TSXy Luster

Seriously? If you want to go down that crap route, then since the watch doesn't exist according to you, your questions and statements are invalid as well.



If you are making conclusions on battery life solely based on battery size, you are doing it wrong.

And if you had bothered to actually gain some knowledge into it, you'd see that there is a sim card slot for the watch.

Mugen.Justice

ASUS smart watch to be called the ZenWatch; features a curved display.


http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...-news/#!bM4Lxn


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ChodTheWacko

I think very few people would buy a phone/data line solely for their watch. (unlike say, for their tablet).

Following up on TSXy Luster's point, I suppose there is a market for people who want to swap sim cards back and forth between their phone/tablet and their watches. Runners, perhaps.

CocheseUGA

If you are on a family share plan, that's only $10 a month or so extra. For someone who runs or bikes a lot, it's pretty tempting. Particularly if you can also stream music. No more phone on my arm bullshit.

Whiskers

Phone in pocket with a Pebble is great

speedemon90

Moto 360 review is up!

Everything looks good but that battery life... 12 hours.. yikes

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/5/610...oto-360-review

is300eater

the guy says he gets about 12 hours battery life (even though Motorola claims 24 hours)

I hate today this, but I think it's getting more attention ONLY because it's round... but like he said in the video, Android Wear was meant for square face screens. I'll wait for the Samsung Gear S start popping up in Craigslist (eventually)

speedemon90

There's supposedly going to be an update to android wear in october. Hopefully it helps for round watches. Also I'm hoping android gives some leeway for manuf. to add software capabilities. Keep the theme the same but maybe some tweaks to get more out of it?

I think I'll consider this around christmas.

Also when are batteries going to get better!!!! Our tech is outpacing batteries like crazy.

ChodTheWacko

The moto 360 battery life is a spectacular disappointment.

CocheseUGA

Want to see longer-term results, and ones from people who know how to test battery life. Verge does not.

TeknoKing

So who is buying the Moto 360 today?

ChodTheWacko

It's been reported by multiple people now.
There is always the problem of 'we're testing it, so we'll use it like crazy' which is slightly abnormal use. Also, you generally don't want the default of EVERY single notification goes to your watch.

For my g-mail account I have filte 'can wait' mails, so they I don't get notified on the. That cuts down on the wrist buzzing a lot.

There's still the counterargument that a smartwatch should last you, even if only barely, through a heavy use day.

speedemon90

Whats a heavy use day with a smartwatch though? IMO Smartwatches arent supposed to be used much. So I'm thinking, if the watch can't get a whole day with "normal" use then that's bad. And I mean normal use as you're not using your watch much.

is300eater

For me, it's whatever notifications I have it alerting, text messages, Gmail, Hangouts (yes, I separated my SMS from Hangouts), incoming calls, missed calls... so every time there's a notification, I glance at it. And needless to say, when I want to look at the time.

Also, sometimes I don't mean to "wake" it up, but naturally it does when you raise your arm up to a certain position, and that happens throughout the day

again, my Gear 2 Neo will last easily 2 days... close to 3 from a full charge

Doom878

I'd prefer the face stay on the whole time as it's supposed to also be a decorative accessory. But then battery would be like 6 hours.

is300eater

I think if you were able to make the screen stay on all the time (and maybe there's an option), you'd get over it really quick. It would be very distracting IMO

Whiskers

Bestbuy didnt have one to play with.

Doom878

With the watch face though. It'll look weird IMO when someone has a watch turned off on their wrist until they actually look at it to wake it up.

CocheseUGA

I think that's the problem I have with most people testing these gadgets - they are people who get a lot of notifications, and a lot of notifications they set to instant fetch. I want to see results after a month or so, and more real world - texts, messages, mail fetch at no more than 15 minute intervals or so. I'm hoping Anandtech gets a hold of one and puts it through the grinder.

CCColtsicehockey

Was going to pick one up right away but when I saw the initial battery results I have decided to wait for some more reviews in a few weeks.

Doom878

How likely will a firmware help with battery life?

ChodTheWacko

It's certainly possible. I've seen plenty of phones take a battery hit (or get a battery bump) after a firmware update. On the moto 360 forum, someone noted that the watch seems to ALWAYS do a heartrate check every 5 minutes. That's a totally needless waste of power.

