Moto 360 Gen 2 Short Review

[PereDroid]

Keep in mind this is coming from an early adopter of Android Wear. I started with one of the first: the LG G Watch. So of course I compared everything on this to the G Watch (which I have since given away to a family member).

PROS:

• The Screen is GORGEOUS and smooth.
• I love having a crown on it to wake\sleep the screen and to turn it ON. Turning on the G Watch pretty much requires being docked.
• Speaking of the dock, it's really great. Nothing to line up (like the G) just drop it and *boom it becomes your nightstand clock (Phone retired for that function).
• I like the simple black band that came with it (though I'll never understand all the holes... no human could wear this on the very first hole). And the gold bezel I added really adds a touch of class.
• The heart rate monitor if you're into that is cool, I suppose. I'm not into it. Just one more thing to drain the battery. Which brings me to...

CONS:

• There's just no nice way to say it. The battery flat out sucks. Forget running it ALL day at max brightness. Now, we are talking LONG day here but...off the charger at 7:30, it died on me by midnight. I don't use WiFi. But forget using that all day. It failed a full (long day) on me twice now. G Watch? NOT ONCE.
• I'm really neutral on the flat tire. It doesn't bother me but... get rid of the damn ambient light sensor already. I don't want that. It's the size of a pin...why does it need that much space?
• And finally... the big one. I can deal with these cons. NBD, really. But this one? A picture speaks 1,000 words:

(See the sensor)
I've had this for A MONTH.
Now... granted...these are impossible to see when the watch is on. Not kidding.
Even in ambient. I mean IMPOSSIBLE. You wouldn't believe how hard they were to photograph (had to use my DSLR). But catch the light the right way and look very hard and you can see most of them. That's just unacceptable to me for a $300+ watch.
Definitely needs a screen protector.

Want to see what my G Watch looked like after a year?
1st Scratch

G Watch new: $229 (I paid $99)
360 V2: $299 to start...

 

[Mustang02]

7:30 to midnight is great battery life. I barely made 6am till 5pm.

The scratch is crazy. How'd you get that??

 

[PereDroid]

You have a Gen1, right?
Sounds like you got s bad one. 13 hours is crazy.
I should edit my post, I don't mean it cannot go one of my long days. It's gone approximately 20 of them and only failed me on 2. It will go a full "long day" depending in usage I suppose.

TapaTurboII

 

[Sajo]

Thanks for the review Pere! [emoji106]

 

[PereDroid]

Oh and that wasn't one scratch Mustang. It's many.

TapaTurboII

 

[kodiak799]

I've had the Moto Sport for a little over a week. Battery life leaves something to be desired, but turning off the always-on "e-ink"(?) sort of display helps a ton. Can't leave GPS on, though, as it does drain a lot.

Otherwise, mehhh. Been lazy so haven't gotten to it in the gym yet, but I really like the potential of a few apps. I have loaded my tunes on it, and I was REALLY impressed with the sound over bluetooth.

I don't care for the rubber strap. Makes sense for fitness, but it's not the easiest thing to put on.

I have some annoying notifications coming from apps I need to filter or remove (which that's an Androidwear flaw - I may want an app on my phone but not the watch). I haven't gotten the hang of reading notifications on my phone, and I don't like the experience even when I get it right.

The heart rate monitor, as with pretty much all optical HRM's, is garbage for serious training. Sitting resting my rate is usually +/- 10, which is terrible accuracy in ideal conditions. I think many readings over many days is probably useful for knowing where you usually are at rest, sleeping or on a run. But if trying to monitor your HR during a run optical sensors clearly don't cut it, at least not yet.

Also have to find some better watch faces. I like the one I'm using well enough, but I want more options to assign shortcuts. Lack of NFC is maybe a major shortcoming as that's critical to the whole "leave phone/wallet/keys" at home thing.


In summary, I think it's pretty decent for fitness IF you want to track sets at the gym. For running go with a running watch. I could care less about synced notifications - buy a real watch if telling time/fashion is your thing.

 

[Mustang02]

You have a Gen1, right?
Sounds like you got s bad one. 13 hours is crazy.
I should edit my post, I don't mean it cannot go one of my long days. It's gone approximately 20 of them and only failed me on 2. It will go a full "long day" depending in usage I suppose.

TapaTurboII

Yep gen 1. I'll have to recheck it.

Oh and that wasn't one scratch Mustang. It's many.

TapaTurboII

I'd be livid.

 

[PereDroid]

I want my G Watch back...

TapaTurboII

 

[Sajo]

I want my G Watch back...
View attachment 75991

TapaTurboII

Your reviews have convinced me to keep my G Watch for a while longer....there is nothing it can't do that I want it to do. Maybe later this year I will look into a new one, but probably not a 360.

 

[PereDroid]

I'm really floored by this today. The other days it died early I had used it a lot. Today...I barely touched it...

TapaTurboII

 

[Sajo]

That's a bummer....and that's coming from a Moto fan. All smart watches need to get through at least a 16-18 hour day...from off the charger to back on the charger. No one wants to charge their watch during the day, it should last all day at a minimum.

 

[PereDroid]

It does charge pretty quick. This was with brightness set to auto. Thank god for that sensor, right?
I'll keep it at 3 for awhile and see what happens.

TapaTurboII

 

[Mustang02]

This is why I didn't buy the sport. With horrible battery from my og 360, I figured they didn't touch the battery.

 

[PereDroid]

Gen 1: 320 mah
Gen 2: 400 mah
Of course they also added a quad core, vs a single. Do we really need a 4 core watch?

TapaTurboII

 

[CaptainSS]

Thank you for the candid review. I was heading to Best Buy and thought, "ehh maybe I need to check the forum first". Sounds to me they aren't quite ready for prime time. Maybe my Omega is still safe for the time being.