Moto 360 Review

It's finally here, the watch we've all been waiting for...no, not that one. The Moto 360 is one of the most beautiful watches an Android user can wear today. It's (almost) perfectly round display is a sight to behold and is the only display legible in plain sunlight. But how does it stack with the competition?

The bulk of this post is going to be hardware as I have already covered android wear (here). With that being said I'm going to touch on how android wear adapts to a round display. So with all those bases covered, let's get into it.

Hardware

As I noted above, the hardware is absolutely gorgeous, the materials used top notch. It has a button to the right that acts as a sleep/wake button for the watch's display, and will take you to the settings if you long press it. The display has little to no bezel and it makes for a very elegant look. 

Now let's talk about what makes this thing tick. Inside is an Texas Instruments OMAP 3 (and I'll tell you why this matters later on) processor running the show. It has a (not exactly round) 1.56" backlit LCD IPS 320 x 290 display, which as I mentioned is visible even in direct sunlight. Daylight legibility is a big deal when no other watch on the market can compete. The leather band is comfortable and the round watch doesn't dig into your wrist.

Let's talk about the battery life on this little guy, the 360 is equipped with a 320 mAh battery. This will last you about a day with the screen off (having it turn on when you check the time), or less if you have the display on all day. This may seem disappointing if you have used any of the competing android wear devices, which last about a day with the screen always on. This poor battery life performance can be attributed to Motorola's choice to go with its older and less efficient TI OMAP processor. Due to its age it isn't as energy efficient or as speedy as its counterparts in other android wear devices, which is a bit of a letdown.

One thing of note is that the 360 charges wirelessly, no... not with pins or contacts, wirelessly like smartphones do. In fact it uses the same charging standard as some modern smartphones known as "qi". This paired with it's handsome charging cradle makes for an awesome bedside clock and the best execution of charging an android wear device to date.

Software

I'll keep it short, wear looks like it was made with rectangular screens in mind. This doesn't mean your experience with the 360 will not be good, I prefer the 360 over anything else out there with wear on it. Android wear simply looks like it wasn't designed with a round display reference. It looks spectacular on the Moto 360's display, my point is that it has a good amount of what feels like dead space on the cards (examples shown below) that would not be present on a rectangular device. This doesn't negatively affect its ability to display information, it's just something you notice and move on.

Wrap Up

I never thought I could feel this excited about a watch until Motorola announced it. I thought I was going to be let down and that my expectations were too high, and they weren't. The 360 is the Android wear device to get if you are in the market, is it perfect? No, it is an excellent device and bar a decision from Motorola, as close as any manufacturer has come to it. When Motorola releases the next generation 360 (if it ever does) that device will have me as excited as the 360 I have around my wrist today.