Gadgetory

smartwatches have a nasty reputation for looking like computers strapped to your wrist the last years moto 360 bucked that trend with a round face and customizable design that was much better looking than anything that came before it but Motorola SmartWatch was far from perfect yet inconsistent performance disappointing battery life and a profile that was still too large for many wrists now Motorola has launched a second generation Moto 360 it comes in more colors smaller sizes and has the ability to work with both Android and the iPhone as Motorola crack the SmartWatch code the most significant thing about the new Moto 360 which starts at $299 and goes all the way up to four hundred and twenty nine dollars is that it's no longer one size fits all experience you can get it in large or small men's or women's complete with a variety of metal finishes and custom straps all told Motorola says there are 300 different options to choose from making the Moto 360 one of the most personalized smartwatches you can buy the smaller version which is what I've been testing is a much more comfortable and better proportioned watch than last year's model it has a 42 millimeter instead of 46 millimeter face and the more traditional strap lugs look a lot nicer than last year's odds strap mounts those lugs make it much easier to change straps too and the included straps have quick-release pins to do just that the whole package sits much nicer on my wrist and looks more like a traditional wrist watch than ever before for the actual smart parts of the watch motorola has upgraded the processor battery life and display making this year's moto 360 perform much better than last year's performance is much more reliable and responsive the LCD displays ever so slightly sharper and battery life is greatly improved I've yet to end the day with less than 30 percent battery even with the ambient mode on that always displays the time I still have to charge the battery every night but it's far better than dying before my day is even over the new moto 360 still runs Android wear which still feels a bit like a work in progress it's best used for quickly checking notifications without having to pull your phone at your pocket and it can do a few things like send messages and perform Google searches by voice but it often takes more taps in time to get to where I want to go with Android wear and I can't for the life of me understand why can clear all of my notifications in one step Motorola's introduced a couple of new watch faces this time complete with tappa bewitch 'it's that display information such as step count weather or battery life that makes it easy to quickly see a forecast or upcoming appointments short cutting around some of android wares deficiencies motorola has also greatly improved the fitness tracking on the Moto 360 but it's still not up to pace with the Apple watch speaking of Apple products you can actually use the Moto 360 with an iPhone now if you want but it's not something I'd really recommend functionality on the iPhone is very limited compared to Android and the Apple watch provides a much better experience for iPhone users it shouldn't come as a surprise that something called the Android wear works best on the Android platform overall the new Moto 360 is much better than the original it's got better looks better ergonomics better performance and better battery life and nearly $300 to start it costs a bit more than last year's watch did when it launched that doesn't seem like a huge difference especially for a better device but $300 or more still feels like a bit much to ask given what Android wear is actually capable of right now will the new moto 360 convert the SmartWatch skeptics probably not a lot of that responsibility rests on the shoulders of Google and the Android wear platform but that doesn't change the fact that it's a good-looking and well-functioning SmartWatch that brings us a little bit closer to the wearable dream