How To Add W02 Watchface To Moto360

Still our favourite Android Wear device, but the Moto 360 isn't the perfect smartwatch

The Motorola Moto 360 was in one case ane of the best smartwatches around. In fact, information technology was the only circular one y'all could go, which really made it stand out from the crowd. But you don't want one now.

The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, the chipset it uses – the TI OMAP iii – is pretty long in the tooth at present, given it was already 2-years-old at the Moto 360's 2014 release. Smartwatches aren't that intensive in terms of power requirements, but the trouble is that this bottleneck withal made information technology i of only a handful of smartwatches non to get Android Wearable ii.0 or the subsequent switch to Wear Os.

That's fine in terms of basic functionality, and if you lot already accept one you'll probably withal exist chugging forth happily. Only if you're buying today, it's one to avoid. In fact, even getting the Moto 360 2 would probably exist a error. Truthful, information technology's meliorate in every fashion, but hereafter back up looks extremely dicey given the company has confirmed it's no longer in the smartwatch game.

In other words, there's a reason you may well run into it cheap, and it's still probably not worth buying. Consider our listing of other cheap smartwatches instead.

Tom's original review continues below

The Moto 360 has long been the affiche child for Google'southward Android Wear operating system. Its sleek design and eye-catching round screen were calorie-free years ahead of the pedestrian LG 1000 Watch and Samsung Gear Live, and so many customers were content to wait until it launched to get their first experience with wearable technology. That time has now arrived, and while the Moto 360 is certainly a beautiful thing, information technology's non quite the leap frontward nosotros were hoping for – although Google is every bit much to arraign for the 360's failings as Motorola.

Moto 360 design

Every bit an object, the Moto 360 is a thing of beauty. Machined from stainless steel in a selection of black or silver colours for the basic model, with a crown on one side and no ports, sockets or inputs whatsoever, it'south the most minimal smartwatch around, and that circular screen is undoubtedly heart-catching. Yes, it'south chunkier than a normal sentinel, just it certainly isn't fat: you lot'll easily be able to slip it out from underneath a shirt sleeve. It doesn't look oversized on larger wrists, merely can look huge on smaller ones; the Apple Spotter will be available in two sizes to fix this, whereas Motorola has gone for a one-size-fits-all arroyo.

You can customise the look of your Moto 360 with Motorola'due south Moto Maker service equally well. Previously, the service was only available to those buying a 2nd Gen Moto X smartphone, but now Motorola's brought it over to the Moto 360. Here, you can customise the case stop, the strap and pre-load your device with a particular picket face. Unsurprisingly, some additions cost a little extra - nigh notably the £50 lite gold end and the various £xxx metal watch straps - but fifty-fifty a fully-kitted out model volition however toll less than the cheapest plastic Apple Lookout man.

Motorola has been able to ditch the ports or charging terminals found on other smartwatches by adding Qi wireless charging to the Moto 360. The charging dock doubles as a display stand for the watch, letting you encounter the time while y'all're refilling information technology with juice, only you'll have to bring the stand up with y'all to keep the scout topped up when travelling – assuming you lot don't accept access to another Qi charging plate.

The scout itself is IP67 water resistant, pregnant it won't break if you get stuck in a rain shower, although it remains to be seen how the leather strap volition cope when moisture. We've been caught out in the rain a few times while wearing it, and and then far information technology has maintained its colouring, but it's likewise beginning to look a petty creased and wrinkled equally with any leather. It's a shame Motorola didn't manage to get the stainless steel band out in time for launch (although these are now available via the Moto Maker), but nosotros like the leather strap nonetheless. The Horween leather, available in black and grey to lucifer the black and silver sentinel finishes, is comfy, has plenty of aligning holes for different-sized wrists and, about importantly, doesn't distract attention away from the watch itself. You tin can bandy the band out for some other, but it's a fiddly process and because of the watch'southward round shape not all bands will sit flush.

