Gadgetory

the newest entry in the androidwear family comes with a round face and along with a couple other tricks up its sleeve does the Motorola package help it dance circles around the rest well let's find out because it's Josh Bogart from Angela thority what's going on everybody and this is your review of the Moto 360 right off the bat you notice the round face perhaps its most marketed feature now I've made jokes about this watch design being like an Oreo strapped to your wrist but in all honesty that wasn't meant to being really a negative while liking the design of the watch is certainly a matter of taste what I do like is that it's a neutral profile and it's simplistic design actually make it fit with the most amount of styles silver and black versions of the metal construction are available and one button is found on the side where you would expect it to be though it does a little more than wake the device or access the system menu the leather band is pretty thin compared to the body but it is not unattractive though if you wanted to change the band out you might run into some problems the bars that hold Amanda in place are tucked pretty far into the plastic back making it tough to easily find bands that can actually fit in there there has been a lot talk about the small black area on the bottom of the face and how a blemish is the otherwise round face but knowing that the light sensor is found under there helps the backlash somewhat though it does get in the way of that tiny portion of the watch face it isn't something that you won't get used to after a little bit of time whether or not this is the best kind of design for Android wear as a matter of your opinion but I will admit that motos presentation is one that seems to fit the most styles with the screen on or off the simple round design helps the 360 blend it to just about any ensemble and that is probably the most appealing part of the watch at least to me a one point five six inch display comprises the watch face and obviously it's round the Gorilla Glass 3 surface should be able to withstand some punishment and as far as colors go the carbs and information displayed don't look bad at all what strikes me most about this watch is its size by far it is the largest slate that is available for Android wear thus far and does well to display everything in a pretty easy to read fashion touch sensitivity wasn't much of an issue at all though having a round face does pose some challenge any applications that require precision swipes from a corner require special aim after some time you get the hang of it but it has proven to be a nuisance on more than one occasion already now underneath were actually not working with the snapdragon 400 which has been somewhat common with Android wear devices my instead we have a TI OMAP 3 processor that pretty much does still provide the same kind of experience performance on the 360 as such has maintained good speeds throughout never showing signs of slowdown and more importantly not resetting after any usage now beyond the standard and expected performance the hardware is where these smartwatches will truly differentiate themselves and the Moto 360 has more than just a round face to do so IP certification helps to brave the elements so you can basically wear this watch whenever and wherever you want a heart rate monitor is found underneath as well and I have to admit I like the way it looks better than any of the other ones currently available heart activity is presented on an important scale that shows you your upper and lower limits which I really like and it will monitor periodically throughout the day so you know how much strenuous activity you've had or not wireless charging is probably the other marquee feature here and I think it's the best charging implementation yet for Android wear an included dock allows the watch to lie on its side and when detected the watch face will rotate so that the watch continues performing like a clock it addresses one fundamental issue with smartwatches that when they're off your wrist they are far less useful charging doesn't take too long which is another plus and might prove most important for those of you hearing mixed battery reports in my case the battery life on the Moto 360 has been okay the Moto 360 right here on my wrist out of the box was not able to really get past five or six hours without dying completely but after draining the battery a few times and charging it back to full it was finally working for around 12 hours give or take though that still cuts it pretty close to bedtime and that is still a big point docked off for this wearables overall longevity until Android wear goes through some updates the software experience is about the same no matter which wearable you get in the ecosystem currently notifications are shown via cards that you swipe up and down through heart rate monitoring is available if the hardware allows for such step counting is a and some extra functions based upon any applications that you might install basically give you the rest of the gist what I will say is that the cards are actually quite huge in Motorola's presentation on this round face covering up a large amounts of what could be an attractive background but it's just a minor gripe of my own now the main change is the inclusion of a Motorola application that allows you to change the look of the watch faces and add your own biometrics for more accurate health monitoring as the ROG face is round pretty much every face takes on an analogue motif even this digital one that still has the ticker around the rim and speaking of the round faced it does pose some challenges to a pin watch face developers that have yet to change their code to match it it might not be a big deal after some time but right now there are some apps that just don't work well right now when the round faces early days but I'm sure that there will be some updates to the absent question only right now it just looks kind of awkward as always voice commands are the main way of navigating through a lot of the functions in Android wear and the Moto 360 is no exception you can always tap on the screen to get there or just say ok Google and from there you can go straight to saying any of the commands that you want to put in like sending a voice dictated text to people or to start a countdown timer or a number of different applications that will be found on the watch itself but some commands still go straight to the phone rather than being shown on the watch which is still a limitation when it comes to Android wear the Moto 360 is available from pre-order now after being sold out for a while and it comes in at $249 which is a premium price for the kind of quality that you do get in the hardware so it does kind of make sense both of the other current Android wear devices are cheaper with the gear live shaving off $50 and the LG G watch falling in the middle between these two and so there you have it the Moto 360 to some people the Moto 360 might feel like a round face just for the sake of having a round face though there might be some flaws here and there mainly in the battery life that actually just kind of barely gets by a neutral but attractive styling makes this a device that actually toes the line between smart and watch where plenty of other screams smarts and just make you look incredibly geeky not that that's a bad thing it has its flaws and perhaps other manufacturers will better crack the round factor but for now because of its all-around simpler take on the SmartWatch game especially in its charging this just might be the softest entry point into Android wear we have yet as always thank you guys very much for watching and hope you enjoyed this review of the Moto 360 I do think that as far as Android wear goes it's a pretty good SmartWatch especially because it takes some of the tropes of smartwatches and makes them a little bit easier to fathom for example the round face that makes it pretty much able to blend in with a lot of your ensembles but also the charging dock that does make up for some of the abysmal battery life as I mentioned before on the battery section but nonetheless it is available for 249 so you can see if this or the LG G watch and they Samsung gear live which you can see in videos over on the side might be better for you so keep it tuned to your to Android Authority for all of the best coverage including all of our Android wear coverage you can also see a lot of our Aoife coverage which is where I first got to put on the Moto 360 out in the ephah in Berlin and you can see those videos here on our channel where you can drop us some like subscribe if you haven't already and of course head on over to android authority comm at the end of all that because we are your source for all things Android