Tweaking how much the display is on/shuts off can have a notable effect as well. Screen seems to be one of the biggest drain problems (not unlike phones, really).

Some other side musings about smartwatches:

After thinking about how I use my pebble I think I'm more interested in a square screen. For e-mails/texts/etc I think you just lose too much text when you cut off the corners. (20%? more?) I find it odd the specs for the Moto 360 say the screen resolution is 360x360. I guess pi*180*180 is too hard to comprehend.

So the asus zenwatch has my eye now. Gear S, perhaps, although it's awfully big. Depends on app selection, I guess.

speedemon90

One review I read is putting a lot of blame on the processor used in this watch. Its a processor from 2010 apparently and its an energy hog.

What type of refresh cycle do you think these smartwatches will have? I can imagine them being on a cycle thats faster than 1 year.

ChodTheWacko

Well, After hmming and hawing, I happened to see a moto 360 at best buy and so I just grabbed it.

My thoughts after a few days of use:

Comparison vs pebble:
Pebble pros:
Battery life (3-4 days vs 1 day).
Always on screen means you always see the time (see 'ambient mode' below).
Arguably better app support (for now) - since it's been around longer.
Stronger vibration.
Waterproof vs water resistant (people swim with their pebbles).

360 Pros:
Looks like a cool watch vs a toy/gizmo
Better long term app support since it's easier to program for.
Larger, color screen.
Qi wireless charging so you (might) have chargers already.

Further thoughts:
1) Battery life. I don't run many apps yet, and I don't get a ton of notifications and I easily get a full day. yesterday went from 8:30 am to midnight and had 35% left. This does mean you MUST charge everyday, although it charges quickly (~ 1.5 for full charge). Run certain apps, however, and you'll kill your watch battery. It's a small battery - it can't handle cpu thrashing. Forget about games, or video or the like. Haven't tried nav with it yet.

2) There is occasional lag. This makes learning to use the watch confusing at first. It's most noticeable when I wake the watch up and try to swipe for the "wear mini launcher". It often takes a couple of swipes. Double tap to the menu, and swipe to bottom (to the 'start app' option), on the other hand, never lags. 95% of the time, it's fine. It was snappier after the first firmware update, so this may be tunable.

3) Android wear notifications work exactly the same as phone notifications, with a *gotcha*. For example, Wechat doesn't use a "vibrate notification". It does a regular vibration (like a game would use). This means no vibration on the watch, and I was missing messages. This was really pissing me off until I found a program called "Augmented Smartwatch Pro" which among other things, allows you to send a "vibration notification" for any app. Now it acts like it should.

4) Round vs square - Probably a wash. You can make a larger round watch without being awkward, but you lose 'corners'.

5) Apps that are cool:
A) Take a picture via my watch, and SEE the resulting picture on the watch. Good for say, tripod self shots.
B) instant google now access is nice for quick lookups/note taking. "how many ounces in a cup", "take a note - do XXXX".
C) pause/resume movies I'm watching on chromecast.

6) There is an 'always on' mode, called 'ambient mode' but you're going to pay the price, battery wise. If you turn it off, and you rotate the watch towards you (to read it) then it auto lights up. It's a bit overly sensitive - when I drive it keeps coming on, and when I talk I'm somewhat animated with my hands and it keeps coming on. I'd love the ability to turn this motion gesture off.

7) I don't notice the black bar, but I use a black watch face. If you run an app that has a full screen colored background it's pretty obvious it's a circle with a section cut off the bottom. In general, however, if the top of the screen is black, it feels totally natural that the bottom is black as well.
I think an ideal watch would have an amoled screen where you want a black background most of the time anyway.


So all in all, i'm pretty happy with it (now that I found the vibration app). The occasional lag is annoying.
I'm staying at someone's place during the weekend, and it's definitely annoying to have to now lug a wireless charger there.
(versus just top off the pebble on friday, and I'm good to go till monday).

Any questions, let me know.

Doom878

Wait you are animated with your hands when you talk? You seem so mellow in your posts

Can you take a better pic than Moto with it on your wrist to get an idea sizewise?

Whiskers

Nice review. Im still waiting for the Apple Watch, though so considering a Pebble Steel.

ChodTheWacko

hah - yeah, the internet is funny that way.
I took a picture to post on facebook, but looking at that pic is the same as looking at any other picture on google. Whether it is too big or not depends on the thickness of your wrist.

