4 months with Moto 360
I waited a long time for Motorola to finally launch its first round smart watch on Android Wear. I read a lot about them and at the last moment I was very upset when I learned that there would not be the promised sapphire glass, the OLED display would have to be charged every day. Also, a 4-year-old processor was decided to be installed ... It was with the same processor that Motorola released its Droid 2 in the USA in August 2010. And it used almost the same on the company's first smart watch (as they were in November 2011: Motoactv ), only for In those hours, its frequency was limited to 600MHz instead of 1GHz.
And here, quite by the way, a Hindu colleague turned up, who was on Google I / O (there are many of these - I live and work in Silicon Valley), but which my wife did not allow to carry anything. And besides, the generous "corporation of good" has already presented him with a smart square watch from Samsung, which safely lay at home. In a word, I was glad for the present and stopped doubting whether this watch was for me?
The first thing you had to face was the difficulty of pairing watches with a new smartphone. It was also accompanied by a hang and a long wait for the final connection (a few minutes of a static screen with a progress bar). By the way, I changed my smartphone twice more and each time I again encountered hangs and long waits. In general, the beginning was not the smoothest ...
')
Then I was upset by the uselessness of the heart rate monitor - it measured either according to its own schedule, or the choice of a menu item. And in both cases, the readings are quite inaccurate. The most frequent is a message about the impossibility to determine the pulse when it is really necessary (for example, in the hall after the barbell).
I still do not understand whether a wet / dry hand affects failures, a sensor is strongly / weakly pressed, and so on. Therefore, for sports I had to buy a separate Bluetooth heart rate monitor.
Finally, the pedometer was killed by the fact that it has nothing to do with the phone and the history of the testimony can only be watched on the watch in a squalid Moto Body.
But one thing never gave me the opportunity to completely give up on this gadget - looks. These are practically the only smart watches that I have seen so far that do not look like a geek piece of iron, but really claim to be a stylish accessory.
And during these 4 months I was told more than once by the saleswoman in the shops and even the nurses: “You have a very stylish watch.” Of course, in California, people are generally quite obsequious, but I didn’t hear anything like that while wearing other watches. Moreover, it turned out that even in these parts, the female gender doesn’t exactly know what Moto 360 and Android Wear are. Many were genuinely surprised when I showed weather widgets and such things. There was a feeling that some of them got into the future ... At the same time, it is clear that the majority of females are not particularly attracted by all this intelligence of watches - appearance is much more important.
It’s really not the most pleasant to have something every day on your hand when it doesn’t like it externally. This is not a smartphone, which usually lies somewhere in a bag or pocket. This is part of that very first perception by other people. And do not always want to look like a geek.
By the way, you can easily achieve the geek style - just change the dial to something like “Simple” / “Simple”:
Yes, the clock is completely Russified, as soon as you change the language in the phone settings.
Separately, I will note a small slice of the display criticized by many from below (“flat tire”, as it is called in American reviews), in which the light sensor and important connectors are located. Firstly, thanks to him, the clock has a rather narrow frame around the display, and secondly, the light sensor must also be shoved somewhere. And finally, I simply do not notice him in everyday life, although I have heard about how terrible he is.
Many times I heard that Android Wear is still far from being able to do something really useful. Yes, this is not the Samsung Tizen, which allows you to broadcast video on the watch directly from the camera phone. You cannot talk about this watch (although for some reason you can take a call). And they are really not very useful without a phone, unfortunately, in my case, even as a watch and a pedometer. Because sometimes they spontaneously change time, they hang up, lose all fitness readings and generally feel bad without a paired big brother on Android.
And yet for me in this gadget there are a number of undeniable utilities:
Google itself manages updates on Android Wear, and therefore it’s not necessary to wait until the manufacturer of your gadget decides (if he decides) that time is tense and finally integrate with the updated OS version.
Because pretty quickly (around the end of September) the first update came, and as they wrote in many articles, the watches began to work longer without recharging. It already made me happier.
