Smartwatch review Motorola Moto 360 on clean Android

The watch Motorola 360 (third generation) was released at the end of 2019. In fact, the smartwatch is being developed by the Canadian company eBuyNow in collaboration with Motorola.

Contents of delivery

The smartwatch comes in a round box. Included:

  • two detachable straps (leather and silicone) with visually pleasing fluted waves;
  • wired magnetic charger;
  • actually the watch itself.

No wireless charging, i.e. you cannot charge from other devices.

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Autonomy

The battery life is the main disadvantage of the Moto 360. The built-in 355 mAh battery, with all functions activated, will last a maximum of 15 hours.

This is not an option when the watch can be worn for days, sleeping with it (tracking sleep phases and using a smart alarm clock).

This disadvantage is partially eliminated by fast charging. In 30 minutes my device was charged by 63%. It takes 60 minutes to fully charge.

Smartwatch charging

The same Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch takes about 2 hours to charge.

The Moto 360 watch is more of a watch for those who do not like to wear any gadgets at all when they are at home.

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Design

The watch looks great visually. The body is made of steel, the metal surfaces are frayed, except for the smooth ring around the display. Nothing turns.

The watch has one size – 43 mm. Available in 3 colors: silver, black and rose gold.

Moto 360 watches

On the officer. the website says that the silver and rose gold models have been sprayed with vapor phase condensation (PVD). This coating reduces the number of scratches appearing on the case.

Black model with a diamond-like (DLC) coating. It is resistant to salts, alkalis, acids and most organic solvents.

The price tag for all models is the same regardless of the color and finish of the case.

The lower part of the watch is plastic, it is almost invisible from the side. Plus visually reduces the thickness of the watch by a couple of millimeters. The heart rate sensor is slightly bulging. There are no marks on the hand after wearing.

The bottom of the clock

The thickness of the watch is rather big – 12 mm, although by the standards of smart-watches this is normal.

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Exploitation

The watch case has 2 mechanical buttons. The upper one is similar to the digital crown on Apple Watch – it is used in scrolling through lists and menus. To prevent the finger from slipping, serifs are applied to the surface.

It's tactile to rotate something on the clock. Plus it is convenient when doing sports, for example, changing the screen. But there is one nuance in Moto 360 – there is no tactile feedback, i.e. you don’t know which menu item you left off if you don’t look at the clock. The Apple Watch uses a vibration motor, while the Galaxy Watch uses a snap baseel. Motorola failed in this regard.

The second button on the watch launches the application selected in the settings from anywhere in the operating system. An exception, some applications like sports – there this button pauses the workout. In fact, you will rarely use this button, I use it for Google Pay.

There are 2 noise canceling microphones on the Moto 360 body. Speech in noisy rooms is clearly defined. But there is no dynamic. tactile feedback occurs through a simple one-stage vibration.

Two microphones

The watch is kept in 3 atmospheres, i.e. you can take a shower with them, but swimming is not recommended. But she Motorola writes about her own test under water, and the watch withstood 10,000 strokes, they were even dipped into salt water. A one-year watch warranty covers cases of moisture ingress (rarely does a brand cover a drowned man's warranty).

In fact, you will not be able to use the watch for training in the pool. since the Fit app is not the same workout as swimming.

The Moto 360 fits classic 20mm watch straps. Complete ones are equipped with quick-release clamps. The clasps on the native straps are metal.

Watch strap

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Screen

Amoled matrix of 1.2 inches gives a high-quality picture with a high density of pixels per inch (327 ppi). In working order, the mesh, if visible, is quite a bit.

I always use the Always on Display function. A handy thing for a smart watch, so as not to constantly raise your wrist to find out the time.

Lovers of light dials will immediately notice the wide 3 mm bezels. Without that, the small display visually seems even smaller with them. So black dials are preferable – at least the bezel is not visible on them.

Wide bezels

The watch is equipped with a light sensor and an auto brightness mechanism. In most situations, the brightness is not enough. There is no brightness setting in the settings when auto brightness is on, like on smartphones.

Ideally, turn off auto brightness and set it manually to the second or third division. The matrix has a serious margin of brightness.

If you sleep with a watch with medium brightness and the Always on Display option turned on, the dial shines very brightly, and this is not very pleasant during sleep. It is clear that with auto brightness, the developers tried to preserve the already small autonomy of work.

