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Apple Watch vs Moto 360 (2015): Which one should you buy? [Video]

Now that Android Wear is officially compatible with iOS devices there’s a lot more smartwatch love to go around, at least for Apple fans. Android users have had a taste of the first generation, but Motorola’s new Moto 360 is one of the many new options available for both sides for the fence. The question is, should you give Motorola your money?

If you’re not familiar with the first generation or Android Wear in general, you can check out our Moto 360 review here. This year Motorola has updated the internals to closely match the other smartwatch offerings on the market, but does it pack enough to win over the hearts of iPhone users? Like Apple, Motorola has two different sizes available for this year’s Moto 360. There’s a 42mm version which is the same as Apple’s largest offering and a slightly bigger 46mm version for those who prefer chunkier watches.

Each model packs a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor, 4GB of storage, and 512MB of RAM. On the 42mm version there’s a 1.37-inch display with a 360×325 resolution, while the 46mm features a 1.56-inch display coming in at 360×330. In comparison, the 42mm Apple Watch’s 1.5-inch OLED display has a slightly higher pixel density with its 312×390 resolution.

Both devices are water-resistant as well, which is definitely a must-have on any electronic device worn on your wrist. Activity tracking is available with heart rate sensors on each device and it’s safe to say you’ll get about a day’s worth of use on a full charge, though Motorola claims the Moto 360 will last up to 1.5 to 2 days depending on which size option you choose. Either way, expect to charge any of these watches at night.

Check out our Moto 360 (2015) vs Apple Watch video below:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXGANDAVF-w]

Comparing the sizes, you’ll notice that the 46mm Moto 360 isn’t too much larger than the 42mm Apple Watch, but the difference is really present when worn on your wrist. I prefer the 42mm look of the Moto 360, but anything smaller than that would just look funny on my arm.

When it comes to customization, the Moto 360 definitely wins. First off, it accepts any 22mm watch band with the new lugs that were added this time around, but with Apple you’ll need to stick to proprietary bands which can run you a bit of cash if you go with the official offerings. You can even take it a step further and completely customize the colors and variation of the Moto 360 using Moto Maker.

For software customization, Apple may have the lead here. Both offer customized watch faces, but there’s a lot more to do (almost too much) with Apple’s watchOS interface than you’ll find on Android Wear. Android Wear’s simplicity may be seen as a positive aspect though depending on who you ask. You can also take phone calls and use Siri on the Apple Watch, while the Moto 360 will only respond to voice search and Google Now.

With the Moto 360 your primary method of input is going to be the touch screen. Navigating through menus, apps, and more will all happen with a swipe of the finger, but you can use motion gestures with your wrist to flip through various notifications. On the Apple Watch, most navigation is done with the touch screen, but there’s also a Digital Crown on the side that will allow for scrolling and zoom in certain situations and a couple of buttons to perform various tasks, Unfortunately, the relocated button on the new Moto 360 will simply put the device to sleep when pressed, but again the entire story here is simplicity.

If you’re only in need of notifications, it may be safer to stick with the Moto 360, but its $299 entry point for a base model may drive potential customers over to an Apple Watch for native support that starts at $349 for the Sport model. It’s nice to see Android Wear playing nicely with iOS, but there’s an obvious risk taken given that Google can only support so much without being able to tap into the full potential of iOS. At the end of the day, this choice comes down to personal preference, but if you’re aiming for simplicity it’s quite possible that you’ll be happy with the Moto 360 or any Android Wear offering that’s compatible with iOS.

Which one do you prefer? Did Google’s latest Android Wear compatibility announcement change your mind about buying or keeping an Apple Watch? Obviously if you’re on Android, Apple Watch isn’t an option, but let us know what you think.

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Comments

  1. Android wear is crap… it’s not really useful if you use Android, but if you use iOS it’s absolutely a dumbwatch…

    • Ertem Esiner - 8 years ago

      You just said crap to my favourite device, so you must be right…

      Anyways, try to be more analytic than an asshole ;)

      • Chris Isaman - 8 years ago

        its not android wears problem its apples problem they restrict what android wear can do on a iPhone.

    • James Noobie - 8 years ago

      Android Wear works well for me. You clearly never have owned an android wear device. For an hardcore apple faniac user, I’d get an Apple Watch. I really do appreciate the design and customization Motorola is king at, and the Moto 360 is a very solid smartwatch and will get you through your day. You need to be more open minded.