Moto 360 brandish

The visually stunning circular screen nearly goes edge-to-edge across the entire watch face. Information technology has a 320x290 resolution, which is sharp plenty to brand text easy to read at arm'southward length, and even at the lowest effulgence the display is perfectly legible in directly sunlight. Colours aren't as pronounced every bit they are on the OLED screens Samsung uses in its wearables, but images nonetheless have enough of dial when yous turn the brightness up. We especially like the raised glass, which has bevelled edges that grab the light beautifully, and Corning'southward Gorilla Glass 3 should help foreclose scratches or scrapes. It'southward but a shame Motorola opted for LCD technology rather than OLED, which would have been much improve for battery life.

Despite outward appearances, the screen isn't entirely circular. Motorola has added a small blackness bar to the bottom of the picket face to make room for the ambience calorie-free sensor. This lets the screen conform its brightness to suit your surroundings, and although information technology works as advertised we preferred to fix the effulgence to the lowest setting to conserve bombardment life. With a black watch face up the 'flat tyre' isn't peculiarly noticeable, but as shortly as a notification appears or you lot switch to a white picket face up, you spot it straight away. If you insist on a fully circular screen, you'll have to selection upwards LG'southward K Watch R instead.

Moto 360 hardware

Inside the lookout man, Motorola has opted for a Texas Instruments OMAP 3 processor, which is sufficient for running Android Wear smoothly. Swiping between screens, opening apps and using Google Now all feels responsive enough, and nosotros were never left waiting for a screen to open or the device to react to our swipes or taps.

Nonetheless, the SoC is definitely less-ability efficient than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 found in the LG G Sentry and Samsung Gear Live. This, combined with the LCD screen and the optical heart charge per unit sensor constantly monitoring your pulse, means battery life is the Moto 360's major declining.

Unlike other smartwatches, which typically last around 2-three days on a single charge, or a week in the case of the eInk Pebble watch, the Moto 360 often struggles to last 24 hours. Even on the everyman brightness and with the ambient brandish style disabled and so the screen was off until nosotros came to utilize it, nosotros couldn't detect a way to squeeze more than 30 hours from a unmarried charge. That means you'll have to charge the sentinel every unmarried nighttime, or run the hazard of it dying mid-style through the adjacent mean solar day. This isn't a problem unique to Motorola, and until battery applied science improves frequent charging volition be one of the facts of life for wearable technology, but its component choices have compounded the issue for the Moto 360. Ambience mode certainly draws attention to the screen though, and after a subsequent Android Habiliment update the scout now automatically disables it when the battery drops to xv%. That ways you shouldn't detect yourself completely tuckered of bombardment mid-way through the afternoon, fifty-fifty if y'all use the most battery intensive screen mode.

Moto 360 Android Habiliment

Android Clothing itself primarily pushes notifications from a paired smartphone to your wrist. The series of Google At present-similar cards that announced equally you get notifications can be dismissed with a swipe, or opened on your phone with a tap, merely there's no style to become one back if you lot dismiss information technology accidentally. Without adding third-party sentinel apps, there's no mode to control music unless you've already started playback on your phone, as the context-sensitive card won't appear until a track has started.

Annoyingly at launch, at that place was mode to hide notifications from the main watch face up, which we idea slightly spoilt the look of the circular screen; you could swipe them all away, only that defeated the object of a smartwatch. This was less of an issue on the rectangular G Picket, merely on a round screen it was especially frustrating. We weren't alone in thinking this, and thankfully Motorola was paying attention to its critics, with a subsequent Android Article of clothing update adding in the ability to hide, simply not dismiss notifications from the sentinel face. With Update 4.4W2 installed, tapping the notification and swiping down would hide information technology from view, leaving the main watch confront unobstructed, but won't dismiss the notification entirely. This is peculiarly useful if you use multimedia playback controls or turn-by-turn navigation, only could as come in handy if you want reminding nigh a particular appointment afterwards in the twenty-four hours.

You tin can control the watch using your voice as well, using the "OK Google" trigger phrase to take notes, gear up alarms, cheque the weather or notice directions, which are then displayed as plough-by-plough instructions on your wrist. Voice recognition is excellent, then we could speak naturally and take the lookout detect every word, merely yous even so look daft when speaking into your wrist in public.

