Six Months In: Moto 360
Whether you like it or not, wearables are here to stay. With offerings from Pebble, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Asus, and soon Apple. The market for wearables is already becoming ripe with choice. For Motorola, they jumped on the bandwagon for Android Wear early. They separated themselves from the pack with an industrial, circular design. It was the Android Wear device to own. Six months have come and gone for Android Wear and a lot has changed. An update with added functionality and tons of new devices. Six months later, is the Moto 360 still worth it?
Be sure to check out my initial Moto 360 Review right here:
The Moto 360 has a fantastic modern, technological design mixed with a classical round look of non smartwatches. The chamfered glass that makes up the circular display is still the gorgeous eye catcher that it was at launch. I get asked often what watch I own, people notice it. The Moto 360 is eye catching, it simply makes a statement on your wrist. The display isn’t actually wholly circular, if you did not know. Honestly, critics can bash the Moto 360 for it’s not entirely circular display all they want. I have yet to find issue with it. I barely notice the small black bar that rests at the bottom of the glass.
The display is also great in all lighting conditions. The Moto 360 has been updated multiple times throughout the wearables life. One of the issues that was addressed was outdoor visibility. The ambient sensor has improved the visibility tremendously in daylight.
The Moto 360 is a sturdy device, too. I tend to run into things more than I will admit here. My Moto 360 has been closed in doors, smacked against walls, dragged past doorframes, dropped, and mistreated. There is not a single scratch on the face or side of the device. Unfortunately, the back of the device does have a crack that the Moto 360 has been plagued with. But if we’re being honest, I just noticed it. I don’t know how long it has been there and I don’t know what exactly caused it(I still have the stock band on). It hasn’t changed my use of the Moto 360 one bit.
The heart rate monitor is quite hit or miss in my use. I never expected it to be any good and that still remains true.
The Moto 360 has also seen quite the software update since it’s release. The Moto 360 shipped with Android 4.4W, the Kit Kat variant of Android Wear. Since launch, Google has been busy Lollipopping everything. The Moto 360 has since seen the Android 5.0 update for Android Wear. Unfortunately it has not all been sweet.
In the beginning of the Android 5.0 update, I noticed some battery life consistency issues. Those quickly disappeared though and battery life has returned to normal, which is a great thing. When paired with my Nexus 6 which runs 5.0 Lollipop, some connectivity issues have persisted. I have found myself having to restart or even reset my watch on multiple occasions due to connectivity issues. It is quite the hassle to have to reset the Moto 360 every couple of days. I am hopeful Motorola is working on a fix, but until then I will be waiting impatiently.
The Lollipop update is not all bad, by any means. Lollipop for Android Wear brought tons of new customization features. I have the lukewarmly received notification options. I am now able to toggle All, Priority, and No notifications for my watch. Theater Mode is a new addition that simply turns off the display until you press the side button to wake it. In addition to the ambient light detection improvements. Android Wear 5.0 also has a “Sunlight Mode” which does exactly what you expect. It cranks up the brightness all the way.
There are now a large number of watch faces available on Android Wear in the Play Store. For the first time since launch, you can now head to the Play Store and install new watch faces. Giving you more control over how your watch will look. There are plenty of watchfaces available from Motorola, Google, and now third party developers. Luckily, if you want to declutter your watch, you can choose to hide watch faces from the watch itself from within the Android Wear app. You are also able to customize the colors or options of the watch further in the Android Wear or Moto Connect app for the Moto 360.
Another important part of the entire smartwatch concept is battery life. The Moto 360 launched with marginal battery life. Soon after launch, an update was pushed that drastically improved battery life. With the 5.0 update for Android Wear, battery life is still great(minus the aforementioned hiccups). A smartwatch needs to last a minimum 24 hours on a charge, regardless of usage. The Moto 360 does this and more. On an average day after 16 hours of use, my Moto 360 will be docked with roughly 30–40% battery remaining. The Moto 360 has great battery life with Lollipop.
The Moto 360 is still my smartwatch of choice. I had intentions of reviewing multiple other smartwatches such as the Asus Zenwatch and LG G Watch R. But I chose as a consumer to stick with the Moto 360. It fits my needs perfectly, it’s attractive, and has great battery life. I have no need to look any further than the Moto 360. It’s simply fantastic through and through. Motorola had an incredible 2014. The 2014 Moto X was the Android device for almost everyone, the Nexus 6 was the premium Nexus we’ve all been waiting for, the Moto G is the best budget phone ever, and the Moto 360 is a fantastic wearable. Motorola has a full head of steam and does not seem to be slowing down any time soon.
