them, they still remain unread on the phone and vice versa. So you have to open each notification on both devices to make sure you have zero alerts on either of them.

The lack of applications is also a big problem on Android Wear right now, and it also impacts Moto 360, but again, since the platform is still in its early days, it could take more time until devs discover the potential of this product. For the moment, it's hard to find something really useful in the store, which is actually totally different from the Apple Watch, where everyone's in a rush to code for the device.

If you have an iPhone, there are absolutely no apps available for you, simply because Android is required. What's more, you can't reply to messages, although you can see them on the watch.

And speaking of reply options, here's another problem. Whenever you receive a message, let's say a text, and you wish to reply from the watch, there's a list of pre-defined answers that you can send (emoji are also supported). And yet, there's no way to edit these messages or add new ones, so you just have to stick to the default ones.

What's more, you have the option to reply with a custom message by simply speaking it to the watch, but as we all know, this feature's functionality is impacted by the lack of language support and voice recognition issues for some dialects.

Overall, the Moto 360 plays its smartwatch role in a decent way, but it's hard to believe that anyone would buy it, given its shortcomings in this area. Improvements are absolutely mandatory here because, at the moment, Moto's second smartwatch is nothing more than the average phone companion.

Moto 360 2015 heart rate tracking
Moto 360 2015 heart rate tracking

If you ever think that the Moto 360 can be a fitness tracker, you are absolutely wrong. If we look at the existing smartwatch lineup that's currently available out there, Moto 360's performance is among the most disappointing.

First and foremost, it doesn't have a GPS sensor (the Sport version does have one, though), which means that, in order to monitor your running route, you need to have your phone always in your pocket. Which is clearly the thing that nobody ever wants to do. What's more, GPS could help offer more accurate statistics regarding covered distance, and this is where the Moto 360 performs really bad as compared to its rivals. There's a difference of at least 100 meters for every kilometer, so if you run for 10 km, for instance, the Moto 360 could indicate 11 km.

The heart rate monitor is extremely inaccurate. We've compared its readings with those of the Microsoft Band and the Fitbit Surge, and while these two indicated almost the same value, the Moto 360 was off by a huge margin. For instance, both the Surge and the Band showed an 80 BPM, while Moto estimated 120 BMP. A second attempt lowered Moto's figures to 95 BMP, so you might have to use the heart rate monitor several times to get a proper reading, but you'll never know which one is accurate.

If you don't have the Sport model, don't even think about running with a leather band. It's not a secret that leather straps aren't recommended for exercising, and Moto 360 is no exception. Due to the sweat, it gets a weird smell, and it's hard to clean, so you'd better not do that with this smartwatch.

Thanks to its case, the Moto 360 should resist some drops of water, but Motorola says that you shouldn't swim or shower with it. It's water-resistant but not waterproof, just like all the other smartwatches out there.

The second-generation model comes with its health app companion called Moto Body, but it's rather rudimentary. As compared to Fitbit's app or Microsoft Health, Moto Body is still lagging behind, but it's not at all surprising, given the fact that Motorola is kind of a new player in this industry, and it still needs to see where it has to improve before actually doing it.

All in all, Moto 360 fails to impress in the fitness tracker battle, and it's hard to believe that anyone would ever buy the device just to stay in shape. There are so many better and more affordable options out there that it's almost a shock Motorola hasn't spent more time improving this side of its watch.

Moto 360 2015 Android Wear menus
Moto 360 2015 Android Wear menus

Moto 360 runs Android Wear, which kind of makes it obvious that if you want to use the device at its full potential, an Android phone is a must have. iPhones work too, but as an Apple customer, you simply get too few options to make you want to use the Moto 360.

As mentioned several times in our review, Android Wear doesn't seem to be a polished wearables OS, and for the moment, it's simply lagging behind rivals, not only as far as smartwatch capabilities are concerned but also in terms of customization and personalization. Android Wear needs more apps, and it's a shocker that, with so many items in the Google Play Store, not a lot of devs are rushing to bring their apps on your wrist.

Plus, Android Wear seems to be impacted by the same problems as older versions of Android were. Apps running on the watch crash every once in a while, so you might end up with an error on your screen when least expected. The design of the OS itself doesn't impress, and it just takes too many steps to reach apps or settings. Apple's WatchOS is clearly better in this regard, and most people seem to prefer the app menus on the Watch rather than on Android Wear.

Android Wear, Moto Body, Google Fit. Why so many apps?

While the traditional watch design of the device makes it look good on your wrist, not the same thing can be said about the software running on it. The huge fonts that some apps are using could really be a problem sometimes, and for privacy-obsessed users, this could become a deal breaker.

Android Wear can hardly be considered an intuitive and straightforward piece of software, and there's a learning curve that seems to take more time than some people are willing to offer. It's hard to find the things you're looking for if you're not a long-time user, that's for sure.

Plus, the Moto 360 requires just too many apps for various features. Android Wear, Moto Body, Google Fit, Google Play Services, all need to be installed and running on your Android device to use it at its full potential. And we'll never understand why the need for location tracking to be enabled on the phone in order to get the weather forecast… What if I simply want to get info for a user-defined location?

Moto 360 2015 - what's in the box
Moto 360 2015 - what's in the box

Moto 360 is one of the best-looking smartwatches currently on the market, and the traditional watch design is the one that makes it possible. If you're not into futuristic approaches and want to stay classy, the Moto 360 is an interesting choice, but only in terms of design.

The device loses points in those areas where others are gaining. And the best example is the fitness tracking.

There's no doubt that there's no point putting a heart rate monitor on a device if it can't provide accurate readings. But the Moto 360 fails so big that it's almost annoying. Every time we tried to measure the BPM, it provided different figures than all the other smartwatches, so Motorola should really calibrate its sensor better. Moto needs 14 days to generate your average and actually learn things about it, but to be honest, it's hard to believe that anyone who simply wants to see what this device is up to is ready to spend two full weeks wearing it just for this purpose.

If you've already bought it or received it as a gift, it's worth to wait that long, but otherwise, it's very clear that 14 days is just too much.

Right now, Moto 360 pricing starts at $299 and reaches $429 for the biggest, top-of-the-range model, so it's much more expensive than the previous model that was available for just $249. The hardware available under the hood is the main responsible for the price increase, but after using it for a while, it becomes obvious that it might not be worth it.

The only thing that deserves to be praised here is the design. Moto 360 looks good and feels good on the wrist. It's beautiful. In fact, it's more watch than smart.

Photo Gallery (52 Images)

Moto 360 2015 nightstand mode
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