The next update was not long in coming, and already somewhere in a month, I got integration with Google Fit, which was very buggy then. In the beginning, he often ignored the testimony of a pedometer clock, and used only the phone’s pedometer and was generally unstable and wretched. But I was already delighted that Google is thinking in the right direction. It also became possible to hide notifications without deleting them, but only by swiping down. This innovation also pleased me, as I often want to look at the watch without canceling anything, and when the time is somewhere between 5 and 7 (I use the dials), the notifications greatly hinder attempts to determine the exact time:
With the latest update, Google brought the OS version to 5.0.1 and added a few new features that I was really waiting for. I was particularly annoyed by the frequent accidental shutdown of all notifications due to the fact that I pulled the upper status bar down a little more than was required to display the current battery charge. Now he can safely remain lowered down, and to the already existing shutdown mode of all notifications, added the ability to leave important, as well as theater mode, the sun and for some reason another opportunity to open the settings (for me personally, double tap on the screen or long press on a single button seemed so sufficient).
Finally, third-hand dials began to appear and one of them seemed to be a good one (all the arrows and gears move):
At the same time, the application on the phone is also updated to communicate with the Android Wear watch. Of the new features, I was most interested in “Monitor battery consumption”. It allows you to see how many hours worked after the last charge, and which of the applications (according to Android) spent which part of the charge:
With the performance of hours there are no problems after a series of updates. Nothing hangs or slows down. It seems that for the current functionality of Android Wear 4-year processor is enough.
Many people were upset by the capacity of 300mAh printed on the battery, although Motorola stated that this is the minimum value, but in reality there are promised 320mAh (despite the fact that Samsung Gear 2 is only 300mAh thick).
There are different opinions about the battery life of the Moto 360. I can only say that in the first weeks they were barely enough for the day to see the notifications, pulse measurements and steps. I have not been able to follow the advice recommended by many to turn off “Ambient mode” / “Barring the transition to sleep mode” because it is very annoying to wait until the display turns on when you turn your hand when you just have to look at the black circle. At the same time, in “Ambient mode” I see at least faded time. And the worst thing is that otherwise the screen sometimes remains completely turned off, if, in the opinion of the device, I incorrectly turned my hand.
Over time, the updates I mentioned came, I stopped using the useless heart rate monitor, and now I’ve stably charged them every second night. At the same time, the display eats the most energy per unit of time, therefore with active use, for example, Endomondo and frequent admiration of a long distance traveled, calories, etc., you can easily discharge the clock in a day. But at night at the docking station (included in the kit) the watch looks like this:
Yes, it is not OLED and not AMOLED. This is an IPS with a resolution of 320 Ă— 290 pixels. I can say honestly - if you look closely, the pixels are noticeable (their density is 205 ppi), but I do not look closely and do not notice. It is also very important for me that in the sun there is enough backlight power to comfortably use this gadget. Problems with viewing angles also exist.
The color rendition is quite tolerable and with the current functionality of Android Wear it is almost impossible to evaluate. Unless, when using the watch as the camera's camera release button, then they receive the result in the form of a mini-photo, which, however, cannot be enlarged.
As soon as I put the watch on my hand for the first time, I immediately noticed that the strap with the horien leather had got noticeable folds. Because I was afraid that this is the weak part of this gadget and it will have to be the first to lose its presentability. But ... it has been 4 months of daily use at work and rare wear to the gym, and it looks about the same (although the folds received in the first days did not go anywhere). On non-sapphire Gorilla Glass 3, too, have not yet been able to notice a single scratch. As for the case, it is made of really durable metal and quite tolerably painted. So despite the sometimes heavy blows of the clock on the metal railing of the stairs, there are no dents or paint chips yet.
In general, I am pleased with the gadget and I think that it costs its $ 249.99. Yes, this is a price on Google, but it is quite possible to order it to Russia, having received a virtual US postal address - good, now there are many services that provide this service. And I actively used them for purchases of Nexus 4, Nexus 10 and other things, when I lived in the Russian Federation a year and a half ago. For example, here at the end of the article the author tells in detail how he spent only $ 16.64 on delivery and received the gadget after 13 days, bypassing everyone’s beloved Russian Post. You don’t need to worry about the charger - its adapter is designed to work from 100 to 240V at 50 / 60Hz, so it’s enough to buy an adapter from an American plug (some European adapters are also suitable) to a domestic one in an electronics store, or you can simply use charging from phone (the entrance to the wireless Qi microUSB docking station, the output current of the adapter is 500mA).