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Performance

I was pleased with the speed and smoothness of the operating system. Movement through the system menus is accompanied by pleasant animation with a large number of frames, sometimes “gags” are encountered.

Responsible for performance is the Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor (2018 processor). In the summer of 2020, Snapdragon revealed the new 4100 and 4100+.

The Moto 360 has 1GB of RAM.

For wireless modules: Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi, GPS and Glonass, no support for eSIM (electronic sim card), NFC. There is a security system, if you take off your watch, you will need to re-enter the password.

In fact, the watch has a clean Android and a minimum of standard applications. And this is rather a disadvantage, tk. out of the box Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch comes a lot of really useful software. And you can install new applications in the watch through the Play Market on the watch itself (a smartphone or tablet, or PC will not work), and

There are many full-fledged apps on Wear OS on Google Play. Those. after installation, the application works autonomously, without the participation of a smartphone and the installed program there.

To install third-party software, 8 GB of internal memory is available. To download music to your watch from a PC or smartphone – get ready for difficulties. I managed to do this after 1 hour of deliberations with the interface of the gadget and the native application for Wear OS.

For reference, you can upload music via FTP to the Galaxy Watch. In the browser, you need to enter the address displayed on the watch, and you can upload music from your PC.

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Wear OS interface

The control point is located in the upper part. There is:

Control point

  • button for quick access to settings;
  • adjusting the brightness (if auto brightness is disabled) and turning on the power saving mode when the watch does not respond to lifting the wrist, plus to see the time, you will have to press the power button. To exit the power saving mode, you must hold down the power button for a long time until the watch restarts;
  • Lantern;
  • search for a smartphone connected to the watch;
  • theater mode will turn off all incoming notifications and prevent the screen from constantly lighting up when you lift your wrist;
  • Do not disturb mode, which will disable incoming notifications;
  • airplane mode;
  • if you have activated the Google Pay payment system, the corresponding icon will also appear here.

Even in the control room below there is a status line: charge level, on Bluetooth.

Functions for swiping on the home screen:

  • swipe down – notification center. You can view and delete notifications (when paired with iPhone view only, no deletion);
  • swipe right – voice assistant and its basic suggestions based on what you usually do;
  • swipe to the left – cards that can be changed and new screens of various applications can be added (long press on the screen);

To change the watch face, you need to make a long hold on the screen and select another watch face. A large number of both paid and free are available on Google Play. But third-party watch faces are not as coolly customizable as standard ones.

Moto360 dial

By clicking on the crown, you will open a menu with all applications. At the top are those that you recently launched, and below are all installed programs. The standard ones include the following: alarm clock, find a smartphone, contacts, reminders, translator (WiFi needed), settings, news aggregator, weather, Fit pulse, stopwatch, timer, Fit workouts, alarm clock, flashlight, Google Fit, breath, bring (list of useful business and shopping), google play market.

The following options are available in the general settings:

  • screen customization: lock the touch screen, keep the screen on, select the font size;
  • Apps and notifications: View the entire list of apps and incoming notifications;
  • gestures: wrist gestures. I rarely use gestures myself;
  • connections: NFC, Bluetooth, WiFi, airplane mode.
  • personalization: lock the screen and set a security password; customize the side button on the watch to launch your favorite application;
  • system settings: battery charge, date and time, factory reset, system information.

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Synchronization with Android smartphone (unlike iPhone)

The main advantage of the combination of this watch and any Android device is that, unlike iPhone, you can respond to incoming messages in different ways: with a template or your own text input option (voice, emoticons, keyboard).

Reply to notification

When you call from a smartphone, when the subscriber answers your call, the watch vibrates (a useful thing so as not to keep the smartphone constantly at your head).

The branded Wear OS app for Android does not differ much from what the app on iOS offers. The dials are stylized differently here.

Branded application for Android

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Price and disadvantages

On the officer. the site constantly carries out promotions for this Moto 360 watch, and their price fluctuates around $ 200 (15,000 rubles)

Non-promotional price $ 300. For this price, you shouldn't even consider buying a watch. There are much more functional smartwatches on the market for less money.

The main disadvantages of the watch:

  • autonomy (up to 15 hours of work),
  • there are not many workouts for sports,
  • you cannot answer an incoming call without connecting a wireless headset. there is no dynamics in the watch.

Wear OS itself is pretty minimalistic and there are very few standard apps that cover even basic functions. All this needs to be looked for somewhere, to climb the forums. Third party developers are not interested in developing their products for this operating system.

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