The Moto 360 was launched in 2014. At that time, it was among the first smartwatches to comes with a circular body. The second-gen Moto 360 followed in 2015 having similar features. In the last few years, we have not seen any new watch update from Motorola. The company has finally decided to launch its third smartwatch called the new Moto 360. This New Moto 360 Review will take through the features of the watch.
Today, top companies like Apple and Samsung are heavily investing in the wearable market. Now wonder Motorola wanted to keep up with them. The latest Moto 360 smartwatch returns to the market with a bang. The question is – will be as good as we have come to expect?
Design – New Moto 360 Review
The Moto 360 smartwatch has a replaceable strap attached to its circular body. Its leather strap and stainless steel silver body look and feel premium. The company has said that the product will be able in Black and Rose Gold as well along with an option of silicone strap. While it features a traditional, round face, the Moto 360 seems to have taken minimalism as its theme. You will find a black ring bezel around the screen and another bezel underneath that. This means that the body is larger than the display.
The Moto 360 smartwatch has a 1.2-inch display and feels a bit thick. You might remember that the original Moto 360 had a ‘flat tire’ effect at the bottom. That is no longer seen here. The dimensions of the product are 42.8 x 42.8 x 11.68mm. You will find two controls on the right side of the watch. One is a button that you can assign certain functions to while the other is a rotating crown. You can spin the latter and use it to go through different menus. Although it is thick, it is not heavy. Although Motorola only has select options for straps, they will likely come up with a wide variety in the near future.
Display
The 2019 version of Moto 360 has an AMOLED display with a resolution of 390 x 390 pixels. With regards to the display quality, you can be sure that it is simply great. You can see the pictures with high clarity and rick colours. You will rarely be left trying to understand it. Although the colour details could have been better, it is not that much of an issue. It looks good if you choose a sober face. However, if you want to go with something more colourful, chances are that it would be more visible.
Always-on is a nice feature. This means you will never need to wake your watch up to see the time. This would keep your watch face lit up so that you can see the alerts, etc. This will also save battery in the long run if you keep waking up the screen to a minimum. The always-on screen came across as a bit too dim at times. However, it is better than others in the market.
Fitness Tracking
Of course, the Moto 360 uses Google’s Wear OS which connects it to Google Fit. This is what will help you stay abreast of your workouts and day-to-day activities. Most of the workouts available in Google Fit Workout app is also seen here. These come preloaded on the watch. Activities include running, biking, walking, and strength training. You will also find some uncommon activities include polo, paragliding, and sand running.
Besides Google Fit, Moto 360 has Fit Breathe. It is a meditation app with various breathing exercises. This mindfulness tool is similar to other apps available on other fitness trackers and watches. Although it offers a wide range of tracking tools and activities, it cannot be used during all activities due to its bulky design.
Features And Performance
Moto 360 is powered by Qualcomm’s Wear 3100 chipset. A major benefit of this includes battery life optimizations among others. The watch is fast and easy to navigate. Since this is currently the best Qualcomm chipset in the market, you can be sure it works like a dream. The smartphone has 1GB RAM with 8GB of storage space. Thanks to this, you can comfortably add as many apps you want without thinking twice!
If you are already using Google Android devices, this smartwatch should be highly useful. You can use Google Fit for fitness tracking, Google Pay for NFC payment, Google Maps for navigation, and so much more. If you are certain you are going to be part of Google’s Android ecosystem, there is pretty much nothing that you can’t do here. The Wear OS brings an easier way of accessing notifications. You can also reply by using Google’s recommended suggestions. However, you will not be able to do a lot, only press yes, no, etc.
Battery Life
Coming to Moto 360’s battery life, you will find that it does not last as long as we would expect. Even the original Moto 30 has the same issue. It looks like the developers have not made much improvement in that respect. On a full charge, you can use it for a day comfortably. If you charge it every night, you shouldn’t run into any trouble. However, this usually is not very practical and doesn’t fit in with everyone lives.
You can maybe pull it to a day and a half, but you cannot make it last through two whole days. If that’s how your work is, you might need to go around with a charger all the time. There is a Battery Saver mode that you can switch on. The company claims that your watch can easily last about 3 days in this mode.
Verdict
The Moto 360 is an excellent smartwatch. The fact that it is tied to the Google ecosystem makes it more useful than other options. While its thick body and low battery life may not very attractive, the overall features of the smartwatch make it a worthy choice. It would be better if Motorola chooses to bring back wireless charging that was present in the older models.
