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Solid build quality and premium materials make the Moto 360 comfortable to wear. The watch-face stands tall and won’t fit beneath the cuffs of business shirts. Woollen knits will hide it comfortably, however.
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Not being able to hide a smartwatch under our button-up shirt would typically be a bother, but the Moto 360 has something most smartwatches lack, and that’s the texture of a premium timepiece. It doesn’t feel big as much as it feels commanding. It felt little different to the watches we wear everyday.
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The numbers put the Moto 360 at 12mm tall and 46mm in diameter. Affixing the leather band puts its weight at 49 grams. Men wearing the smartwatch will find it comfortable, although we’re not too sure all women will find its size appealing.
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The Motorola Moto 360 runs Android Wear, a version of Google’s mobile operating system designed to feed contextual notifications to the face of a smartwatch. It will work with any Android smartphone running 4.3 or later.
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Navigating the smartwatch is handled in a variety of ways: the touchscreen supports simple gestures; there’s support for voice commands, and; the single button on the side returns you to the watch-face.
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Motorola preinstall six different watch-faces on the Moto 360. The face itself comes in two colours: a light stainless steel and a ‘dark’ black stainless steel, while the band is offered in different shades of Horween leather. Motorola touted a metal wristband when the smartwatch was unveiled, which could be made available at a later date.
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Gracing the underside of the Moto 360 is an optical heart rate monitor, which teams with a built-in pedometer and fitness applications to track how productive you are each day. Popping this functionality into an attractive smartwatch negates the need for a separate smartband.
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There’s no reason why exercise enthusiasts can’t rely on the Moto 360, provided it’s matched with worthwhile software applications. The smartwatch’s IP67 certification covers it against freshwater a metre deep for 30 minutes, while its body is protected against the ingress of dust.
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A benefit current timepieces have over smartwatches is long battery life. Motorola executives estimate the smartwatch will last a full day before needing a charge. Motorola has devised an elegant charging methodology by fitting the smartwatch with wireless charging and bundling it with an attractive dock.
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Inside the Moto 360 is a Texas Instruments OMPA 3 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 320 milliamp-hour battery. The Moto 360 works with Android 4.3 smartphones and later over low energy Bluetooth 4.0.
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Motorola executives told Good Gear Guide the Moto 360 will go on sale October in Australia. Pricing for the smartwatch will be announced at a later date.
Motorola Moto 360: A brief hands on
11 Photos
What it's like to wear, how it feels and when it will be in stores
