It’s smartwatch refresh season.

At IFA, Motorola announced three new Moto 360 smartwatches: a large size, a small size and a sport model.

Motorola’s news was unsurprising given the number of leaked images and real-world spy shots that gave us a good look at the smartwatches ahead of time.

The smartwatches come in two sizes: 42mm (diameter) and 46mm. I didn’t feel like the original Moto 360 was too chunky, but I like the smaller model.

The new Moto 360 smartwatches are more watch-like than the original. They’ve still got a round display and the ugly “flat tire” (that blacked-out slice of the screen on the bottom), but the overall design is more stylish and comfier to wear. As before, the reason for the flat tire is for an ambient light sensor, but I can’t get over how distracting it is. The Huawei Watch, the LG Watch Urbane and even the LG G Watch R have full displays, which allows them to look even more watch-like.

I got to feel a number of leather and metal bands and they felt fantastic. Again, they’re far more polished and comfortable to wear than the previous Moto 360. Customers will be able to customize their own Moto 360 to their liking in a variety of colors, bezel textures and straps through Moto Maker. There’s even a “women’s collection” with more feminine band options like a leather bracelet.

You’ll find strap lugs on the new Moto 360 watches, which will support a variety of easy-to-detach straps from both Motorola and third parties. The crown button has also moved from the 3 o’clock position to the 2 o’clock mark, resembling the Huawei Watch.

The 42mm Moto 360 has a 1.37-inch screen with 360 x 326 resolution for 263 ppi. And the 46mm model has a 1.56-inch display with 360 x 330 resolution for 233 ppi.

The rest of the insides have also been upgraded. Both smartwatches are powered by by 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor and come with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and a 400 millamp-hour (mAh) battery that’s rated for up to two days.

The Moto 360 Sport, as its name implies, is designed for fitness. It’s got a silicone strap wrapped around its aluminum case and it’s water-resistant up to three feet for up to 30 minutes.

The Sport has the same specs as the new Moto 360s, but it also has a built-in GPS for tracking speed, distance, etc.

Since you’ll likely be training or running with it on, it has a special Ambilight display mode, which displays the time with lower contrast and grayscale to make it easier to see outdoors. I didn’t get to poke around a working unit; Motorola only had a dummy model to try on for fit.

All three Moto 360 smartwatches require an smartphone running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or higher or an iPhone running iOS 8.2 or higher.

Pre-orders for the 42mm and 46mm Moto 360 smartwatches start on Sept. 2 on Motorola.com, Bestbuy.com and the Google Store; they’ll ship in mid-Sept. The smartwatches will cost between $299 and $429.99.

Motorola says pricing and availability for the Moto 360 Sport will announced at a later date.

Author: Raymond Wong
Source: Mashable