Moto 360 vs Sony SmartWatch 3 Android-wear faceoff: Sony wearable boasts killer apps

Moto 360
Sony SmartWatch 3Sony

The Moto 360 and the Sony SmartWatch 3 are of the Android Wear clan. Moto 360 has had a share of gracious reviews and reception and it still manages to keep its hype in the smartwatch arena. The Sony SmartWatch 3 recently went on a rollout and Tech Radar adores the Sony timepiece offering, calling it one of the most powerful Google-pervaded wearable. With such nobility status earned by the Sony SmartWatch 3 this early, will Moto 360 ever be on par with the newer device?

Moto 360 stuck with the classic, which primarily made it a stunner. Its round watch facet and utterly traditional look give it the subtle smartwatch feel. This has been extolled by tech outlets as other smartwatches in the turf have already strayed from the conventional timepiece form in the name of uniqueness and extravagance. Furthermore, its body is of stainless steel, which makes it look chic. The Sony SmartWatch 3's look is a major game changer. Its silicon rubber-encased body and rectangular face look hip and up-to-the-minute. Rather than sophistication, the device went for playfulness.

Moto 360's round screen measures 1.56 inches. This translates to a 320 x 290 resolution and a 205 ppi pixel density. Its display is not completely round, albeit the round outline, as there is a tiny sliver of black at the bottom part of the screen. The Sony SmartWatch 3 comes with a 1.6-inch Transflective Display that reduces annoying glares on the screen. It delivers a 320 x 320 screen resolution. Nevertheless, the two promise crisp-looking visuals.

The Moto 360 is powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP 3, which is not much of a stunner. Tech review sites are one in saying that the performance was compromised with Motorola's choice of processor. The Sony wearable houses a 1.2 Ghz Quad ARM A7 processor, which users hope would work better than Moto 360's. Both wearables are packed with 512 MB of RAM and decent 4 GB storage capacity. Battery life makes the Moto 360 a bit insecure. It is advertised to work for a whole day and is charged wirelessly. Sony doubles that and promises an impressive two-day life before it will require to be charged through a MicroUSB port.

In the features department, Sony Smartwatch 3 is a winner. The Moto 360 acts as a pedometer and a heart rate sensor. It primarily uses Google Maps for navigation assistance and its voice control is seamless and convenient (a lot of "Okay, Google" lines to utter here). Meanwhile, Sony Smartwatch 3 users can easily synch playlists from their smartphones to the watch, and they can already listen to those same songs wherever they are, even though phoneless. Also with the Lifelog app/ the fitness go-to, users can count steps, measure calories burned, gauge heart rate, and even track sleep patterns within the Sony SmartWatch 3. On top of all that, it can transform into a reliable GPS device. Both smartwatches are running the same OS, Android Wear, enabling them to connect to Android devices running Android 4.3 and above.

The Moto 360 costs around $250. At the moment, the Sony SmartWatch 3 is on sale at the Google Play store for $250 as well.