Every bit Google doesn't let manufacturers peel the Habiliment interface with their own custom UI, it feels identical in operation to the other Android Wear watches nosotros've tried. Motorola has managed to tweak the formula slightly, as the Motorola Connect app lets you customise the selection of circular watch faces and the fitness app tracks your steps and measures your heart rate using the congenital-in pedometer and heart rate sensor.

The heart rate watch app includes an activeness monitor which measures how much you motion about during the day; later on you've entered your height, weight, age and gender, it will dissever your day into "Inactive," "Active" and "Vigorous" categories, aiming to get you moderately active for at least thirty minutes a mean solar day for five days a calendar week. We reached our goal during a particularly leisurely morn walk to work, so it seems to be very lenient as to what constitutes moderate activity, but it's a welcome addition for anyone looking to replace fitness ring with a smartwatch.

Android Wearable 5.one update

It took quite a while for Android Vesture 5.i to arrive on the Moto 360, which was uncharacteristic of Motorola - usually the company is among the first to update its smartphones to the latest build of Android, yet in this case LG beat out it to the punch and had the G Scout R and G Sentinel Urbane on 5.one before the Moto 360. Now that the update has finally arrived, though, the redesigned menu system is very welcome. Now, borer the watch face opens a menu, rather than a Google Now prompt. You lot tin can curlicue through a listing of bachelor scout apps, or swipe to the left to open up the Google Now vocalization prompt and scroll through a list of suggested actions. People apear at the summit of the list, making it easier to respond to letters or make calls without pulling you phone out of a pocket, and yous can even draw emoji on the scout if you desire, although accuracy isn't the greatest.

Motion controls accept also arrived, letting you flick your wrist downwardly to hibernate a notification, or twist it upwards to move through any notification cards currently sat on the lookout man. It's surprisingly effective, despite tilt navigation being something of a mixed bag on smartphones, and letting yous interact with the scout single-handed makes it much more useful when commuting or in meetings.

E'er-on apps are still rather limited at the moment, and then we're unclear as to how effective they will be in the future, but we similar the idea of having walking directions permanently displayed on our wrist while out and about. The watch switches to a low-power state too, with dim display and monochrome colours, which should help preserve bombardment life.

Finally, the 5.one update activates the Moto 360's Wi-Fi receiver, letting you lot connect it to your local network even if your phone isn't nearby. The smartphone however sets up the connection, simply if yous leave it charging and walk to some other part of your house or part and stay on the same Wi-Fi network, you'll still go notifications sent to your spotter. Your phone will still demand to be connected to a Wi-Fi network for this to work, however.

Moto 360 - the verdict

On the surface, the Moto 360 is the almost desirable piece of wearable technology nosotros've ever seen. It's sleek and fashionable, made with premium materials and is highly customisable with third-party scout faces. Underneath, nevertheless, it'southward a compromise: the LCD screen and outdated processor result in mediocre battery life that puts information technology at the bottom of the smartwatch pile in terms of endurance. Android Wear is still in its infancy, with usability issues and a paucity of features, and although Motorola tin't accept the arraign for this, the operating system can still be frustrating to utilise at times.

At £200, the Moto 360 is too the most expensive Android Vesture smartwatch currently available. It's the best of the bunch, so if you're determined to buy a wearable this is absolutely the one to go for. Yous'll demand to wait until early October to get your hands on i, as the smartwatch has not all the same gone on sale in the UK. We're still waiting for someone to become the smartwatch admittedly right, and although Motorola has hit the nail on the head in terms of looks, the Moto 360 isn't quite perfect, only until something meliorate comes along nosotros'll happily have poor battery life in commutation for fantastic design.

Hardware
Pedometer	Yes
Heart-rate monitor	Yes
GPS	No
Waterproof	Yes (IP67)
Other features	Vibration motor, dual microphones
Display
Display size	1.56in (circular)
Resolution	320x290
Display technology	LCD
Smartphone connection
OS back up	Android iv.iii+
Wireless	Bluetooth 4.0
Battery
Battery size	320mAh
Battery life	i day
Buying information
Toll including VAT	£200
Warranty	One-yr RTB
Supplier	https://play.google.com/store
Details	https://moto360.motorola.com
Part code	Moto 360