Moto 360 Sport Coming to US on January 7th

[Mustang02]

Before they found a tumor on her brain, my sister did 97 of a 100 Mile marathon. She's doing good now & running some with her new dog, but days she doesn't think she'll go that crazy again.

Sent from my Nexus 6P

97 is impressive. My friend runs 100s all the time. She ran 4 this year. I volunteered at one, its quite an eye opener.

I hope to get a few half's under my belt this year...err 2016.

 

[kodiak799]

But for the moderate type, it might be a pretty good match.

Battery life could be better (maybe an update will help?). But it's still great to be able to leave the phone at home. So you might have to charge it mid-day. To me there's not much point in wearing that watch all day, so 3-4 hours with GPS and everything else should be sufficient for about 99% of the fitness people out there. I'm more curious to see how it tracks my sleep than knowing my heart rate throughout the day.

There's always the Gear 2 3G, but then you have to pay $5 to add it on a data plan.

Moto Sport is perfect for what I want. I'll be buying on launch date.

 

[Mustang02]

My current 360 tracks my sleep.

 

[gadgetrants]

Built-in app or third-party?

 

[Mustang02]

3rd party. I think my fitbit is standard.

 

[gadgetrants]

3rd party. I think my fitbit is standard.

Something like Sleep as Android I guess. I can't say this authoritatively, but I'd assume in principle that native sleep detection is more hardware optimized than what 3rd parties can do, and take a smaller hit on battery life. The standard for me was the 1st gen Band, which only needed a 30-minute charge each morning after a full day's use plus sleep tracking the previous night, and sometimes a teeny 30-minute run with GPS thrown in for good measure. It's a shame the Moto 360's don't do that, yet,

-Matt

 

[Jeffrey]

The Flat Tire still bothers me.

 

[xeene]

Yeah moto should have stuck that sensor right in the middle of the face dead center. That way most watch hands would rotate around it.

 

[Mustang02]

Moto 360 Sport review: A compromised fitness smartwatch

Nope

 

[kodiak799]

Well, running IS what a fitness watch should do well, since that's about the biggest challenge. And being Android, other apps are supposed to fill the fitness gap (and a few do, at least for lifting).

It's the only Android watch with a HRM and GPS. Your alternatives are IOS (useless without an IPhone or tablet) and Tizen, with Tizen suffering the same issue with a dearth of fitness apps. And to get the Gear S2 sport version, you have to pay for LTE data - $60 a year isn't a trivial expense added to a $300 smartwatch.

I'm going to give the 360 sport a shot. Maybe ultimately I'll go, instead, with the Gear S2 without GPS

 

[gadgetrants]

I'm afraid I'm starting to think of betraying the Android ecosystem and picking up the Garmin 235 ($329) instead. It's a completely no-contest comparison to the Moto 360 Sport, as far as running and daily activity tracking (plus sleep tracking, built in!) are concerned. Plus MUCH butter battery life on the Garmin. The two main things I give up are a touchscreen and Android Wear apps. TBH, the latter has relatively little appeal for me -- the main reason for wearing a smartwatch (for me) is the ability to check phone notifications, and the Garmin does that too. On the other hand I'd really prefer a touch interface. And Garmin's phone app (not to mention the Garmin Connect web) interface is miles (pun intended?) ahead of Moto Body and Google Fit. Again, not a fair comparison.

OTOH, part of me (like @kodiak799) is still very much committed to giving the 360 Sport a fair shake before I decide. In particular, I vividly remember how it was announced in early September, and then no news for over 3 months. I mean a total news lockdown. No leaks, nothing (unless you consider it appearing on Amazon's Italy and UK sites early as "news"). As I've already speculated, that tells me they were having last-minute production issues. Some great ideas in their prototypes were probably not performing to spec on the early production runs. They decided not to wait longer and released an "almost-ready" device. Where have we heard that story before? "Over and over" is the answer. Seems to be the norm these days.

Anyway, to wrap up my harangue, I'll just note that the 2nd gen 360 is regarded as a significant improvement over the first. Seems the logic will work the same for the next Sport, if not the third gen.

-Matt

 

[kodiak799]

If I was a runner, I'd probably go with Garmin. But mainly I want to use a weightlifting app to track my sets. Currently I use my phone, and REALLY looking forward to leaving that at home. Pretty much any Androidwear watch would do, but I decided it would be nice to have a HRM and GPS.

Also looking forward to trying an app that supposedly tracks your sets based on motion! I'm guessing it will be terribly flawed and inaccurate, but still excited to try.

Plus there's those bluetooth locks that will enable me to even leave my keys at home.

I'm just not sure what these reviews were expecting. What I've read has said the GPS is the best of Sammie/Android/Apple on the market, and the HRM is also as accurate as any (though the wrist models are all not that great). Most of the complaints seem to center around battery life - but is there really a difference between a day or day and a half? OK, GPS drains it fast, but how many people regularly go on runs longer than an hour, much less 3?

You could probably quibble with the lack of waterproofing, as it does seem a fail to be a "fitness" watch but not be able to wear it swimming.