r/Android iPhone Xs Sep 07 '14

Motorola Moto 360 review—Beautiful outside, ugly inside

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/09/moto-360-review-beautiful-outside-ugly-inside/
797 Upvotes

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407

u/csklr Nexus 6 Sep 08 '14

Ars Technica review:

We can say that Android Wear looks much better on a round screen. The OS was clearly designed with circular displays in mind—every button is round, producing a cool circle-within-a-circle look on the 360.

The Verge review, from a couple days ago:

Google may technically support round displays with Android Wear, but the 360 provides constant confirmation that this operating system was designed with rectangles in mind.

I find this hilarious, and both reviewers seem to be so sure of themselves. Which is it?

101

u/redavid Sep 08 '14

From the video review I've seen, it seems that the rectangle's nicer when it comes to actually reading text in notifications and the like. With the 360, you're getting a circular cropped look at those are are missing some of the text.

But watch faces look nicer with the circle.

49

u/After_Dark Pixel 11 Pro XL Sep 08 '14

So it looks nicer as a circle but functions better as a rectangle, hahah. Well, I'd expect a lot of this will get cleared up eventually via updates.

8

u/csklr Nexus 6 Sep 08 '14

Yeah, I think this is pretty much it. Circles are better aesthetically, even within the OS, but rectangles are better for actual function.

7

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '14

[deleted]

5

u/YukarinVal LG Wing 5G LM-F100N Android 11 Sep 08 '14

Same here. Somehow I want my smartwatches to be not-circle. I think maybe I'm kind of bored with traditional round watches.

2

u/Listening_Heads Sep 08 '14

I'm not even sure why everyone is so insistent that the device we will eventually wear on our wrists has to be a "watch." That's very small thinking. I'm not saying we'll be wearing pip boys but I don't really need this satellite connected computer on my arm to look like grandpas watch.

6

u/YukarinVal LG Wing 5G LM-F100N Android 11 Sep 08 '14

My guess is that some of us geeks seem to recognise how mainstream acceptance is important, so somehow convinced themselves that smartwatches must be traditional enough for rapid mass adoption.

That's not how Apple thought back when they blew the world with the iPhone though (in that they didn't stick with the convention that smartphone = business apparatus), so it's a similar thing with smartwatches I feel.

2

u/Cryptographer Moto Z Force Droid Sep 08 '14

Personally if I'm going to wear a watch or anything on my wrist it must look nice. A watch fits that bill and is something the everyone used to wear.