It's a good sized watch, but men's watches are larger in general. It looks fine on my wrist - my wrist is probably, oh, 1 cm wider than the watch?

Doom878

Yea being that it's in BB I'll have to just go try it on.

CocheseUGA

Lots of reports saying that battery life improved on the 360 with the latest update. I dunno, I like my regular watches too much.

is300eater

That's what I said about my watches until I got a smartwatch.

...but, it's all relative to people's lifestyle, for me, a quick glance at the watch whenever there's a notification rather taking my phone out of the pocket simply outweighs wearing a regular watch. It's not being lazy, it's convenient so many ways (for example, last week I shot a fashion show, 7 straight nights, and while I was shooting away, obviously holding my camera, anytime there's a notification, a quick glance at the flick of my wrist and I was done, no need to pull the phone out. For me, with that kind of convenience, I'll take that over a regular watch anytime.)

CocheseUGA

Notifications just aren't that important to me. I mean, if it's life or death, call my ass.

is300eater

Thus, the part where I said "it's all relative".

is300eater

something else I've been wanting to share... I know the Samsung Gear 2 Neo isn't a very exciting watch... but I got it for cheap so Anyways, before I got it, I watched a bunch of YouTube video reviews where a lot of the reviewers claimed that the pedometer doesn't "seem" every accurate. I irks me that people would do reviews on gadgets and make that claim without actually putting it to the test. Well, I've actually done several 100 steps tests while walking around DT Vancouver... where I'd literally take a 100 steps and then see how many more steps the pedometer reading would be, and 10 out of 10 times it's been off within 4 steps... and often times it would off by only 1-2 steps. I would say 4 out of 10 times, it was exactly 100 steps. So, it's pretty damn accurate.

Why is this important enough to bring up? Well, AGAIN... this falls under the... "lifestyle" comment above (my own comment). Maybe you are already active and is always on your feet... maybe you do cardio on a regular basis, and the pedometer isn't needed... but for a lot of people like me... that's not as active as I once were... The pedometer reading (I have it displaying constantly along with the time) reminds me when I've been lazy... or being a couch potato. Maybe, it's early evening and only got 5000 steps... Or worst, when it's late in the evening, and I've only gotten in 3000 steps... It reminds me that too many days like that is one of the reasons why I've gained so much weight over the past 3 years. So, FOR ME... that's another feature to assist in my fitness goal and get out of my sedentary lifestyle

ChodTheWacko

Actually, one of the things I like most about a smartwatch is that I no longer miss calls. Before having a watch I'd semi frequently miss calls because I couldn't see or hear my phone (i tend to wear headphones when I watch movies or play games). That doesn't happen anymore.

As with all tech, however, it's a matter of what functions does it give me, and how useful is that to me. I personally don't use the fitness stuff, and I wish I could shut it off to save battery. I think smartwatches are primarily useful for notification heavy people.

Doom878

True. I put my ringer low at the office and with vibrate on even with the phone next to me I miss a call

CocheseUGA

I'm very tempted by it, but then I start thinking of it like this: I have to wear it all the time for it to be of use. As in, any time I'd want to wear a watch, I'd be reaching for it. That's why I said I like my other watches too much. For those that only have a watch or two, or are not watch wearers at all, it might be a different story.

I'll probably give in at some point after my phone comes in if I like it, and then end up under-using it. Perhaps if it goes under $200 it won't be as painful.

is300eater

[QUOTE=CocheseUGA;15179456For those that only have a watch or two, or are not watch wearers at all, it might be a different story.[/QUOTE]

I'm one of those people actually. I have...or I mean "had" a thing for G-Shocks (and I'm talking about the higher end ones that are msrp at $600-$700) and a Tag Heuer (used to have 2 of them but sold one). I no longer have a desire to wear them now

Whiskers

Best Buy has the Pebble on sale for $99 and the Steel for $199. Get one.

Doom878

Went to BB last night and got to play with a Moto X and saw the Pebble and Samsung watches. Yeah I'm going to wait as I wasn't very impressed. I love convenience and gadgets and agree with the uses but the Moto just didn't feel like a solid watch and I definitely would only go steel band. I'm still going to wait to see how it evolves next year. The square watches I don't think I'll consider either. Maybe because I'm not really a watch person anyways.

Whiskers

So who wants to buy my pebble?