Moto 360 vs. LG Watch R. And the winner is …

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Now that we geeks are somewhat jaded after a good fifteen years of waiting and frantically testing hundreds of smartphones, then tablets and other gadgets, we had to find something that excites us again as in the glorious early days of the years 2000.

We are in 2014, and 15 years after the first smartphones, smart health connected objects are timely to satisfy our appetite for novelty and portable, personal and smart health connected innovation, and among them of course, the stars of the moment: watches. What could be more tempting than having a beautiful object on your wrist – something that amateurs and collectors have known for a long time – but which is also full of intelligence, smart health connected to the Internet and incidentally provides you with a lot of information on your health and your daily activity?

Smartwatches have been arriving in force for a few months, and the offer will quickly become overwhelming. The most prominent of the moment are the ones I'm going to talk to you about today: Motorola Moto 360 and the LG Watch R. Their common point: they are both round, unlike the Sony, the first LG Watch, to the Asus ZenWatch or to this incredible and excellent UFO that is the Simvalley. This proves that the manufacturers did not take very long to move on to the second stage of their strategy: after integrating intelligence, make way for design. And when it comes to watch design, the standard is the circular shape (although there are also many rectangular luxury watches).

Because the same manufacturers quickly understood that the level of requirement of watch lovers was probably a notch higher than that of geeks-to-smartphones. Indeed, the objective here is not only to catch the target of the technophiles, but also to attract the esthetes of the tocante, who spend part of their time and their savings looking for a beautiful piece. Kind of early geeks, sort of (no pun intended, of course).

Personally, if you allow me to talk a little about my experience, this is not my first smartwatch. And neither do the manufacturers. My first Review dates back to July 2009, as much to say prehistory in internet time, with this amazing LG (already!) LG Watch Phone LG GD910. Five years ago, the device was already carrying all the technology of a smartphone, and we can therefore consider that this smart health connected watch was more advanced than the ones I am going to talk about today. But its price was dissuasive (around 1000 euros) and the market was not ready. As a result, apart from a few tests in specialized sites, we have never seen the color, and she quickly went to join the high-tech cemetery next to several other #fails.

No, the first "real" smartwatch I used on a daily basis was the excellent MotoActv (from Motorola, too, definitely). A watch rather oriented towards sporting activity but which already offered many additional services (integrated GPS, WiFi, internal mp3 player, etc.). Unfortunately it also knew a fatal fate since hardly launched with great pumps (a stand of 200 m2 just for her at CES 2012 in Las Vegas) it was stupidly abandoned by Motorola, a fairly customary brand of this type of foutage mouth and contempt for customers, without any explanation.

So I have had the Moto 360 and the LG G Watch R for about three weeks, and I alternate their daily use so that I can make an almost fair comparison.

Android Wear: mention good, but can do better

My first impression concerns first of all the operating system that equips the two watches: Android Wear, a simplified derivative dependent on Android. First of all, you should know that Android Wear is only compatible from version 4.3 of Android. Therefore if you have a nice smartphone bought recently but under Android 4.2 and the nice manufacturer does not offer an update, go your way, it will not be compatible with your watch and it will therefore not be able to work. Nice, huh? To find out if your smartphone is Android Wear compatible, go here with it: http://www.android.com/wear/check/

My impression, therefore: Android Wear is nice graphically, easy to activate and configure, but its use is not very intuitive. And all the less since according to the models I tested, namely LG Watch (the first, rectangular), and both of this day, the behavior on certain commands is different: the LG Watch 1 has no button, the Watch R has a very responsive button, while the Moto 360 also offers a button, but with a spongy touch and which I have not yet really understood what it is for as its use is confusing.

On the other hand, the logic of the superimposed screens of notifications also escapes me a little, in particular in their scrolling and display (when it works, because on the Moto it lag or it freezes from time to time): sometimes it takes a scroll vertical, other times a horizontal scroll to the left, and in other cases it requires a scroll to the right. Even if we imagine that there is a logic behind this, I have not yet grasped which one, and that leaves an impression of random behavior in which we get lost easily. An impression which is reinforced by the frequent bugs of the Moto 360, which crashes regularly on a screen without any possibility of leaving it except by pressing the button "wind", whose touch does not inspire confidence and gives no indication on the correct execution of the action. Another somewhat confusing behavior: swiping to the right to return to the previous screen (for example when we are on Activity) does not return to the previous screen but to the time display.

