well, after much usage and deliberation, i decided to return my moto360.
it was a great device. i fully understood what i was purchasing so i did not expect it to perform like a traditional watch. my expectations were to get discreet notifications, tell time, and do some fun things like using the heart rate monitor and other fun stuff. also, the the discount price of $179 couldn't be beat.
after nearly a month of using it every day, here are my observations:
pros - subjectively, its a great looking device. its very noticiable, and many people made comments about how great it looks. tech people instantly recognized it as a smartwatch (thankfully not as an apple watch) and it was a great ice breaker. notifications, when it worked, worked great. voice to text, voice to call, voice to 'ok google' all worked quite well and i made good use of it. battery life was GREAT. i really mean that. when it worked right, i was getting 2-3% drain per hour. that left me with ~50% battery remaining after 15+ hours of use.
cons - being an early adopter certainly has its growing pains. my best guess is that android wear occasionally freaked out and the results were the watch growing hot, random battery drains, random disconnects, notifications randomly not showing up on the watch. i also posted before about google fit and motoconnect using up some battery life even though all settings were off. constantly having to manage the device so its paired and working with my phone was also starting to become a chore. i'd have to constantly check to see if its working ok, or if it started to freak out and draining both watch and phone battery. of course, reboots of either or both devices would fix it but it was bothersome nonetheless. the heart rate monitor was hit or miss. when you are absolutely still and having the device firmly against your arm, it would be accurate to about +5 beats/minute. in any kind of motion, the HRM would utterly fail at getting any reading. i'm not a big pedometer user but it too was off but it was consistently off so i suppose that was a good thing.
the biggest con of all though, and this is why i decided to return the device, is the social interaction/response/perception. i'm not a rude person (on purpose anyway), and yet, i had several people ask if i was busy or had to be somewhere because i was checking my watch. this surprised me. i was innocently checking my notifications but people who don't know i have a smartwatch perceived i was too busy. by extension, they may have assumed i didn't want to be in their company.
i hate to say it, but, with the general public getting to know about smartwatches with the release of the apple watch, perhaps public perception will be more accepting of people constantly checking their watches. in fact, perhaps smartwatches should NOT look like traditional watches just so people can make the distinction more easily. i had no problems when i used it at my work desk, at home, or driving. but i'm a social person, and i'm also a watch person (i have about a dozen) and for me, a smartwatch was unfortunately NOT the answer... not yet anyway. i may look into it again when both the technology and app development matures a bit more and it becomes socially acceptable, or at least the general public is more aware and accepting of how people with smartwatches will act.
this is, of course, my personal experience. ymmv. take with appropriate sized grain of salt for your purposes.
it was a great device. i fully understood what i was purchasing so i did not expect it to perform like a traditional watch. my expectations were to get discreet notifications, tell time, and do some fun things like using the heart rate monitor and other fun stuff. also, the the discount price of $179 couldn't be beat.
after nearly a month of using it every day, here are my observations:
pros - subjectively, its a great looking device. its very noticiable, and many people made comments about how great it looks. tech people instantly recognized it as a smartwatch (thankfully not as an apple watch) and it was a great ice breaker. notifications, when it worked, worked great. voice to text, voice to call, voice to 'ok google' all worked quite well and i made good use of it. battery life was GREAT. i really mean that. when it worked right, i was getting 2-3% drain per hour. that left me with ~50% battery remaining after 15+ hours of use.
cons - being an early adopter certainly has its growing pains. my best guess is that android wear occasionally freaked out and the results were the watch growing hot, random battery drains, random disconnects, notifications randomly not showing up on the watch. i also posted before about google fit and motoconnect using up some battery life even though all settings were off. constantly having to manage the device so its paired and working with my phone was also starting to become a chore. i'd have to constantly check to see if its working ok, or if it started to freak out and draining both watch and phone battery. of course, reboots of either or both devices would fix it but it was bothersome nonetheless. the heart rate monitor was hit or miss. when you are absolutely still and having the device firmly against your arm, it would be accurate to about +5 beats/minute. in any kind of motion, the HRM would utterly fail at getting any reading. i'm not a big pedometer user but it too was off but it was consistently off so i suppose that was a good thing.
the biggest con of all though, and this is why i decided to return the device, is the social interaction/response/perception. i'm not a rude person (on purpose anyway), and yet, i had several people ask if i was busy or had to be somewhere because i was checking my watch. this surprised me. i was innocently checking my notifications but people who don't know i have a smartwatch perceived i was too busy. by extension, they may have assumed i didn't want to be in their company.
i hate to say it, but, with the general public getting to know about smartwatches with the release of the apple watch, perhaps public perception will be more accepting of people constantly checking their watches. in fact, perhaps smartwatches should NOT look like traditional watches just so people can make the distinction more easily. i had no problems when i used it at my work desk, at home, or driving. but i'm a social person, and i'm also a watch person (i have about a dozen) and for me, a smartwatch was unfortunately NOT the answer... not yet anyway. i may look into it again when both the technology and app development matures a bit more and it becomes socially acceptable, or at least the general public is more aware and accepting of how people with smartwatches will act.
this is, of course, my personal experience. ymmv. take with appropriate sized grain of salt for your purposes.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram