News & Reviews:   Motorola smartwatch

The first smartwatches to come out often looked like thick squarish slabs of touchscreen on a strap. They offered limited usability as companion devices to your smartphone or mobile device and couldn't do much on their own. The Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch changed all that by by being the first round smartwatch and now, there are many other round smartwatches as well. Motorola went on to claim that the Moto 360 would actually look and feel like existing watches. Did they manage to do that and still deliver an awesome smartwatch experience? We find out in the full review of the Motorola Moto 360 in this article.

The Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch looks very good as one of the few round smartwatches out in the market. While it hasn't officially arrived here in Malaysia yet, it is available at third-party sellers like SatuGadgetDotCom and DirectD for as low as RM899. We managed to get some hands-on time with this round timepiece and checked out it's elegant design, comfortable premium leather strap and awesome looking watch faces. Check it out in for yourself in the Motorola Moto 360 hands-on video in this article.

As the first round smartwatch the Motorola Moto 360 not only turns heads for it's gorgeous good looks but also for it's gorgeous round box. We take a closer look at what else comes with the Motorola Moto 36 smartwatch in our unboxing video below. While it isn't available officially, the Motorola Moto 360 is available for around RM899 at third party sellers like SatuGadgetDotCom and DirectD. Tech specs and features include Android Wear, a heart rate sensor, pedometer, wireless charging and more. Stay tuned for the hands-on video and full review in a bit.

Google recently unveiled devices for their new Android Wear wearable operating system with three new smartwatches from major brands. This includes the LG G Watch, Motorola Moto 360 and Samsung Gear Live. While the Motorola Moto 360 and LG G Watch have both been announced, the Samsung Gear Live makes it's first appearance here. However, it is more or less the same in both look and feel as a Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch. Check out the tech specs and features of the LG G Watch, Motorola Moto 360 and Samsung Gear Live below:

• LG G Watch
• 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor
• 1.65-inch display (IPS, 280 x 280 pixel resolution)
• 512MB RAM
• 4GB storage
• 63g
• 400 mAh battery
• Compatible with device running Android 4.3 + Bluetooth 4.0
• IP67 certified
• $229 (RM740)

Motorola have already announced the Moto 360 officially but have yet to offer any of the juicy tech specs, features and other details. However, some images of how the smartwatch could be customized with different watchbands have appeared. As one of the few round smartwatches in the market, the Moto 360 looks to be coming with a choice of leather, various types of metal and rubber or silicon wristbands. The images also show a bit more of the overall design for the smartwatch so check it out for yourself below:

In a Google+ Hangout, Jim Wicks, Chief designer of the Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch discussed the recently announced device. While he did bring along one on his wrist, not much was revealed. However, now we know that the Moto 360 has a 1.8-inch display, features an orientation-free design, doesn't have a built-in camera and is designed to be water resistant. While the orientation-free feature means that the screen will flip to a readable position regardless of which wrist you put it on, the other details probably mean that you won't be able to go swimming with this smartwatch. While he didn't explain about compatibility it was implied that the Moto 360 should work with most Android 4.3 devices. Still no news on Malaysia release dates or pricing but we hope that they've solved other smartwatch issues as well. For now, check out the video in this article.

Word that Google was working on an extension of Android designed for wearables has been around for quite some time. In a surprise move, Google have announced Android Wear, a mobile operating system for wearables. The main focus of Android Wear looks to provide location and context related information when and where you need it while offering voice commands, much like the current Google Now. Rather than use buttons, most of the interface that we could see relies on gestures like swipes. Both LG and Motorola have already announced their Android Wear driven smartwatches and we're thinking other smartwatch devs like ASUS, Samsung, HTC and Huawei could be developing Android Wear wearables as well. So far, most Android Wear devices seem to be smartwatches, and there is no information yet on how it might run smartglasses or a different kind of wearable, but these are still early days. For now, check out the videos in this article.

We've been hearing news and rumours that Motorola would be coming out with a smartwatch for quite some time, especially since they were so close to Google at the time but it seems that now is the time for them to reveal it. Calling it the Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch, the device looks to use a circular touchscreen, premium metal frame and a choice of leather, plastic or metal wrist bands as you need them. While Motorola have not provided detailed information regarding tech specs and features just yet, it will be powered by Android Wear, Google's recent wearable only operating system designed for wearable devices. While we've seen round smartwatches before, the Motorola Moto 360 makes them look ugly by comparison. Check out the intro video for yourself in this article.

Like a couple of other smartwatch makers, it isn't the first time Motorola have come up with a smartwatch. Back in 2012 they came out with the Motorola MOTOACTV, which was a smartwatch health tracker fitness device that didn't really fly off the shelves. Now it seems like Motorola may be coming back on the smartwatch bandwagon as Rick Osterloh, Vice President of Motorola was quoted as saying that the new Motorola smartwatch would look good at the same time. He didn't really reveal all that much about other tech specs and details but his exact words were:

“Right now, there are no wearable products you actually want to wear, and it’s because they’re all extremely ugly”

While Motorola have yet to show off any smartwatch, much less a flexible display smartwatch they seem like one of the more likely companies to do so. Not only is Motorola responsible for many of the world's firsts in the mobile phone industry, they also have big pockets Google backing them up. Recent patent applications from Motorola suggest that we could see a flexible display smartwatch from them before long. The patent looks like a standard interlinked metal watch band with a flexible display overlay but there don't seem to be any other tech specs or features that may make it more unique. Since this is still just a patent application there are no Malaysia release dates yet, but it does mean that Motorola are planning something in the smartwatch department, so stay tuned.