  2. Apple Watch all the way!

  3. Mathieu L. (@mletourn) - 9 years ago

    You should have showed us what was compatible and what is not… really not useful for a “review”.

    • incredibilistic - 9 years ago

      Pretty simple decision. Unless you’re okay with giving up things like Siri, Apple Pay, AirPlay, text message integration, calendars, mail, etc., there’s no reason to invest in an Android Wear device. There’s no real incentive for Apple to make Android Wear more compatible or become more feature-rich than Apple Watch so whatever interaction/integration it has with iOS today likely won’t expand in the future.

      Unless someone’s really Jones’n for a round smartwatch there’s really no reason to invest in Android Wear.

      • jxslepton - 9 years ago

        I see gen 1 moto 360’s for close to $100 and only speaking for what I use my apple watch for I’d only be losing voice dictation to reply to text messages.

        You still receive all of the notifications you’d receive on an apple watch.

        You’d be losing:
        Siri, Apple Pay, AirPlay, text message integration

  4. lkrupp215 - 9 years ago

    First of all the typical iPhone user wouldn’t even consider buying an Android watch. Second, this certainly looks like a pitch for Android Wear being a “halo” product that would entice users away from iOS altogether. Well brother, that ain’t going to work. Samsung is even toying with the idea of making its Tizen watches work with iOS. But they will all be half-assed pairings and syncing. For example, you can see that you are getting a phone call on your Android Wear watch paired with an iPhone BUT you can’t answer that call. You must pull out the iPhone to do that. See what I mean.

  5. RP - 9 years ago

    Moto 360 is really tacky looking. Wish them luck trying to give them away this Holliday season.

  6. varera (@real_varera) - 9 years ago

    Well… you have it, apple watch it is…

  7. Rasmussen (@Twitboydk) - 9 years ago

    Im gonna get a Moto360 and most likely the 46mm. I have an apple watch already. I´d like to switch between them both as I like

  8. PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

    “Moto360”?

    Typically Apple, having the competition running around in circles.

  9. rogifan - 9 years ago

    Um how can you compare considering Android Wear doesn’t have all the hooks into iOS that Watch does?

  10. Should you wear a diaper and poop yourself, or use a toilet?

    That headline would present a story with more merit. *facepalm* Moto.. FFS.

  11. modeyabsolom - 9 years ago

    The Moto 360 both in its looks and interface seems like a toy next to the Apple Watch! I’ve said here in the very recent past, that I prefer the idea of a circular smartwatch to that of a rectangular device, but so far with this and even Samsung’s G2 I’m increasingly thinking that Apple’s take on the smartwatch is a better one!

  12. David Funk (@dfunktwit) - 9 years ago

    What does “Aim for simplicity” mean. Is it “Settle for less?” Please don’t give me any of those “complicated” “features” to confuse my widdle mind? How well does that heart rate sensor work, btw, it looks to me a much simpler/less sophisticated sensor array (e.g.: no array). What Android only features are dysfunctional with iOS?

  13. dugbug - 9 years ago

    My that’s ugly. Why don’t they get a designer to help them. Also text on the round screen is just painful as the usable area is severely compromised.

    once apps run natively we will start to get watch benchmarks as comparators

  14. kpom1 - 9 years ago

    Is that the 42mm or 38mm Apple Watch in the photo? Also, is that the 22mm band or the 16mm “women’s” option? If it’s the 22mm, I think the size of the watch would look “off” compared to the band in the women’s option.

    Right now, if I were considering a watch other than the Apple Watch, I’d probably have to go with the Gear S2, assuming that Samsung eventually makes it work with iOS. It’s the only one that is using the round shape for a purpose (the rotating bezel), rather than just to make it look the same shape as an analog watch.

    As for customization, aren’t there some third party bands for the Apple Watch now? Some of them have adapters for using 22mm bands.

  15. mikezmac - 9 years ago

    You are not limited to apple stock bands. That’ s incorrect. There is a large and growing number of approved 3rd party bands available

  16. It is very stupid to put a round display to read text. Smartwatches should have a square display.

  17. usmansaghir - 9 years ago

    Apple should have made the apple watch slightly bigger then its current size. Obviously Apple has everyone running around them. Apple has the biggest loyal customers. People who own iPhones wont really be buying a samsung watch or any other andriod watch.

