Moto 360 Sport review - A pretty good smartwatch, but can be better

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Although the Motorola 360 smartwatch is already now in their 2nd Gen, that's not the case for the Moto 360 Sport as it's the 1st Gen edition for RM1399. Available only in black, white and orange and as the name implies, the sports edition is meant for serious active people who exercise a lot. But is it any good? Read below to find out.

Design - Very sporty, but can switch the band though

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The front look

The difference between the sports edition and the normal one is, of course, the silicone band. The band's quality is nice and quite solid, but also quite prone to gather dust after a period of time, that can be easily solved though by washing it (don't worry, it's water resistant but only below 1 meter of water). That being said, the band is actually undetachable so there goes the wear-and-tear issue in the long run.

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The back, before taking out the sticker. The heart rate sensor is located there

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The home button on the right side

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The mic on the left side

Wearing the watch feels secure, but whenever my wrist start to sweat; it feels a bit uncomfortable (imagine a small octopus wrapping itself around your wrist), and I don't know whether if it's just me but at the end of the day, I just couldn't wait to take it off (easy to take off) after a long day. But you probably need to anyway every day because of the battery, more on that later at the performance section.

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The charging dock

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Front view

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Bottom view

For the casing size, it measures 45mm diameter which is just slightly smaller than a standard Moto 360 2nd Gen (46mm) which is for men, so it might be a tad too big for the females who are looking for one. The design of the watch is simple and sporty as it is, the button on the right is really "clicky" so that's good, but I don't like how the mic was designed. Also on the casing display, it's made of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 featuring AnyLight Hybrid Display, which we will continue below.


Tech Specs and Features - Good tech specs, but needs more than just running mode

Here are the specifications:

  • Qualcomm® Snapdragon 400 with 1.2 GHz quad-core CPU (APQ 8026)
  • Adreno 305 with 450MHz GPU
  • 512MB RAM
  • 4GB internal storage
  • 1.37-inch (35mm) with 263ppi (360 X 325 resolution)
  • 45mm diameter by 11.5mm high, 54g
  • Features Barometric Altimeter, Accelerometer, Ambient Light Sensor, Gyroscope, Vibration/Haptics engine, Optical heart rate monitor (PPG), IP67 dust and water resistant grade, Dual digital mics
  • upports Bluetooth® 4.0 Low Energy and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g connectivity
  • Android Wear
  • 300 mAh battery (wireless charging with charging dock included)

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No problem under the sunlight

The AnyLight Hybrid Display is pretty handy when you're outdoors under the sun. Usually, we have a hard time looking at our device's display under direct sunlight but not the 360 Sport, it still shows the display as if there was no sunlight to begin with, so that's a bonus.

To add on to that, while the watch does a wonderful job on displaying the colours and details, I find the "flat tire" on the display to be quite annoying but that is more my personal preferance. Others may not have a problem with it but I just can't stand the incomplete circle on the display. Oh well, this is just a minor issue, so people like me will have to tolerate and deal with it.

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Reading messages from your smartphone

Anyway, as your typical Android Wear watch, it has the usual features such as the steps tracker, optical heart rate sensor, calorie counter, notifications, music player, "Find my phone", Theater Mode, voice recognition, even Shazam app is in there and others. The 360 Sport edition does everything right of what a smartwatch should do, but there is just one problem... 

You see, for it to be called a sport edition is quite misleading. This is because the features seem to favour running only; so anything else that you do like say, football, badminton or hiking, that kind of activities will send your details to the heart rate counter only. Granted, even though it does have an inbuilt GPS feature which is great for runners, I don't think it will help much for users who does more physical sports aside from running.

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The inbuilt GPS system

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Shabam? So cute haha

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Monitoring your fitness

In addition, the watch is quite user-friendly as from time to time it would give some tips and tricks. But there's this particular feature - the shaking gesture which you need to shake your wrist in various direction for shortcuts. But honestly, I see this feature not that useful because sometimes it's not really responsive, and you'd look funny in public for doing that, trust me, I tried and I made it look like the watch has a problem. And for simplicity sake, they should just merge the Moto Body and Moto Connect app altogether too.

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The shake gesture tutorial

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You can do this too

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Moto Body app report

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Moto Connect app

Performance - Battery only last one full day, but has the coolest smartwatch charging dock ever

As mentioned earlier, even though on paper it says battery usage is 1 and a half days, you still need to take it off to charge at the end of the day. While it is a hassle, at least it comes with a really cool charging dock for the watch. Motorola probably has the best charging method because it doesn't require any plugin to the core, just lay it horizontally on it, switch the power on and let it do the work. What's more, it becomes a tiny clock and looks nice on your working desk or bedside table.

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The charging duration

The charging speed is quite interesting too because within 30 minutes it could charge up to 50% which is quite fast, but after that it slows down and it takes around 2 hours to fully charge. This means that you don't always need to charge fully and can have a quick charge instead, but do be careful because it drains moderately fast even without doing much.

Conclusion - Feels more like a regular smartwatch, but it's still good

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This watch may not be enough for people who are serious into fitness, if you're one then you might want to consider Garmin or Fitbit instead, or even the Sony Smartwatch SWR50 which is a cheaper option (RM1099 for band version only), charges faster and the band is switchable. And if you're just a regular person who doesn't exercise much, I think you can just settle for the regular Moto 360 2nd Gen.

I'm not saying the Moto 360 Sport watch is bad, it is a good watch. Like I said earlier it does everything what a smartwatch does just right, it has that sporty look, the charging port is awesome; so is the quick 30 minutes charge boost and the display is excellent. This is a great watch for runners but I think it could do so much more than just running, and it would be nice if its band was detachable just in case something happens.

So that's my take, do you know anyone who has one? What did they say about it? Thanks for reading, and enjoy your Friday evening. Stay tuned for more reviews at Technave.com.


Unboxing video


First impression hands-on

*TechNave.com would like to thank Motorola Malaysia for providing us with the Motorola 360 Sport (1st Gen) for this review. It allowed us to do a more in-depth review and highlight more features.