The Moto 360 isn’t exactly new any more and there are plenty of reviews from folks that have a lot more knowledge about the equipment and industry than I do but I wanted to share my impressions after 12 days with the watch.
First off, I really like my 360 and really want to love it but there are some niggling issues that are really irritating me. Some of them I can work around, others… Not so much.
First off, when I purchased my x-mas gift I ordered it with the metal band rather than leather. While I like the look and feel of leather I am very rough on my equipment so wanted something that would last so I spent the extra $50 damned dollars it cost for the metal band. I have the black on black by the way. Anyway, I have to say that was a complete fucking waste of $50 I could have spent elsewhere. Thanks Motorola! At 5’6? 175lbs I’m not a particularly large guy but the watchband, which is not adjustable at all, squeezes my fucking arm to death. Either my wrists are bigger than the norm or they are making the bands for little girls. I’ve solved that by purchasing a $20 metal mesh band from Amazon. Not only is it adjustable but it just feels and lays better against my arm. The band is the first issue and one that I didn’t come across when researching the Moto 360.
The second issue, and one I was completely aware of before hand, is the battery life. Smartwatches for the most part don’t have great battery life but due to the equipment that Motorola used it’s not as good as it could be. Even with the horrible battery life there are a couple of issues. If you use any of the third party animated or detailed watch faces battery drain is worse, to the point where it won’t last an entire work day for me. Not a huge deal as when I’m cooking I can’t wear a watch anyway. That’s where one of the bigger problems lies. Several times I’ve removed my watch and left it in my jacket, powering it down only to come back at 1pm to find it had powered itself back up and sitting at 10% power or less. That’s just plain horseshit. Since my Note 3 also supports wireless charging I went ahead and ordered a qi charger and will start keeping it with me. That will work but it’s definitely not a true solution.
The last big issue I’ve had is with software. I don’t know if it’s a problem with Google Hangouts or with Android Wear but since syncing up Hangouts has been crashing horribly when I receive notifications. It’ll crash 50+ (or more) times daily. I’m a very heavy hangouts user so this is my biggest annoyance. I tried turning off the hangouts notifications on my watch but that doesn’t seem to do any good. Apparently this isn’t an issued problem. Several other people I know have the same issues.
Ok, so those are the bad things. Overall, I still love the watch and there are a thousand little things I can and want to do with it. I’ll try and post some of them as I get everything set up.