Moto 360 Sport review

First introduced back in the fall of 2015, the Moto 360 Sport arrived in the United States in early January. Available in 3 colors, Black, White, and Flame Orange, the watch is pitched around the concept of an active lifestyle, particularly those who run .

The Moto 360 Sport runs $299 and is powered by Android Wear. Thus far, it is one of only two devices of its kind to feature a built-in GPS unit for tracking pace and distance. Its closest competitors are not your traditional Android Wear smartwatch but more in line with a Fitbit, Garmin, or other name-brand running watch.

We recently spent a few weeks with the watch and have put together a review of the smart wearable unit.

Android Wear

Let’s get this out of the way, Android Wear has not evolved significantly over the last year. Although it has made some strides and added new features, there really isn’t anything software-wise in this watch that you can’t get in another Android Wear watch. Yes, we do have some added Motorola features (more on that later), but the Android Wear experience itself is par for the course.

For those who are not familiar, the Android Wear app can be installed on your Android or iOS device. Pairing a watch with your phone extends the user experience, cuts down on phone usage, and adds quick-action features to your day. Notifications are delivered on your wrist, with options to reply or taken action.

A growing number of applications are beginning to tap into some of Android Wear’s API’s and push features to the watch. It’s a steady, but slow stream of development support. Examples of applications that leverage Android Wear today include note taking, calendar, to-do lists, and other productivity clients.

As stagnant as I make this sound, it is hard to imagine any specific idea or feature that is absent from Android Wear. Each time something new has been introduced, it feels more of a “hey, that’s pretty cool, I’m glad they added that.”

Unfortunately, watchmakers thus far has been fairly restricted in what they could do to the Android Wear experience. I get that Google wants to lock it down a little bit and control things so as not to tarnish the reputation of the platform. But, unfortunately these watches so far are only different from each other in the display and wrist straps. It’s not lost on me that I am describing the differences in watches based solely on traditional watch features.

Android Wear smartens up watches — it’s not like smartphones where there’s an entire space of differentiating factors. It’s not the same as the established and highly competitive market with a number of name brands fighting it out. At least not yet.

With all of this said, the Moto 360 Sport works well and offers up a number of basic utilities as well as added, custom features. If you’ve not spent time with Android Wear, you’ll certainly enjoy how it can enhance your daily life.

Software Features

Part of how Motorola positions the Moto 360 Sport is based around the ability to work with apps such as Under Armour, MapMyRun, or Strava. Truthfully, pretty much all Android Wear watches are capable of working with these applications. Yes, the built-in GPS and stand-alone capability does give it an added advantage. If you plan to run or be active with the Moto 360 Sport and do not want to carry your phone with you, then this watch definitely wins out over other smartwatches. However, if you do keep your phone with you at all times, it is more difficult to recommend this watch.

Motorola has loaded a couple of custom watch faces on this device, each of which speak to the active or sporty lifestyle. They don’t look like traditional watch faces, and many of them are designed to give you at-a-glance views of details such as steps taken, heart rate, or something similar. These watch faces look great on this sort of product, but they won’t look as flashy or cool on a more traditional wearable. They are a nice counterpart to the general aesthetic of the Moto 360 Sport.

One of the added, and definitely helpful, features of this watch is the Moto Body application. It will measure time spent on an activity or heart rate. Moreover, it will actively keep an eye on your movement and pop up with random notifications of activities met or progress toward goals. It is almost like having a coach remotely monitoring and randomly texting you.

Hardware Features

To capture the heart rate activity, the watch relies on a built in sensor found on the back of the display. Other sensors included in the watch are a barometric altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, and ambient light sensor. Yes, the latter sensor means that you get the “flat tire” effect with his watch. I have found that in other models the flat tire can be overlooked ; it is easier to acclimate to than most people might lead you to believe.

Not only do the two other Moto 360 watches feature this flat spot at the bottom of a display, but Fossil’s does, too. The reasoning for this sensor is a good one; it reads the light of an environment to help brighten or dim the watch display. Automatically done, it extends the life of your battery should you find yourself in places where it does not need to be all that bright. Conversely, if you spend the majority of your time outside and need to be able to check your watch on a regular basis, then it can have an adverse effect on the battery life.

Given the target demographic of this watch is active and always on the go, I suspect the flat tire is a mostly non-issue. Would I like to see a full circular display? Of course. But I won’t lose any sleep over it and I imagine the average user won’t either. This is not a classy or fashionable timepiece, this is and enhanced activity tracker. And, really, I want it to do what’s possible to get more life out of my watch if I am using it to track runs, biking, and other activities.

The Moto 360 Sport has an IP67 dust and water resistance rating. Not to be confused with waterproof, this means that you can get a little sweaty in your workouts or runs. Additionally, if you happen to get caught out in the rain, you don’t have to panic. But, do know that you can’t take a shower with this guy or use the watch to track your laps in the pool.

