Gadgetory

as the entire SmartWatch market continues to go round moto tries to take its original design and inject some new features into it but is it enough to really upgrade from the original moto 360 well it's Java gar from Android authority what's going on everybody and this is a full review of the Moto 360 second generation now quick disclaimer I did design the Moto 360 that I'm using for this review so the fact that I made it look the way that I wanted to could be contributing to the fact that I think this is actually a really great-looking SmartWatch speaking factually however the Moto 360 now has a new body to it it's no longer just an Oreo that's sitting on your wrist now there are nubs on the top and bottom that make replacing the watch strap incredibly easy but the thing about those nubs also is that they're really not all that shy about even being there obviously with an Android wear SmartWatch you're going to have a large body and this is just over 11 millimeters in its size and this particular one is a 46 millimeter body which is kind of large for a lot of people out there but luckily there is a 42 millimeter variety available for anyone with smaller wrists but overall if you're going to have a big body on a device then the other elements surrounding it should probably reflect that and that's exactly what those nubs do with the rigid lines that do fit in very well with the rigidity of the overall body construction Gorilla Glass 3 covers the front and you have a button at the 2 o'clock position with the Moto logo overall the thing that I liked the most about the moto 360 2nd generation is that it really isn't all that shy about its appearance yes you're going to get a big SmartWatch here and everything about this watch pretty much screams that particular sentiment this entire watch looks very industrial and Moto has done a good job of basically owning the fact that well when you buy a Moto 360 in 46 millimeters it's going to be a large device no matter which way you put it as we get into the display you guys already see it on the bottom there the flat tire yes there are a lot of people out there who really dislike the flat tire but I happen to think that it is actually a defining trait of a Moto SmartWatch after all Moto has tried to explain it by saying that the flat tire on the bottom here is for the ambient light sensor which is true but that it also allows for the entire screen to have a smaller bezel that being said however 360 by 360 total resolution is available in the screen right here in a LCD construction now this particular screen does look quite nice in pretty much every situation and the ambient light sensor makes it pretty easy for it to dim down in darker situations that said even at slowest setting it can be enough to annoy people who are right next to you so you are probably going to have to provide some inputs on turning on the theater mode or just turning down or turning off the screen in general that said outside it is still very easy to view and with the ambient light sensor once again it will brighten up if the conditions are a little bit too hard for you to read what is already a pretty good screen performance on the second generation moto 360 is about where you would expect it to be because you get the de facto performance package underneath the snapdragon 400 along with half a gigabyte of RAM and four gigabytes of on-board storage if you do want to move some media on to it but really going through all of the different cards that Google now suggestions your notifications and even the occasional application if you have one installed alongside your smartphone application that is pretty much the standard experience I have had no problems on here and even though there were very tiny moments of stutter on here they were very far and few between and not enough for us to think that performance was lagging on the Moto 360 where we did have some issues was in voice recognition which is a bit uncharacteristic of a company like Motorola that said the Moto 360 second generation even in normal environments had some trouble registering the ok Google sound we had to say it a few extra times just to finally get the watch to recognize it and start taking our general voice command and even though this is mostly excusable it did happen a few more times so we had to mention it in this review when it comes to hardware we do have the first usual component to an Android wear SmartWatch and that would be the heart rate sensor on the back which performs pretty much as well as it should that said when it comes to fitness you do have the Moto body application which has to also be installed on your smartphone and it will be able to track your calories burn via the steps that you've taken usually these numbers are pretty arbitrary but at least it gives you a small snapshot into just how much you are actually moving throughout the day and despite the ip67 rating because of the leather band that you may or may not be getting with the Moto 360 you're probably going to be taking this watch off before you get into any water-based situations like taking a shower anyway so even though it is nice that a splash is not going to make it malfunction you're also not going to be wearing it into a pool for example any time soon and we also already mentioned the issues with voice recognition but we do have to mention that the microphone is available on the bottom left of it for the most part if we thought we had some trouble getting ok Google to really register on here we just have to talk directly into that area and it did happen to work a little bit better and finally in battery we do have to mention the great wireless charging solution that returns from the original moto 360 it's a doc and you are able to just live the watch on its side right onto it and then you'll be able to charge in about an hour and a half from 0 to 100 but the best part about it is that while it's charging the 400 milli amp hour unit underneath you will also get a bedside clock because it goes into a landscape mode making the watch actually useful even when it's not on your wrist but in battery life it is still a pretty standard affair you're going to be charging the Moto 360 pretty much nightly and you're not going to get much more than a day and a half if at that turning off the always screen on function in the settings does help a little bit but you're still not going to get the kind of longevity that we hope smartwatches can get pretty soon and finally in software you get Android wear which is pretty much what you would expect from any other Android wear device you go through all of the different cards and suggestions and notifications with some control available when you swipe over to the side now responding to messages using your voice is still really awesome and that is a core function of Google on your wrist and then you also have a number of applications that might be installed alongside the ones that are available in your smartphone moto also tries to put in some of its own flavor including a number of watch faces and you can even construct one yourself which is a nice extra layer of customization to the Moto 360 2nd gen the base model for the Moto 360 second-generation comes in at 299 dollars without the additions like the patterned bezel for 20 dollars the gold body for $30 and metal bands for 50 now while the price hike can be a bit of a bummer changes in the overall design of the Moto 360 and the Moto maker experience especially keep the watch from feeling like a forced acceptance because you are responsible for how it turns out and that is really important because underneath the surface you get pretty much Android wear once again without anymore injections by motorola so if the shell of what Android wear is is the most important part of what is being presented then the Moto 360 definitely deserves to be up there as one of the best ones because you make it look the way you want as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the Moto 360 second-generation it is a great SmartWatch and I personally love the look of it but that's also because I designed it myself so keep it tuned to Android 34 even more about the Moto 360 and other smartwatches in the Android wear market and even beyond you can watch all of the content from my colleagues in Android and then download the Android authority app over in the corner up there so that you can stay tuned with all of our content from written reviews to comparisons to our forums to even our podcast and then once you're done with that stick around because we are your source for all things Android