Moto 360, Motorola’s most eagerly awaited Android Wear device finally went on sale last week only to be quickly sold out. The first batch of Moto 360s came with the option of a gray or black leather band and Motorola promised users who preferred something fancier that they would be launching the device with a steel band soon. True to their word, they have just opened up preorders for a Moto 360 with a white steel or black steel band at prices starting $299.99 which will be shipped in November. The Moto 360 with a steel band costs $50 more than the leather banded model but Verizon is offering free shipping for customers. Motorola has also revealed that the metal band swill be available for sale individually for $79.99 and they will be a very attractive purchase.
The Moto 360
The Moto 360 is an elegant circular watch with an expensive look. It has the looks of a traditional watch with a button on one side, similar to what you would see on a traditional watch only much larger in size. The device comes with a1.56 inch 320×290 round LCD display which is 1.81 in diameter and .43 inch deep. It weights 1.7 ounces with a leather band and has a 320mAh battery with wireless charging. It runs on the OMAP 3 processor, has 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It is IP67 water resistant and is powered by Android Wear. A tiny black crescent at the bottom of the smartwatch holds an ambient light sensor. The Moto 360 comes with 6 watchfaces including a notifications face, a pedometer face, a Google voice face as well as an activities face.
The way the Moto 360 works is by taps and swipes both up and down as well as side to side. The device works best with a companion smartphone, because it then turns from just another fancy digital watch to a smart one. This smartwatch works with any Android phone running 4.3 Jelly Bean and up but obviously expect it to be partial with the Moto X and other Motorolo devices.
Watch the Moto 360 Teaser Video
The phone and the watch communicate via Bluetooth enabling you to receive notifications, alerts, and incoming calls on your smartwatch. Moto 360 relies on Google Now that is installed on your phone for notifications but it also gets to access your email, contacts and calendar. If for any reason, the two devices should disconnect, you will still get alerts but there won’t be any updates. The Moto 360 can also access content that is on your Google + account if you are connected to one on your phone. Apart from accessing your emails, texts, calls, tweets, and weather info, you can also take notes, set reminders, get directions, and perform simple Google searches. Motorola’s impressive voice recognition system appears to be much better than its counterparts at the moment thanks to the 2 in built microphones that ensure your voice is clearly noted.
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The Moto 360 isn’t perfect though. The round display poses difficulties in viewing tiles and images especially in a list and that’s not a surprise considering that Android Wear was designed with rectangles in mind. A heart rate and a pedometer are part of the package but going by reports appear to be buggy.
However, the Moto 360 is easily being called the best Android Wear device at the moment, not just in terms of its looks but also it terms of how it functions. The road to the best Android Wear device is long and winding and the first iteration of the Moto 360 is quite impressive, but only know that things will definitely get better.
If you simply must have a smartwatch with Android Wear, the Moto 360 is probably the most powerful contender. It is available on Verizon at prices starting $249. Check out the links below if you care to order one.
Preorder the Moto 360 with Leather Band $249
Preorder the Moto 360 with Steel Band $299
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