  18. bb1111116 - 9 years ago

    I like the appearance of round watches with lugs (including this new 360) but for iOS the Apple Watch remains my top choice for variious reasons.
    – I don’t like the look of Android Wear. It goes from a black screen with white lettering to a bright white screen with black letters. Terrible consistency.
    – The Moto 360’s flat tire cuts down usable screen area and it also looks bad chopping off the bottom of the screen.
    – The Gear S2 Tizen OS is more consistent/better looking than Android Wear but it hasn’t been released yet to check reliability and it’s not yet available for iOS.
    – Pebble has very slow customer service (a week + for a response) which is unacceptible to me. And the decent looking metal one, the Pebble Time Steel, has a small screen.
    – Finally, all 3rd party smartwatches for iOS will have only basic functions. No Apple Pay. No answering phone calls. As well as other limitations with using certain apps.
    – And the price of the new metal watches are getting close to the cost of an Apple Watch Sport.
    * If I’m going to pay ~$350 for a 3rd party watch (a Gear S2 for instance), why not spend $50 more and get a fully functional Apple Watch Sport?

  19. dharrison9 - 9 years ago

    Without the two pictures and one video, it would be easy to read this article and assume the writer had neither and Apple Watch nor a Moto 360. And here’s where 9to5Mac doesn’t seem to understand the Apple News threat. The “article” I should have read above should be titled, “Can you live with a smartwatch that isn’t Apple Watch?” After all, we’re on an Apple fanboy-website, or, at least, a website that caters to Apple supporters and/or product owners. A much more interesting review could be made about how the integration of non-Apple smartwatches leaves whatever price difference between a basic Sport and the competition is the cost of being able to answer a call in the shower or reply to a text from your wrist.

    The part of the article devoted to how the Apple Watch can take advantage of Siri, dictation, answering phone calls, third party apps, Glances, etc., is reduced to two sentences: ” You can also take phone calls and use Siri on the Apple Watch, while the Moto 360 will only respond to voice search and Google Now.” and, “It’s nice to see Android Wear playing nicely with iOS, but there’s an obvious risk taken given that Google can only support so much without being able to tap into the full potential of iOS.” Immediately following the last quote comes, “At the end of the day, this choice comes down to personal preference […]”. Really? Does anyone at 9to5Mac think that the choice between using an Android Wear smartwatch and an Apple Watch comes down to personal preference? It doesn’t eventually come down to a question of function, extensibility, HealthKit, WiFi, Bluetooth, FaceTime…? Does skipping Force Touch all together make this article any more complete in describing how input methods vary from watch to Watch? And lest we forget mentioning any other additional features that come with watchOS 2.0, probably coming next week. The author forgot.

    I look at the tiny amount of problems I have with this article and think of the many more I could type up if I could be bothered. The revelation comes in the fact that someone (editor) at 9to5Mac decided that printing (posting) this article was a good idea, and either didn’t bother to read it, or didn’t care about the missing focus, content or information and put it out anyway. So, who is this article for? The core readership knows that the Apple Watch is really the only viable option for a wearable if your on iOS. The competition is on borrowed time, because it takes one security measure or API change to make their watches unable to display notifications. The competition will never gain access to Siri or deep tasks because of the nature of writing programs for iOS (i.e. background processes). They’ll never be able to reply to a text, action a notification from an Apple application, use Apple Pay with your watch or perform many other tasks that we haven’t even thought of yet with ANY Android Wear watch. It’s that simple. You can buy a glorified notifications display for your wrist that can break with any Apple update (which usually hits at least 80% of the install base within a few months), or you can get the Apple Watch. That’s the core readership and the basics of what they should know. If they don’t know these facts, then this article helps them in no way further understand these basics. Which begs the question again, who is this article for? It’s neither informative nor interesting enough to be worth publicizing the publication with, so it must be click-bait.

