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Motorola has made quite a splash with its Moto 360 smartwatch globally, offering the first smartwatch that comes with a round dial, water-resistance as well as an integrated heart rate monitor and pedometer. But do you really need a smartwatch? Will its unique features be enough to help the Motorola smartwatch speed up the adoption of wearables in India? Is this smartwatch worth the asking price of Rs 17,999?
Moto 360 has a 1.56-inch LCD display clad with Gorilla Glass 3 on a round watch-face, making it the only circular smartwatch in the market. The IPS panel is pretty good to look at and adjusts the brightness by itself if you have turned on the ambient light sensor. The display remains turned off usually but lights up automatically when you turn the wrist to look at the watch; of course, this means that the display panel lights up anytime your wrist faces upward, for example while typing an email on a laptop.
The Motorola smartwatch looks much better than the other smartwatches available in the market right now, thanks to the level of detail given to the design. The brushed metal finish and leather strap look good, and you can change watch-faces anytime you want by simply long-pressing the display and selecting the one you like; Moto 360 comes with seven pre-loaded watch-faces and a few more are available on Google's Android Wear marketplace.
Like a regular watch, Moto 360 has a button on the sides, but it does not change the time on the watch. Instead, long-pressing this button opens up a menu that shows all the features of the smartwatch, such as doing a Google search, counting steps, tracking the heart rate etc.
At the bottom on the screen is a black bar that disrupts the circular design of the watch-face. This black bar houses the ambient sensors and though it makes engineering sense, it does not make any design sense at all. This bar looks awkward and takes a lot away from the overall look of the smartwatch.
In terms of design, the size of the watch's dial and the weight of the whole watch matter a lot. In Moto 360's case, the metal-finished watch does not feel too heavy on the wrist. The dial itself does not look too big on the wrist of a man, but is pretty big on the more svelte wrists of women.
Battery life
Moto 360, sadly, does not have all-day battery life if used to its full capabilities. During our review period, the maximum battery life that the smartwatch delivered (with ambient light sensor turned on) was 17 hours, while the average period was in the range of 14 and 15 hours. Turn the ambient light sensor off and you get over a day of battery life. This is decent for a small 320mAh battery, but most people are not used to charging a watch every night and it is a small inconvenience.
Unlike other smartwatches in the market, the Motorola model does not have any microUSB port ruining the design. Instead, it relies of wireless charging (magnetic induction type) to recharge the battery. Just plop the smartwatch on the wireless charger and the battery will start charging instantly.
Do I really need it?
Frankly, no wearable device today is good enough to be a gadget that you cannot live without, Moto 360 included. This smartwatch, at least initially, felt like just a complementary device to the smartphone, making it easier for us to check out what's going on with our smartphone. That's what we thought after using it for a week — it's only a convenience that we can live without.
But surprisingly, once we stopped using the smartwatch, it was actually missed. The convenience it provides just makes everything easier. Taking the phone out of the pocket each time to see who called or messaged felt like a huge chore after a week of checking it out by simply turning the wrist. Similarly, using Google Maps on the small screen is also convenient while travelling. It's just so simple!
Moto 360 has a 1.56-inch LCD display clad with Gorilla Glass 3 on a round watch-face, making it the only circular smartwatch in the market. The IPS panel is pretty good to look at and adjusts the brightness by itself if you have turned on the ambient light sensor. The display remains turned off usually but lights up automatically when you turn the wrist to look at the watch; of course, this means that the display panel lights up anytime your wrist faces upward, for example while typing an email on a laptop.
The Motorola smartwatch looks much better than the other smartwatches available in the market right now, thanks to the level of detail given to the design. The brushed metal finish and leather strap look good, and you can change watch-faces anytime you want by simply long-pressing the display and selecting the one you like; Moto 360 comes with seven pre-loaded watch-faces and a few more are available on Google's Android Wear marketplace.
Like a regular watch, Moto 360 has a button on the sides, but it does not change the time on the watch. Instead, long-pressing this button opens up a menu that shows all the features of the smartwatch, such as doing a Google search, counting steps, tracking the heart rate etc.
At the bottom on the screen is a black bar that disrupts the circular design of the watch-face. This black bar houses the ambient sensors and though it makes engineering sense, it does not make any design sense at all. This bar looks awkward and takes a lot away from the overall look of the smartwatch.
In terms of design, the size of the watch's dial and the weight of the whole watch matter a lot. In Moto 360's case, the metal-finished watch does not feel too heavy on the wrist. The dial itself does not look too big on the wrist of a man, but is pretty big on the more svelte wrists of women.
Battery life
Moto 360, sadly, does not have all-day battery life if used to its full capabilities. During our review period, the maximum battery life that the smartwatch delivered (with ambient light sensor turned on) was 17 hours, while the average period was in the range of 14 and 15 hours. Turn the ambient light sensor off and you get over a day of battery life. This is decent for a small 320mAh battery, but most people are not used to charging a watch every night and it is a small inconvenience.
Unlike other smartwatches in the market, the Motorola model does not have any microUSB port ruining the design. Instead, it relies of wireless charging (magnetic induction type) to recharge the battery. Just plop the smartwatch on the wireless charger and the battery will start charging instantly.
Do I really need it?
Frankly, no wearable device today is good enough to be a gadget that you cannot live without, Moto 360 included. This smartwatch, at least initially, felt like just a complementary device to the smartphone, making it easier for us to check out what's going on with our smartphone. That's what we thought after using it for a week — it's only a convenience that we can live without.
But surprisingly, once we stopped using the smartwatch, it was actually missed. The convenience it provides just makes everything easier. Taking the phone out of the pocket each time to see who called or messaged felt like a huge chore after a week of checking it out by simply turning the wrist. Similarly, using Google Maps on the small screen is also convenient while travelling. It's just so simple!
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