Here, it seems, about all my impressions of this wonderful device of the company not officially represented in the Russian Federation now. Moreover, I remember the time well (I worked there then) and the reasons for leaving Russia: the loss of image.
There was also a reluctance (and, given the state of Motorola at the time, and the impossibility) to invest big money in its change in this market.
I hope the latest successful Android devices of the company will change this now irrelevant stereotype.
PS I also prepared a video review of these hours after 4 months of use. The gadget in all its glory can be seen here . Sorry for my English =)
And here, quite by the way, a Hindu colleague turned up, who was on Google I / O (there are many of these - I live and work in Silicon Valley), but which my wife did not allow to carry anything. And besides, the generous "corporation of good" has already presented him with a smart square watch from Samsung, which safely lay at home. In a word, I was glad for the present and stopped doubting whether this watch was for me?
The first thing you had to face was the difficulty of pairing watches with a new smartphone. It was also accompanied by a hang and a long wait for the final connection (a few minutes of a static screen with a progress bar). By the way, I changed my smartphone twice more and each time I again encountered hangs and long waits. In general, the beginning was not the smoothest ...
')
Then I was upset by the uselessness of the heart rate monitor - it measured either according to its own schedule, or the choice of a menu item. And in both cases, the readings are quite inaccurate. The most frequent is a message about the impossibility to determine the pulse when it is really necessary (for example, in the hall after the barbell).
I still do not understand whether a wet / dry hand affects failures, a sensor is strongly / weakly pressed, and so on. Therefore, for sports I had to buy a separate Bluetooth heart rate monitor.
Finally, the pedometer was killed by the fact that it has nothing to do with the phone and the history of the testimony can only be watched on the watch in a squalid Moto Body.
Appearance
But one thing never gave me the opportunity to completely give up on this gadget - looks. These are practically the only smart watches that I have seen so far that do not look like a geek piece of iron, but really claim to be a stylish accessory.
And during these 4 months I was told more than once by the saleswoman in the shops and even the nurses: “You have a very stylish watch.” Of course, in California, people are generally quite obsequious, but I didn’t hear anything like that while wearing other watches. Moreover, it turned out that even in these parts, the female gender doesn’t exactly know what Moto 360 and Android Wear are. Many were genuinely surprised when I showed weather widgets and such things. There was a feeling that some of them got into the future ... At the same time, it is clear that the majority of females are not particularly attracted by all this intelligence of watches - appearance is much more important.
It’s really not the most pleasant to have something every day on your hand when it doesn’t like it externally. This is not a smartphone, which usually lies somewhere in a bag or pocket. This is part of that very first perception by other people. And do not always want to look like a geek.
By the way, you can easily achieve the geek style - just change the dial to something like “Simple” / “Simple”:
Yes, the clock is completely Russified, as soon as you change the language in the phone settings.
Separately, I will note a small slice of the display criticized by many from below (“flat tire”, as it is called in American reviews), in which the light sensor and important connectors are located. Firstly, thanks to him, the clock has a rather narrow frame around the display, and secondly, the light sensor must also be shoved somewhere. And finally, I simply do not notice him in everyday life, although I have heard about how terrible he is.
Utility
Many times I heard that Android Wear is still far from being able to do something really useful. Yes, this is not the Samsung Tizen, which allows you to broadcast video on the watch directly from the camera phone. You cannot talk about this watch (although for some reason you can take a call). And they are really not very useful without a phone, unfortunately, in my case, even as a watch and a pedometer. Because sometimes they spontaneously change time, they hang up, lose all fitness readings and generally feel bad without a paired big brother on Android.