As mentioned before, the Moto 360 Sport comes in Black, White, and Flame Orange bands. Unlike other Moto 360 models, these are not replaceable straps. Once you buy it you are stuck with it.

In keeping with the topic of bands, I should point out that the silicone nature of the watch lends itself to attracting dust and other random particles. This may be more of an issue if you pair the watch with a sweater or prefer to wear long sleeve shirts. But, I suspect the average wearer often opts for a t-shirt or tank top. Should your watch gather up a little bit of extra dust, simply wipe it down with a wet cloth and you’re good to go.

The watch bands are vented so that you do not get overly sweaty or irritated. I sometimes find myself fussing with a watch and fidgeting with it out of habit or comfort. I did not find myself doing this more than normal with you Moto 360 Sport.

The Moto 360 Sport features 4 gigabytes of internal storage. Ideally, you are taking advantage of this and loading your music on the watch so that you can listen to your playlist while running. For what it’s worth, this is the same amount of storage that you will find another smart watches. It’s more than enough space to download a few albums or a long, inspiring playlist.

Standalone GPS is a great feature and is certainly one that helps to set this watch apart from the growing pack of Android Wear devices. As of today, the only other watch to offer this hardware feature is the Sony SmartWatch 3. I found in my testing that the GPS was accurate, particularly when using the built-in Motorola applications.

When compared to other apps such as Endomondo or MapMyRun, I did find some variance. Nothing too crazy, mind you but it did differ from app to app. I believe that my review unit takes a few extra seconds to lock onto a good GPS signal so keep that in mind if you’re trying to beat a personal record.

Display

Perhaps the standout feature of this watch, to me, is the 1.37-inch display. Protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, The watch offers “AnyLight Hybrid Display” technology. What does this mean to you? It means a high contrast and easy to read watch face. Text appears crisp, and graphics look great.

There’s something in the glass at play here which reflects bright light. Find yourself out for an extended period of time training for a half marathon? You’ll be able to glance at your wrist and see exactly what you need without strain.

Also worth noting, the screen was as responsive as anything else we’ve seen in Android Wear models. Motorola might be onto something when it comes to glass and screens. Its Droid Turbo smartphone has a shatterproof screen; I am all for innovation in this space.

Battery

The Moto 360 Sport features a 300mAh battery which Motorola promises can last all day. I found that performance varied depending on activity, with GPS naturally eating through the watch battery quicker than anything. Set out early in the day with just your watch and some tunes and you might be looking for a charge later in the evening.

Generally speaking, I was pleased with the watch battery on a daily basis. I recently found that I could get through an entire day of basic activity without having to turn off the always-on capability. That is always a trade off — do you want to have a watch that you can look at from any angle at any time? You’ll want to keep the always-on feature enabled at the risk of less usage in a day. If you are the type who only occasionally looks to your wrist to see what time it is or to check a notification, then you may be content with turning off that option.

Charging is done through a wireless dock that comes included in the box. It is the same that you will find with the other two Moto 360 models and still makes sense. Powered by a microUSB cord it is a small and unobtrusive unit that needs only touch the back of the watch to add juice. It does not take long to charge the watch, so if you forget at night, you can probably boost up in the morning as you ready yourself for work and have coffee.

I always recommend picking up a secondary unit for work. Keeping one on the desk is nice because occasionally I like to take off the watch when I type. In those cases, it’s nice to juice up the watch even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time.

Conclusion

The Moto 360 Sport is an interesting, somewhat niche, product. It is ”cool” enough to have as a standard timepiece but offers extra features not found and a regular watch. Partly due to Android Wear, partly due to the custom Moto touches, it’s a fashionable and functional wearable.

If you are in the market for an Android Wear-powered watch and don’t need to rely on standalone GPS, it is hard to recommend the Moto 360 Sport over other models. Personally, I like the standard Moto 360 because it offers much of the same features that I rely on. Not only that, but I can change the watch bands to suit my needs or to match an outfit. Indeed, you can also pick up silicone watch bands that fit most Android Wear units. Just because you opt for a more fashionable unit doesn’t mean it can’t be changed for activities.

The Moto 360 Sport might be more aptly titled the Moto 360: Runner Edition as it caters heavily to the runner and running apps. Tracking a bike ride or other activity is possible, but it is not as detailed or as helpful. This is not necessarily a fault of the watch, but of the idea behind tracking everything on your wrist. but, there are enough sensors here and applications to choose from to satisfy the needs of the masses.

Going one step further and specifically addressing a runner, I wager to guess that a Garmin may be a more appealing unit. But, there isn’t anything this smart designed for that sort of user – not if they want to connect it to a smartphone.