6 ms·

Who would have thunk that of all the end-of-2014 smartwatches, the one that would make you look the least like a dork would be the one from Motorola? Shame abo

Who would have thunk that of all the end-of-2014 smartwatches, the one that would make you look the least like a dork would be the one from Motorola? Shame about the battery life, though. Please fix that Motorola, I want to give you my money so bad, but cannot do it until you fix the battery life.

skc 12y ago
I haven't seen anything on battery life actually. You have some estimates?
- amitdeshwar 12y ago
  The Ars review talks about the poor battery life: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/moto-360-review-beautiful-outside-ugly-inside/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/moto-360-review-beaut...
  - georgemcbay 12y ago
    Verge too: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108947/moto-360-review http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108947/moto-360-review OTOH, gizmodo says the battery life isn't quite that bad: http://gizmodo.com/moto-360-battery-life-test-so-far-not-as-bad-as-you-h-1631839974 http://gizmodo.com/moto-360-battery-life-test-so-far-not-as-... ... but every other review I've read (about 6 including these) has really hammered it on the battery being dead well before the day is over. I'm sure there is some YMMV depending upon usage and a moto 360 might last me a full day personally (since I'm not a reviewer and wouldn't be doing... reviewer things with it all day), but I'm not willing to slap down $250 to find out when even the positive reviews say it has the weakest battery life of all the current crop of watches. I can wait until revision 2 hits to be sure that I only have to take the thing off once per day.
acjohnson55 12y ago
I feel like the next gen Moto watch will have the better SoC, much better battery life (as many Android watches already have) and higher resolution. And maybe more sensors. And hopefully match some of Apple's innovations. I think I'm about a year from being able to join the bandwagon.
- dwild 12y ago
  Which Apple's innovations?
  - Cookingboy 12y ago
    Watch to watch direct communication, haptic feedback, force sensitive screen on a sapphire display, just to name a few?
    - deong 12y ago
      The watch-to-watch communication with all the sharing your heart rate and sending little pictures was the most Samsung thing I've ever seen anyone but Samsung do. Seriously, is there a real problem lurking around somewhere for which this is a solution? The force sensitive display might be useful, I couldn't really tell from the coverage. At least one person there commented that they were having a hard time seeing the big difference between "force press" and "long press". Is the "Taptic" feedback significantly different that the vibrating motor present on every other watch? I can't really tell, but I think functionally, vibration can already serve the purpose well enough, although the Apple implementation might be a bit more elegant -- I can't find enough information to say for sure. I would say the Apple innovations here is mainly the digital crown. On every smartwatch, there's a lot of swiping around to do basic navigation, but there's not been a really good way to zoom in and out. Apple's implementation allows for apps like their photo demo to be more practical. I'm suspicious that they might be overusing it -- the idea of needing to zoom around to launch apps seems less like a good idea, but overall the novel input method is an innovation I'd say. I assume they must have NFC in the watch to handle the payments system. That's (I think) novel among the smartwatch lineup, and maybe that's a thing that really catches on. Mostly though, I think that the people who complained that Android Wear was just a mini cell phone on your wrist should be disappointed with the Apple Watch as well. I'm not one of them for the record, I'm wearing the Gear Live right now, and I quite like it. But I don't think Apple has revolutionized the smart watch. They've just made what looks to be a solid entry into the market.
      - 12y ago
masklinn 12y ago
> the one that would make you look the least like a dork would be the one from Motorola? The band connection to the very bottom is really too bad, it makes the watch look extremely thick.
- 4thjuly 12y ago
  Although it makes it much more comfortable to wear.
- wikyd 12y ago
  Thanks! I was trying to figure out why the Watch looks thick from the side, but seemed not too thick in photos on peoples' wrists. That explains it.
  - masklinn 12y ago
    Yes, bracelet attachment really makes a world of difference, I was shocked to learn that the 360 is "only" 11.5mm thick but looks much thicker than mechanical chronographs (routinely 15mm thick), and I've had multiple friends comment the 360 was a no-go due to thickness
  - yincrash 12y ago
    For non-Mac users, the parent typed "(apple-logo)Watch". The Apple logo is only visible to mac (and iOS?) users because it's in the private use area on fonts on macs.
    - fixedd 12y ago
      And Linux users, apparently.
marincounty 12y ago
Yea--it's like they went out of their way to screw up the design? Tim should have taken off the watch and smashed it on the floor--said sorry; we will be back! The Swiss are going to sleep well tonight. I really wanted to like this?
taude 12y ago
You know, I was thinking the same thing. I think I prefer the roundness of the 360, than the rectangular Apple design. However, you won't catch me wearing either of them until you don't have to have a phone with you. I'm thinking Minimum Viable Phone (or communications device) that I can wear on my wrist when doing thing, and have some casual interactions with text messaging, and glancing at emails)...
- masklinn 12y ago
  > I'm thinking Minimum Viable Phone (or communications device) that I can wear on my wrist when doing thing, and have some casual interactions with text messaging, and glancing at emails)... The problem's these require extensive radio interaction/SoC, without a phone support (which can stream the information via bluetooth LE) you have to carry that in the watch itself.
  - taude 12y ago
    Yeup. So wake me when this becomes a reality: I'm sure somone's patenting building a cellular antenna into a watch band as I type this. Plus, I'm sure 6G networks will be faster and require even less power....
    - masklinn 12y ago
      The antenna is not the problem, the radio chips (and power) are.
      - alwaysdoit 12y ago
        Specifically, you need enough power to regularly transmit an electromagnetic signal on the order of miles that scales with the inverse square law. Considering that they can't even get the battery life up without that requirement, it might be a while unless we make significant scientific breakthroughs in battery or wireless technology.
        12y ago
aikah 12y ago
I love what moto did with their watch, the shape is great and the design is elegant. I personally dont like the shape of the Apple watch,but I'm waiting for more infos about battery life.
lagnarok 12y ago
My primary gripe with the Moto 360 is that it's huge. My wrists just aren't big enough to sport a watch that size and not look or feel silly.
- krschultz 12y ago
  It's not "huge", it's smaller than a lot of analog watches I own.
- dkulchenko 12y ago
  I have tiny wrists and own a Moto 360. It's not huge at all. Try one on at a BB once they're in stores and see for yourself.
dkulchenko 12y ago
Actual Moto 360 owner here to dispel the two most common complains because I'm tired of hearing them parroted online. You'll find that you only hear them from people who've never actually used/seen the watch in person. 1. Battery life. The initial reviews complaining about battery life are simply inaccurate. I have ambient mode on (always-on screen) which is supposed to kill battery, and am easily getting a day out of this watch (ending 16 hour days with 20-30% remaining). I'm using the watch all the time to read emails, respond to messages, etc. If you don't believe me, check /r/moto360, you'll find a bunch of people who actually have the watch corroborating that the battery life is perfectly fine. 2. Size. I have tiny wrists and it looks great on my arm. Not too thick or too big at all, and very much on par with typical men's watches. The fact that it's very light helps too. It's a fantastic device and I'm really enjoying it.
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  Thanks for the feedback; I'm now intrigued enough that I will at least try to find someone local to me that has one to get some real world impressions. If the battery life is indeed a lot better than the vast majority of reviews are stating then Motorola really needs to get ahead of this message, because it would be foolish for them to expect most people to spend $250 just to try the device out when there is such a clear consensus of a major problem in the published reviews. The size was never an issue for me because that's an easily measurable spec and I'm okay with the size as specced, but buying the device when almost all the reviews are telling me the watch will be dead in 12 hours represents a pretty big leap of faith, so if it really isn't an issue (other than PR), I do hope Motorola finds a way to get past it.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  I saw a girl wearing a moto 360 on the train yesterday. This was my first sighting in the wild. She just looked like a normal fashionable girl wearing a "boyfriend" sized watch. I think the size argument is very much overplayed. Large watches are already the norm, which is nice for smartwatches that'll be unusuable at super-petite sizes.
gnopgnip 12y ago
Withings Activite is a much better looking smartwatch
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
I was really expecting, from a looks perspective, that the Moto would look like garbage compared to the Apple watch. Instead we got the opposite. A made a little write-up here: http://nothingjustworks.com/android-may-have-just-won-the-smartwatch-war/ http://nothingjustworks.com/android-may-have-just-won-the-sm...
- rimantas 12y ago
  Android makes watches now? :O

skc 12y ago

I haven't seen anything on battery life actually. You have some estimates?