And yet for me in this gadget there are a number of undeniable utilities:
- Notification Alerts
They do not allow not to notice any notification using a vibrating alert and, in particular, an incoming call (of course, if you wish, you can turn off all notifications) while you are within the bluetooth range of the phone. It is especially pleasant that the clock does not emit sounds (since most of the time I am at work), and quietly vibrate to myself. The same applies to messages from popular messengers, VC and the like. - Reminder from Google Calendar
Since our company uses the Google Calendar and I myself also use it for personal purposes, thanks to the appearance of notifications and vibrations on the clock, it became much easier not to be late for meetings and not forget about the plans. - Pieces of text messages when it is inconvenient to use the phone
When my hands are busy (for example, in the car), it is much more convenient to be able to read at least parts of incoming mail and messages only by slightly tilting my arm. At the same time, if you flip the notification of the same Google Hangouts to the left, you can see the full version of the correspondence. - Pedometer and synchronization with Google Fit
In the pedometer, I don’t like that instead of updating the readings with each step (autonomously such a miracle of technology costs $ 0.82 on ebay ), it does this only occasionally (sometimes steps after 100). But on the other hand, the final testimony is not far from the truth and, of course, glad that finally it all became integrated with Google Fit. As a result, you can now see these beautiful graphics at fit.google.com:
- Speech recognition for cocking a timer or adding a note
It is not often that I have a passionate desire to talk with a phone or a clock, but when, for example, I work in the kitchen and hands in something like flour, it is quite convenient to ask the clock to set a timer after N minutes - Data mapping from some applications
After I bought a bluetooth heart rate monitor, I liked the ability to start straight from the clock specially tuned for Android Wear by the well-known Endomondo application and output the current pulse and other readings directly to their display. - Time
And ... paradoxically, but for me to watch the time on the clock is still more convenient than on a smartphone, especially if it is for some reason lies in the trunk of a car. - Music
Although I do not particularly use the function of autonomous music playback from a watch to a bluetooth headset, I think this function can be quite useful. To do this, you need to subscribe to Google Music unlimited, buy an album or simply download your audio collection (up to 30,000 songs!) Using the Google Play Music Manager. Well, then, all the albums that you decide to keep on your phone will be synchronized with your watch. True, their memory is 4GB, so, as Google promises, the most recently played music and playlists will be synchronized with the clock. - Sleep phases
If you are ready to sleep with your watch, then the function of determining the phases of sleep and turning on the alarm when you exit the deep phase may be useful. For this there is, for example, the very popular Sleep As Android application , however, so far, developers have managed to reduce the battery consumption of this gadget only to 40% per night. It seemed to me 40% - this is a bit too much, and it is very uncomfortable to sleep with these rather big watches.
Updates
Google itself manages updates on Android Wear, and therefore it’s not necessary to wait until the manufacturer of your gadget decides (if he decides) that time is tense and finally integrate with the updated OS version.
Because pretty quickly (around the end of September) the first update came, and as they wrote in many articles, the watches began to work longer without recharging. It already made me happier.
The next update was not long in coming, and already somewhere in a month, I got integration with Google Fit, which was very buggy then. In the beginning, he often ignored the testimony of a pedometer clock, and used only the phone’s pedometer and was generally unstable and wretched. But I was already delighted that Google is thinking in the right direction. It also became possible to hide notifications without deleting them, but only by swiping down. This innovation also pleased me, as I often want to look at the watch without canceling anything, and when the time is somewhere between 5 and 7 (I use the dials), the notifications greatly hinder attempts to determine the exact time:
With the latest update, Google brought the OS version to 5.0.1 and added a few new features that I was really waiting for. I was particularly annoyed by the frequent accidental shutdown of all notifications due to the fact that I pulled the upper status bar down a little more than was required to display the current battery charge. Now he can safely remain lowered down, and to the already existing shutdown mode of all notifications, added the ability to leave important, as well as theater mode, the sun and for some reason another opportunity to open the settings (for me personally, double tap on the screen or long press on a single button seemed so sufficient).
Finally, third-hand dials began to appear and one of them seemed to be a good one (all the arrows and gears move):
At the same time, the application on the phone is also updated to communicate with the Android Wear watch. Of the new features, I was most interested in “Monitor battery consumption”. It allows you to see how many hours worked after the last charge, and which of the applications (according to Android) spent which part of the charge:
With the performance of hours there are no problems after a series of updates. Nothing hangs or slows down. It seems that for the current functionality of Android Wear 4-year processor is enough.
Battery
Many people were upset by the capacity of 300mAh printed on the battery, although Motorola stated that this is the minimum value, but in reality there are promised 320mAh (despite the fact that Samsung Gear 2 is only 300mAh thick).
