Android Wear vs Watch OS

[iTom17]

Definitely Watch OS. May sound very 'fanboyish', considering I don't even have my Apple Watch yet. However, I've seen enough pictures, screenshots and video's to know which is better or not.

I find Watch OS to be more like how a smartwatch really should be. Android Wear just has not been able to convince me. I mean, it's not that bad. But it looks more like a smartphone OS which is shrinken down to look wel on watches. Watch OS is much more made for watches, in my opinion.

But again, I haven't got the Apple Watch myself. Time will tell whether Watch OS is really that good.

 

[pcsguy88]

I have an LG G Watch R and am getting my Apple Watch (42mm SS BCB) tomorrow and am very much looking forward to seeing it in action.

The only thing I already know I'll miss from the LG G Watch R is that watch faces have a low-power version that always shows, so the screen is never fully black and you really can quickly glance at the time without waiting for the watch to realize you're looking at it.

I'm heading off to a conference next week and will use the iPhone 6+/Apple Watch one day then Galaxy S6 Edge/LG G Watch R the next and continue alternating between them like that from day to day. I'll post back here in a couple weeks with my experiences.

Looking forward to your comparison after a week with the watch. Which features the companies should steal from eachother to make the perfect smartwatch experience.

 

[shenfrey]

It's completely silent, even with the prominent haptic setting on. I wouldn't hesitate to go into a meeting or whatnot with notifications on. The tradeoff, it's so subtle that if I'm doing anything fairly active or already moving my wrist when the notification comes in it's easy to miss and with the display being dark when not in use, if I miss a notification I won't catch it until the next time I check the time. A small tradeoff, but a still something to consider.

It isn't "completely" silent, if your in a very quiet environment and have the haptic turned onto full and the each on mute, then you can faintly hear it. But yes, it is VERY quiet and unless your trying to hear it, you won't.

 

[karmamule]

I posted yesterday that I have an LG Watch R and am just getting my Apple Watch (42mm SS BCB) today, so I'll bring both to a conference I'm going to next week and alternate them from day-to-day to figure out which I prefer.

Slight hitch in my plans though: My Apple watch arrived today, and, ummm, it's the only one I want to wear. Don't get me wrong, I love my Galaxy S6 Edge, and I prefer Android over iOS. But, the Apple Watch just kicks ass. It's the one I'll be wearing all next week.

Some immediate highlights both major and minor leading to this:

• Screen. LGWR is nice, AW is gorgeous.
• You can place/receive calls directly from AW. Killer feature in comparison
• Animated emojis are silly fun. Tested sending one to my BF on his LG 3 phone and they come through animations and all.
• Clock faces much more innovative. Jellyfish, astronomical, just wonderful.
• Much more flexible ways to customize watch faces
• Better apps
• The crown really works well

It's just no contest. I'm actually going to give my LGWR to my BF as he has an LG G3 and could use it. Absolutely impressed with Apple Watch. How someone could actually use one and still think it's useless is beyond me.

Can you tell I like it?

 

[pcsguy88]

It isn't "completely" silent, if your in a very quiet environment and have the haptic turned onto full and the each on mute, then you can faintly hear it. But yes, it is VERY quiet and unless your trying to hear it, you won't.

Since this discussion I have been paying close attention to the vibration of the Zenwatch and it is noticeable in a meeting. Luckily it is no louder than a phone in the pocket, but the screen is on your wrist and lights up with the incoming message. I might be using "Theatre Mode" or just stop ALL notifications for important meetings since it's literally a swipe and a tap to do so.

Thanks for making me self conscience.

----------

I posted yesterday that I have an LG Watch R and am just getting my Apple Watch (42mm SS BCB) today, so I'll bring both to a conference I'm going to next week and alternate them from day-to-day to figure out which I prefer.

Slight hitch in my plans though: My Apple watch arrived today, and, ummm, it's the only one I want to wear. Don't get me wrong, I love my Galaxy S6 Edge, and I prefer Android over iOS. But, the Apple Watch just kicks ass. It's the one I'll be wearing all next week.

Some immediate highlights both major and minor leading to this:

• Screen. LGWR is nice, AW is gorgeous.
• You can place/receive calls directly from AW. Killer feature in comparison
• Animated emojis are silly fun. Tested sending one to my BF on his LG 3 phone and they come through animations and all.
• Clock faces much more innovative. Jellyfish, astronomical, just wonderful.
• Much more flexible ways to customize watch faces
• Better apps
• The crown really works well

It's just no contest. I'm actually going to give my LGWR to my BF as he has an LG G3 and could use it. Absolutely impressed with Apple Watch. How someone could actually use one and still think it's useless is beyond me.

