It has been more than a year since the original Moto 360 was unveiled and its successor enters the smartwatch market that has seen a rapid growth since last year especially considering premium round-faced smartwatches. Motorola released their 2nd generation Moto 360 smartwatch back in September during IFA in Berlin and today the watch has finally arrived in India. Do give it a read on our first impressions of the device below.
Design
The new Moto 360 has changed quite a bit from the design language of its predecessor. The infamous “flat tire,” at the bottom that houses the ambient light sensor is still present. The manufacturer still continues to justify its existence as the location for the sensor which provides the benefit of smaller bezels. The hardware button (the crown) has moved from the 3 o’clock to 2 o’clock position and has a very solid click to it.
The main design additions are the nubs on the top and bottom which makes it very to easy to switch out the watch straps especially with the inclusion of the quick release pins.
Quick Specs
The Moto 360 2nd gen comes in 42mm and 46mm diameter variants the smaller variant sports a 1.37-inch display (360 x 325) while the bigger one features a 1.56-inch panel (360 x 330). Both the variants are made out of aircraft-grade 316L stainless steel. The smaller variant (42mm) packs in a 300mAh battery while the bigger variant (46mm) comes with a 400mAh unit. The new Moto 360 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 quad-core SoC along with an Adreno 305 GPU for graphics coupled with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage.
What all has improved?
The Moto 360 (2nd-gen) is a significant improvement over its predecessor mainly because of the SoC and design.
- The 1st-gen Moto 360 smartwatch was powered by an old TI OMAP processor which had a negative impact on both the watch’s performance and battery life. While the 2nd gen smartwatch is powered by Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor.
- With extra 80mAh battery on the 46mm variant it is safe to assume that this year’s Moto 360 may have a longer battery life than last year’s model.
- The new Moto 360’s bands can be replaced with a single touch – no clunky pin removal necessary.
- The new Moto 360 do get a slight resolution bump from 320*290 (205ppi) to 360*325 (42mm variant) and 360*330 (46mm variant). The smaller model getting the bigger pixel density boost of the two.
- The original Moto 360 had an “ambient mode” that would leave the screen on more often (it appeared to be when it was within a certain range of view) but still not all the time. But for the 2nd Gen smartwatch “ambient mode” means always-on.
Performance (Issues)
We did have a few issues with getting the watch to recognize our voice with the “OK Google” prompt which is hard to believe. We tried many other voice commands on other review units, but the issue seems to be persistent. It failed to register the voice prompt after quite a noticeable number of tries even when we were not in a particularly loud environment. We hope this is a software glitch and can be fixed via an OTA update soon. We are still concerned about the battery backup as Motorola is claiming 2 days of battery backup with ambient mode disabled.
Pricing and Availability
The new Moto 360 will be available in four variants in India – Cognac Leather (for men) in Brown colour and Blush Leather material (for women) in Rose Gold colour will be available at INR 19,999. Both the versions will be available in 42mm designs. The Silver Metal version with 42mm design will be available at INR 22,999 while the Black Metal with 46mm diameter has been priced at INR 23,999.
The smartwatch will be available via Flipkart and Myntra from 7:30pm IST on Tuesday.
Our Impressions
The new Moto 360 2nd gen is definitely a worthy upgrade to its predecessor. The watch is more powerful and good looking than ever. But in 2014 when the original Moto 360 was unveiled it had little or no competition and now the new Moto 360 2nd gen is entering a somewhat crowded market. While the hike in the price point is a bit of a bummer for some, its big size might be a concern but a slightly smaller iteration is available for those who want it. We would still hold our final verdict for the detailed review.