There are different opinions about the battery life of the Moto 360. I can only say that in the first weeks they were barely enough for the day to see the notifications, pulse measurements and steps. I have not been able to follow the advice recommended by many to turn off “Ambient mode” / “Barring the transition to sleep mode” because it is very annoying to wait until the display turns on when you turn your hand when you just have to look at the black circle. At the same time, in “Ambient mode” I see at least faded time. And the worst thing is that otherwise the screen sometimes remains completely turned off, if, in the opinion of the device, I incorrectly turned my hand.
Over time, the updates I mentioned came, I stopped using the useless heart rate monitor, and now I’ve stably charged them every second night. At the same time, the display eats the most energy per unit of time, therefore with active use, for example, Endomondo and frequent admiration of a long distance traveled, calories, etc., you can easily discharge the clock in a day. But at night at the docking station (included in the kit) the watch looks like this:
Display
Yes, it is not OLED and not AMOLED. This is an IPS with a resolution of 320 Ă— 290 pixels. I can say honestly - if you look closely, the pixels are noticeable (their density is 205 ppi), but I do not look closely and do not notice. It is also very important for me that in the sun there is enough backlight power to comfortably use this gadget. Problems with viewing angles also exist.
The color rendition is quite tolerable and with the current functionality of Android Wear it is almost impossible to evaluate. Unless, when using the watch as the camera's camera release button, then they receive the result in the form of a mini-photo, which, however, cannot be enlarged.
External wear
As soon as I put the watch on my hand for the first time, I immediately noticed that the strap with the horien leather had got noticeable folds. Because I was afraid that this is the weak part of this gadget and it will have to be the first to lose its presentability. But ... it has been 4 months of daily use at work and rare wear to the gym, and it looks about the same (although the folds received in the first days did not go anywhere). On non-sapphire Gorilla Glass 3, too, have not yet been able to notice a single scratch. As for the case, it is made of really durable metal and quite tolerably painted. So despite the sometimes heavy blows of the clock on the metal railing of the stairs, there are no dents or paint chips yet.
disadvantages
- Pulse
As I have already noted, it seemed to me that this function works very poorly on this device. - Work without a paired phone
Despite the many updates, this problem has not disappeared in me - after a certain time of using the clock without a phone nearby, it still sometimes reboots and loses the time and pedometer readings. - Battery
Yes, I completely manage to charge the watch once in two days, but still it is not serious! I can imagine how in 15 years my son will laugh, asking, “Dad, did you really wear a watch that could last a maximum of 2 days?” Moreover, my grandfather is already laughing ... - Pairing with a new device
Again, unfortunately, the problem of the first pairing is still relevant. Moreover, it takes quite a lot of time, but I also never managed to pair the watch with a new phone without first resetting all settings from the Moto 360. Moreover, after a successful first pairing, everything works fine and the clock automatically connects when I turn on bluetooth on my phone or return to its coverage area. At the same time, we must pay tribute - the watch works using Bluetooth 4.0 protocol, it does not land the phone very much and allows other devices to be connected in parallel from heart rate monitors to headsets.
Total
In general, I am pleased with the gadget and I think that it costs its $ 249.99. Yes, this is a price on Google, but it is quite possible to order it to Russia, having received a virtual US postal address - good, now there are many services that provide this service. And I actively used them for purchases of Nexus 4, Nexus 10 and other things, when I lived in the Russian Federation a year and a half ago. For example, here at the end of the article the author tells in detail how he spent only $ 16.64 on delivery and received the gadget after 13 days, bypassing everyone’s beloved Russian Post. You don’t need to worry about the charger - its adapter is designed to work from 100 to 240V at 50 / 60Hz, so it’s enough to buy an adapter from an American plug (some European adapters are also suitable) to a domestic one in an electronics store, or you can simply use charging from phone (the entrance to the wireless Qi microUSB docking station, the output current of the adapter is 500mA).
Here, it seems, about all my impressions of this wonderful device of the company not officially represented in the Russian Federation now. Moreover, I remember the time well (I worked there then) and the reasons for leaving Russia: the loss of image.
There was also a reluctance (and, given the state of Motorola at the time, and the impossibility) to invest big money in its change in this market.
I hope the latest successful Android devices of the company will change this now irrelevant stereotype.
PS I also prepared a video review of these hours after 4 months of use. The gadget in all its glory can be seen here . Sorry for my English =)
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/364995/
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