Can you tell I like it?

Now this is the stuff I like to hear. Do you have an update for the past week?

 

[VFC]

I posted yesterday that I have an LG Watch R and am just getting my Apple Watch (42mm SS BCB) today, so I'll bring both to a conference I'm going to next week and alternate them from day-to-day to figure out which I prefer.

Slight hitch in my plans though: My Apple watch arrived today, and, ummm, it's the only one I want to wear. Don't get me wrong, I love my Galaxy S6 Edge, and I prefer Android over iOS. But, the Apple Watch just kicks ass. It's the one I'll be wearing all next week.

Some immediate highlights both major and minor leading to this:

• Screen. LGWR is nice, AW is gorgeous.
• You can place/receive calls directly from AW. Killer feature in comparison
• Animated emojis are silly fun. Tested sending one to my BF on his LG 3 phone and they come through animations and all.
• Clock faces much more innovative. Jellyfish, astronomical, just wonderful.
• Much more flexible ways to customize watch faces
• Better apps
• The crown really works well

It's just no contest. I'm actually going to give my LGWR to my BF as he has an LG G3 and could use it. Absolutely impressed with Apple Watch. How someone could actually use one and still think it's useless is beyond me.

Can you tell I like it?

I am on my second week of using the Moto 360. I'm confused about your comment about the AW having more innovative and flexible watch faces. I looked at the small selection of available AW faces, and IMO, they are boring in comparison to some of the thousands of Android animated watch faces available. Most Android faces are highly customizable; more so than the AW faces. Plus they are priced anywhere from free to $1.50. For $.99, Watchmaker Pro and Intellicom Watch Face offer thousands of faces to choose from. I have ~ 50 of my favorite watch faces loaded on my Moto 360 so far.

Regarding battery life; now that I stopped constantly "playing" with my watch, I get an average of 30 hours of battery use. That is with all features enabled. I did a two day experiment where I kept the watch in Airplane Mode and had over 50% battery available; with a projection of over 4 days of battery life. So if I just want to use the Moto 360 as a watch only, I can get 4 days of battery and be able to use any of the 50 watch faces I have stored on the watch.

 

[Bromeo]

I have both a Moto 360 and an Apple Watch 38mm Sport. I like both for different reasons, but Apple's effort wins space on my wrist. Moto 360 and Android Wear have some great ideas, but what is missing, for me, is a cohesive overall design and attention to details.

The two largest factors for me are how it fits me, and the fact that my primary phone is an iPhone 5 (I also have a Nexus 4 for testing/development, which allowed me to seriously try the Moto 360 and Google way of doing things).

The software differences between Android Wear and Apple Watch are significant. One of my biggest grips with Android Wear is "OK Google." While handy for many tasks, like setting a timer hands free, when it doesn't understand what I have asked it defaults to doing a Google Search. That in itself is annoying. Worse, sometimes it activates on its own and searches for whatever gibberish the microphone picked up. The results then can be downright disturbing and not amusing. I sent feedback to Google on this that the feature needs a disable setting.

Whether you prefer Google Now's predictive Cards approach or prefer to only receive information when you ask for it remains a personal preference. I found the Now cards sometimes eerily helpful, and other times a visual distraction to the watch face.

Beyond the software, the Moto 360 was a disappointment with health tracking. It often couldn't read my pulse prompting "Try again." The pedometer seems to be set up for people with a shorter stride, as it would underestimate my walking and running distances by 25-30%. There is no setting to calibrate stride distance, and it didn't matter if I took my Nexus phone with me or not. Health tracking features ultimately seemed like marketing department checkboxes rather than something that actually worked.

The round bezel-less LCD screen of the Moto 360 is striking, and it's great for analog faces. The "flat tire" where the ambient light sensor is mars the appearance, though you do stop noticing after a while. I was glad to have the light sensor, though, as other Android watches I'd seen light up incredibly bright in dark rooms unless manually adjusted. If you are the kind of person to prefer a digital watch face, the round design doesn't really have much appeal for that.

Those are my thoughts for now. Both the Moto 360 and the Apple Watch seem to have comparable battery life (Moto 360 having had several software updates that addressed initially abysmal battery life to where it now lasts a day and a half for me).

Oh and watch faces. Motorola's supplied faces are pretty good and somewhat customizable. I only tried one third-party face on my Moto 360 ("Skymaster") which featured a sweep second hand and a weather complication. Sadly, it chewed through battery life, even when not the active face. The weather sourced an open-source weather project that was often inaccurate for my area. I went back to the stock faces after that experience.