amitdeshwar 12y ago
The Ars review talks about the poor battery life: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/moto-360-review-beautiful-outside-ugly-inside/ http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/moto-360-review-beaut...
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  Verge too: http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108947/moto-360-review http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/6108947/moto-360-review OTOH, gizmodo says the battery life isn't quite that bad: http://gizmodo.com/moto-360-battery-life-test-so-far-not-as-bad-as-you-h-1631839974 http://gizmodo.com/moto-360-battery-life-test-so-far-not-as-... ... but every other review I've read (about 6 including these) has really hammered it on the battery being dead well before the day is over. I'm sure there is some YMMV depending upon usage and a moto 360 might last me a full day personally (since I'm not a reviewer and wouldn't be doing... reviewer things with it all day), but I'm not willing to slap down $250 to find out when even the positive reviews say it has the weakest battery life of all the current crop of watches. I can wait until revision 2 hits to be sure that I only have to take the thing off once per day.

acjohnson55 12y ago

I feel like the next gen Moto watch will have the better SoC, much better battery life (as many Android watches already have) and higher resolution. And maybe more sensors. And hopefully match some of Apple's innovations. I think I'm about a year from being able to join the bandwagon.

dwild 12y ago
Which Apple's innovations?
- Cookingboy 12y ago
  Watch to watch direct communication, haptic feedback, force sensitive screen on a sapphire display, just to name a few?
  - deong 12y ago
    The watch-to-watch communication with all the sharing your heart rate and sending little pictures was the most Samsung thing I've ever seen anyone but Samsung do. Seriously, is there a real problem lurking around somewhere for which this is a solution? The force sensitive display might be useful, I couldn't really tell from the coverage. At least one person there commented that they were having a hard time seeing the big difference between "force press" and "long press". Is the "Taptic" feedback significantly different that the vibrating motor present on every other watch? I can't really tell, but I think functionally, vibration can already serve the purpose well enough, although the Apple implementation might be a bit more elegant -- I can't find enough information to say for sure. I would say the Apple innovations here is mainly the digital crown. On every smartwatch, there's a lot of swiping around to do basic navigation, but there's not been a really good way to zoom in and out. Apple's implementation allows for apps like their photo demo to be more practical. I'm suspicious that they might be overusing it -- the idea of needing to zoom around to launch apps seems less like a good idea, but overall the novel input method is an innovation I'd say. I assume they must have NFC in the watch to handle the payments system. That's (I think) novel among the smartwatch lineup, and maybe that's a thing that really catches on. Mostly though, I think that the people who complained that Android Wear was just a mini cell phone on your wrist should be disappointed with the Apple Watch as well. I'm not one of them for the record, I'm wearing the Gear Live right now, and I quite like it. But I don't think Apple has revolutionized the smart watch. They've just made what looks to be a solid entry into the market.
    - 12y ago

masklinn 12y ago

> the one that would make you look the least like a dork would be the one from Motorola? The band connection to the very bottom is really too bad, it makes the watch look extremely thick.

4thjuly 12y ago
Although it makes it much more comfortable to wear.
wikyd 12y ago
Thanks! I was trying to figure out why the Watch looks thick from the side, but seemed not too thick in photos on peoples' wrists. That explains it.
- masklinn 12y ago
  Yes, bracelet attachment really makes a world of difference, I was shocked to learn that the 360 is "only" 11.5mm thick but looks much thicker than mechanical chronographs (routinely 15mm thick), and I've had multiple friends comment the 360 was a no-go due to thickness
- yincrash 12y ago
  For non-Mac users, the parent typed "(apple-logo)Watch". The Apple logo is only visible to mac (and iOS?) users because it's in the private use area on fonts on macs.
  - fixedd 12y ago
    And Linux users, apparently.