    And that’s where the advertising and blockers and tracking that 9to5Mac went in depth about previously has left a more lasting mark on this entire generation of web publications. This article will rank highly on Google, and is most certainly SEO-optimized, but of what real value is it? No offense to the author, but it tells me nothing that reading either company’s product PR page wouldn’t have told me. Nothing about your experience comes out in the article. In fact, I have found it impossible to find the word ‘I’ in the article above. When Apple News comes around, do you think pollution like this will survive the cut, jockeying for space next to articles from The Verge, WIRED, et al at the top of my ‘For You’ tab? It’s not just 9to5Mac, but Engadget and the rest. A post of spec sheet comparisons or apes of press releases from Apple and the rest (this means liveblogs, too) will fall to the wayside as the official sources become contributors, as well. It will be original editorial content, meaningful reviews and in-depth news analysis that will allow web publications to survive the end that print journalists are facing. Only, it will happen much faster in digital.

    So, anyway. Android Wear, Pebble, and any emerging competitors are all fundamentally flawed and will never be able to compete with the Apple Watch. It’s easy. If you buy a smartwatch, chances are, a friend of yours has one, too. When you meet and compare, there are three possibilities if you have an iPhone and a smartwatch that is not an Apple Watch. Your friend has an Android phone and an Android Wear watch. He shows you how powerful integration is and how much better the experience is when both OSes are created by the same company. Your friend has an iPhone and an Apple Watch. He shows you the very same thing: a much better experience when both OSes are created by the same company. He also shows you a relatively simple pricing structure and easy to find customization options for the Apple Watch. Or, finally, your friend has the same set up as yourself with an iPhone and an Android Wear watch. You confirm to each other how great it is, while lamenting that you don’t have the integration that comes with having both phone and watch OSes created by the same company. It becomes a really easy choice: Apple Watch if you have an iPhone, Android Wear if you have an Android phone. That’s my opinion, of course.

  20. pdjhh - 9 years ago

    I’d really like to see filter options on 9to5mac so that those of us who are totally dis-interested in all things watch could make a selection and filter all watch articles from our viewing experience.

  21. Rogerio Alves - 9 years ago

    apple need a real design, and watch was made to be rounded not square… that’s it..

  22. oldhaus fibers - 9 years ago

    I thought “Square”was a `70’s thing…as were many of the “geek” watches of the time. Round is so much more classic! I’m an 80% kind of person. Moto X2, Moto Hint, Moto360…crisp black leather band. To me the 20%’s are “SQUARE”.

    IMHO

  23. gghost9 - 9 years ago

    First of all Apple watch is the biggest piece of over priced crappie out there! And Android wear sux….. it’s not intuitive or functional at all! Enough said- if samsung gear s2 looks and works as well as it shows on the vids and discussions then that’ll be the ONE to beat!

  24. mytawalbeh - 9 years ago

    Moto 360 has the better look than Gear S2 but neither of them will make me move away of Apple Watch. Main key features are Full functionality, high Quality, other cool features and design (which I still prefer the rounded shape, I hope to see both options when Watch 2 comes).

  25. Njames Zhul - 9 years ago

    Frankly buy a mechanical one, or the Apple Watch this ugly girly watch and it’s true (I’m designer of watches) , because it’s the only one with a software like this…. But I’m not a girl…..wtf

  26. i love my Apple Watch

  27. Trevor DaDa Farrell - 9 years ago

    you Apple Fanboys are hilarious….
    few quick points
    none of you are James Bond, why do you feel the need to talk to your wrist… cut it out, youre being ridiculous.
    Can’t get testy about the shape… i guarantee that 90% of you dont own a square faced watch, so stop acting like its the norm
    And also the “OK Google” function works better and is more accurate than SIRI (look it up).
    Apple is late to the watch game and are trying to play catch up, but The product is solid..
    I look at these watches like i looked at tablets, you can live without it, but if you have it, you will use it all the time.
    Enjoy your watches, whichever you choose

    • jxslepton - 9 years ago

      I have an apple watch and honestly don’t get $350+ of use out of it.

      My iPad air with the ios9 update on the other hand is getting a lot more use than my macbook.

  28. long2know - 9 years ago

    After watching the video, the Moto360 looks more polished, looks less like a toy watch, and seemed to perform better.

  29. mannyleaders - 9 years ago

    The Moto 360 is just a much better looking watch IMO.

  30. From a design perspective I definitely prefer the Motorola watch. It looks like a real watch and not a Fischer Price toy like the Apple watch. But I’m not sure I’d be comfortable getting an Android Wear watch if I was an iPhone user. You’re already missing out on important native functionality now, and in the future, when Apple adds even more features and functionality to the Apple Watch it’ll be even worse.