Raise A Toast To The Motorola Moto 360 2

One of the few real-world smartwatches gets an upgrade and becomes chivalrous

The Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch turned a lot of heads when it was first launched way back in 2014. It was the first traditional looking smartwatch, extremely understated in its appearance and its build quality and attention to detail was such that it convinced a lot of people (previously disillusioned by the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Gear) that a smartwatch could be a viable replacement for a traditional wristwatch.

Motorola is planning to launch the successor to the 360 on the 8th of September, and are promising their customers a lot more features than what the predecessor offered. However, the Moto 360 2 (as it called), being an Android smartwatch, works on the same concept of Android Wear that disappointed users who found it less than practical use in daily lives.

The Moto 360 2 retains the stainless steel body for it’s premium look and durability, and is of a slimmer design (11.44mm) than its forerunner making it look sleek and classy.

Learning from Apple, this time around, Motorola has kept the gender factor in mind and designed products differently for men and women. (Are LG and Alcatel listening?)

There are two variants for men — one is a 46mm design and the other is a slightly smaller 42mm design. Women however, have just a single model of 42mm — this ain’t gender bias!
Chip-Monks believes Motorola would’ve been restricted by the fact that smaller sizes would further compromise the already-frugal real estate on the display. Apple does have a 38mm variant for their Apple Watch, however their squarish design inherently allows more screen area.

This time around, Motorola’s biggest focus while designing the new wearable has been personalisation. While the former device offered its users only a few alternatives in terms of case and band colors, the new avatar lets the user choose from a variety of options — Motorola claims that Moto 360 2 will be available in 300 different case and band combinations!

There are some preconfigured builds which are available in partner websites and retail stores, but extremely personalised configurations, can be created via the Moto Maker website.

Specifications… the Moto 360 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 512 MB RAM (which is quite enough, thank you). The device has an onboard storage of 4 GB, and the backlit LCD has a Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

Connectivity wise, the Moto 360 2 has Bluetooth 4.0 LE and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.

Interestingly, to dispel the misnomer, the Moto 360 2 is not restricted for use with Motorola’s phones alone. Like the original Moto 360, the successor too works with any Android phone (Android 4.3 JellyBean or later) as well as any iPhone (using iOS 8.2 or later).

The brand-new Moto 360 2 will offer three basic variants for purchase — the Sport model (£220), Rose Gold, (£240) and the Cognac Leather (£270).

The devices will be made available for pre-order on the official Moto Maker website, once it launches in the market on the 8th of September.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.