marincounty 12y ago

Yea--it's like they went out of their way to screw up the design? Tim should have taken off the watch and smashed it on the floor--said sorry; we will be back! The Swiss are going to sleep well tonight. I really wanted to like this?

taude 12y ago

You know, I was thinking the same thing. I think I prefer the roundness of the 360, than the rectangular Apple design. However, you won't catch me wearing either of them until you don't have to have a phone with you. I'm thinking Minimum Viable Phone (or communications device) that I can wear on my wrist when doing thing, and have some casual interactions with text messaging, and glancing at emails)...

masklinn 12y ago
> I'm thinking Minimum Viable Phone (or communications device) that I can wear on my wrist when doing thing, and have some casual interactions with text messaging, and glancing at emails)... The problem's these require extensive radio interaction/SoC, without a phone support (which can stream the information via bluetooth LE) you have to carry that in the watch itself.
- taude 12y ago
  Yeup. So wake me when this becomes a reality: I'm sure somone's patenting building a cellular antenna into a watch band as I type this. Plus, I'm sure 6G networks will be faster and require even less power....
  - masklinn 12y ago
    The antenna is not the problem, the radio chips (and power) are.
    - alwaysdoit 12y ago
      Specifically, you need enough power to regularly transmit an electromagnetic signal on the order of miles that scales with the inverse square law. Considering that they can't even get the battery life up without that requirement, it might be a while unless we make significant scientific breakthroughs in battery or wireless technology.
      - 12y ago

aikah 12y ago

I love what moto did with their watch, the shape is great and the design is elegant. I personally dont like the shape of the Apple watch,but I'm waiting for more infos about battery life.

lagnarok 12y ago

My primary gripe with the Moto 360 is that it's huge. My wrists just aren't big enough to sport a watch that size and not look or feel silly.

krschultz 12y ago
It's not "huge", it's smaller than a lot of analog watches I own.
dkulchenko 12y ago
I have tiny wrists and own a Moto 360. It's not huge at all. Try one on at a BB once they're in stores and see for yourself.

dkulchenko 12y ago

Actual Moto 360 owner here to dispel the two most common complains because I'm tired of hearing them parroted online. You'll find that you only hear them from people who've never actually used/seen the watch in person. 1. Battery life. The initial reviews complaining about battery life are simply inaccurate. I have ambient mode on (always-on screen) which is supposed to kill battery, and am easily getting a day out of this watch (ending 16 hour days with 20-30% remaining). I'm using the watch all the time to read emails, respond to messages, etc. If you don't believe me, check /r/moto360, you'll find a bunch of people who actually have the watch corroborating that the battery life is perfectly fine. 2. Size. I have tiny wrists and it looks great on my arm. Not too thick or too big at all, and very much on par with typical men's watches. The fact that it's very light helps too. It's a fantastic device and I'm really enjoying it.

georgemcbay 12y ago
Thanks for the feedback; I'm now intrigued enough that I will at least try to find someone local to me that has one to get some real world impressions. If the battery life is indeed a lot better than the vast majority of reviews are stating then Motorola really needs to get ahead of this message, because it would be foolish for them to expect most people to spend $250 just to try the device out when there is such a clear consensus of a major problem in the published reviews. The size was never an issue for me because that's an easily measurable spec and I'm okay with the size as specced, but buying the device when almost all the reviews are telling me the watch will be dead in 12 hours represents a pretty big leap of faith, so if it really isn't an issue (other than PR), I do hope Motorola finds a way to get past it.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
I saw a girl wearing a moto 360 on the train yesterday. This was my first sighting in the wild. She just looked like a normal fashionable girl wearing a "boyfriend" sized watch. I think the size argument is very much overplayed. Large watches are already the norm, which is nice for smartwatches that'll be unusuable at super-petite sizes.

gnopgnip 12y ago

Withings Activite is a much better looking smartwatch

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

I was really expecting, from a looks perspective, that the Moto would look like garbage compared to the Apple watch. Instead we got the opposite. A made a little write-up here: http://nothingjustworks.com/android-may-have-just-won-the-smartwatch-war/ http://nothingjustworks.com/android-may-have-just-won-the-sm...

rimantas 12y ago
Android makes watches now? :O