That being with a little of habit, one ends up managing the whole and the movements in a rather instinctive way (towards the right to delete a notification or close a running application), even if one is not always certain of have made the right move. Note, for example, that when you drag an email or email notification, it won't be deleted, but it won't be marked as read in Gmail on your smartphone or PC either. It's a shame, it would quickly clear up irrelevant stuff to keep only important emails and / or those that require a response. But it is in the logic of notifications, which are the same as those which are superimposed on the screen of your smartphone, and which are just there to warn you.

which you will find on the Play Store in the specialized section. I haven't installed much yet but I have tested a few apps, like for example a web browser which allows you to display the sites on the small screen of the watch as best you can, which is not always very practical on a circular dial.

Badapps, which offers superb skins or "faces" that are free, new, or using the design of famous watchmakers (which, however, might pose some intellectual property problems for counterfeiting). Note that Badapps is dedicated to the Moto 360 but the sides work with the LG. To take advantage of this, you must first have installed the application Facer (0.80 euro).

See the official LG G Watch R page

Motorola Moto 360

With the Moto 360, you stay in the same world and at the same time you enter another. The same world is the common Android Wear platform and the round dial. L’autre monde c’est le design et – apparemment – une communauté autour com l’objet plus active et plus « geek ». Il faut dire qu’avec son design dépouillé à l’extrême, un simple cadran rond cerclé d’inox et un bracelet cuir (le mien est beige), on entre dans une autre dimension, celle com la montre com luxe, ou affichée comme telle. Il est d’ailleurs intéressant com noter que si l’encombrement extérieur com l’engin est inférieur à celui com la LG R, son écran est un peu plus grand, 1,56 pouce contre 1,3 pour la LG. com fait le bord com cadran est bien plus fin et l’écran dépasse légèrement com son cadre (0,5 mm environ). Il est donc moins protégé mais on gagne en aisance d’utilisation car lors des tap ou glissements sur l’écran, le doigt n’arrive pas en butée sur le rebord.

3Bluetooth : 4.0Mémoire interne : 4G0 eMMC* (3 Go utiles), 512Mo RAMCapteurs : podomètre, cardioRésistance à l’eau et à la poussière : IP67Bracelet : interchangeableVoir la page officielle com la Moto 360Vous l’aurez compris : pour moi la LG remporte ce comparatif haut la main alors que j’avais un faible au départ pour le look com la Moto.Les deux montres sont disponibles au prix généralement constaté com 249 euros.Que peut-on faire vraiment avec une montre connectée ?La réponse n’est pas universelle. Tout d’abord elle dépendra com la montre choisie. Déjà, toutes les montres Android Wear, même si elles sont très proches, ne possèdent pas les mêmes caractéristiques. On voit déjà qu’entre la LG et la Moto, pourtant sorties en même temps, directement concurrentes, il y a des différences. C’est encore plus vrai avec la Sony SmartWatch 3, qui est dotée d’une puce GPS intégrée lui permettant com s’affranchir d’un smartphone pour le guidage, mais qui en revanche n’est pas dotée d’un capteur cardio. La donne sera encore différente si vous optez pour une montre totalement indépendante d’un smartphone, comme la Simvalley ou la dernière Samsung Gear S sous OS Tizen.Ensuite, la réponse dépendra com vos propres usages : souhaitez-vous avoir toutes vos notifications, ou simplement utiliser votre montre pour monitorer votre activité, ou les deux ?Sachez au final que ces deux montres sont totalement dépendantes d’un smartphone, et qu’il faudra que celui-ci soit dans le champ com réception du BlueTooth qui relie les deux appareils, à savoir tout au plus quelques mètres. Ensuite, ces montres sont surtout des machines à notifications n’autorisant qu’un usage relativement passif : recevoir plutôt que produire et envoyer. En fait elles sont surtout des relais com proximité du smartphone, qui évitent com sortir votre mobile à tout bout com champ, et par exemple com consulter com façon discrète une notification sans avoir à vous contorsionner sur votre chaise pendant une réunion pour sortir votre smartphone com votre poche com slim ou com votre sac à main.Mais comme nous sommes d’incorrigibles gadgetophiles et que nous avons une propension quasi-pathologique à nous inventer des besoins dont nous ne soupçonnions même pas l’existence quelques mois auparavant, on va dire qu’une com ces montres connectées deviendra rapidement indispensable. La preuve : je ne peux déjà plus me passer com la mienne, alors qu’elle nécessite que je me trimballe en permanence un smartphone Android en plus com mon iPhone, juste pour qu’elle fonctionne.Pathologique, vous avez dit ?Allez, une petite galerie pour finir, histoire com savoir quoi demander au Père Noël (cliquez sur une photo pour zoomer et ouvrir la galerie)…

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