 

[VFC]

Part of the comparison between the Moto 360 and AW should include value per dollar. The Moto 360 sells for $189; a SS AW with leather band ~ $700.

It's like comparing a Toyota Camry to a Mercedes. Sure the Mercedes is a better car, but do the incremental upgrades in features justify the 3X cost difference?

 

[samiznaetekto]

I'm confused about your comment about the AW having more innovative and flexible watch faces. I looked at the small selection of available AW faces, and IMO, they are boring in comparison to some of the thousands of Android animated watch faces available. Most Android faces are highly customizable; more so than the AW faces. Plus they are priced anywhere from free to $1.50.

Can't agree more. Huge selection and so many beautiful ones, especially for round watches. I spent about 12 bucks on about 10 faces and changing them quite often - beauty is so addictive! I especially love the information-packed ones, like this:

There are choices for every taste.

 

[Mildredop]

I've never used Android Wear so I can't comment.

Even though you did.

 

[Bromeo]

Part of the comparison between the Moto 360 and AW should include value per dollar. The Moto 360 sells for $189; a SS AW with leather band ~ $700.

It's like comparing a Toyota Camry to a Mercedes. Sure the Mercedes is a better car, but do the incremental upgrades in features justify the 3X cost difference?

Yes, and you can find the Moto 360 cheaper if you look around. There were some deals for under $100, as it may be blow-out pricing now.

Moto 360 sports a milled stainless case, plastic back, glass touchscreen (apparently non-coated), and leather buckle band. It is not directly comparable to either Apple Watch Sport or Apple Watch Stainless Steel due to the combination of materials. So, I'd say that's in the eye of the beholder.

Both a Toyota and a Mercedes can get you from A to B. However, if there are major deciding factors that will result in the product either working or not working for you intended application, then the decision is more than brand allegiance.

 

[VFC]

Can't agree more. Huge selection and so many beautiful ones, especially for round watches. I spent about 12 bucks on about 10 faces and changing them quite often - beauty is so addictive! I especially love the information-packed ones, like this:

Image

There are choices for every taste.

It even tells the time...lol.

Does it have a compass? The latest version of Android Wear supports the watch compass function. I have a watch face on my Moto 360 that has a compass that appears to work (I didn't think the Moto 360 had the h/w to support a compass).

 

[pcsguy88]

I absolutely love Google Now cards. Sure sometimes I could care less, but most of the time they are big brother accurate. I've been driving my GF to work this week and on the 3rd day of my new commute, a warning popped up on my watch telling me the highway exit that I use to get to her house had been closed. Today I got a severe thunderstorm warning alert for my outdoor concert tonight. How could you not love data like that being fed to your wrist without having to even think about it?

Also, Asus has been doing a bang up job with their OEM watch faces, even having contests for designers with the winners automatically downloading into Zenwatch manager. I'm really excited to get the new update that rolled out on the Urbane which makes several things much simpler to do. Google Wear is certainly not resting.

 

[samiznaetekto]

It even tells the time...lol.

Does it have a compass? The latest version of Android Wear supports the watch compass function. I have a watch face on my Moto 360 that has a compass that appears to work (I didn't think the Moto 360 had the h/w to support a compass).

Yes it does. As well as a barometer/altimeter.

 

[VFC]

Yes it does. As well as a barometer/altimeter.

Did you check out all the cool Moto 360 watch faces on the Bad Apps site? Most are free (developer only ask for a beer or two).

http://www.badapps.fr/

http://www.badapps.fr/page/2/

I have downloaded, or purchased on Google Play, over 20. They are the best I have come across. The animations on some of the watch faces are beyond what I imagined a watch face could support. You got to give it to Android to allow that level of customization for developers.

When you click on the link, keep hitting the "Older post" link at the bottom right to see the whole list of available watch faces they have developed. The BadApps News is my current favorite. I can page through the daily and weekly weather forecasts, and events. It even has a full screen keyboard if you touch the top part of the screen.

 

[samiznaetekto]

Did you check out all the cool Moto 360 watch faces on the Bad Apps site? Most are free (developer only ask for a beer or two).

http://www.badapps.fr/

http://www.badapps.fr/page/2/

I have downloaded, or purchased on Google Play, over 20. They are the best I have come across. The animations on some of the watch faces are beyond what I imagined a watch face could support. You got to give it to Android to allow that level of customization for developers.

When you click on the link, keep hitting the "Older post" link at the bottom right to see the whole list of available watch faces they have developed. The BadApps News is my current favorite. I can page through the daily and weekly weather forecasts, and events. It even has a full screen keyboard if you touch the top part of the screen.

Thanks for the tip, these are bad ass!!!