See also: What is Google Android Wear?
LG G Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 vs Samsung Gear Live: Price
In the UK, the G Watch is the cheapest of the three at £159. You’ll have to pay a little extra for the Samsung Gear Live at £169. We say in the UK because in the US, the Samsung Gear Live is actually the cheaper one – go figure. Both will launch in the first week of July but the Moto 360 won’t arrive until ‘later this summer’ and that means we don’t have a price for it. However, we expect it to be more expensive than its Android Wear rivals – possibly around the £200 mark or even a little more. Motorola listed the ‘average retail price’ for the Moto 360 as $250 in the terms and conditions for a competition. Read: The 7 best smartwatches: list of the best smartwatches you can buy right now
LG G Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 vs Samsung Gear Live: Design
We think the Moto 360 is the most stylish of the three Android Wear smartwatches. However, we can’t give you its specifics until Motorola reveals more details. The Gear Live is both thinner and lighter than the G Watch at 8.9 mm and 59 g compared to 9.95 mm and 63 g. Both watches are listed as IP67 dust- and waterproof and the Moto 360 is water resistant, according to Google. A small difference is that you can change the strap on the G Watch to any 22m strap while the Gear Live’s is fixed. The Moto 360 will come with a leather or metal strap. Colours for the G Watch are ‘black titan’ or ‘white gold’ while the Gear Live comes in ‘black’ or ‘wine red’, although we can’t see the latter on the Google Play store yet.
LG G Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 vs Samsung Gear Live: Screen
Common for smartwatches, the G Watch and Gear Live both have square screens while the Moto 360 is your only option if you want a circular display. Unfortunately, Motorola is being secretive about the Moto 360 specs so we’ll look at the others for now. The screen size of the G Watch and Gear Live is almost identical at 1.65- and 1.63in respectively. However, Samsung has the higher resolution at 320×320 compared to 280×280. That means it has a 278ppi pixel density against the G Watch’s 240ppi. Both screens are ‘always-on’.
LG G Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 vs Samsung Gear Live: Internal hardware specs
It’s unsurprising that the Android Wear smartwatches have similar hardware specifications. Both the Gear Live and G Watch use a 1.2GHz processor, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. They both use USB pogo pin ports for charging and come with a charging dock/cradle in-the-box. Each has an accelerometer, compass and gyro but Samsung adds a heart rate monitor which you won’t find on the G Watch or Moto 360. Battery capacity is a little lower on the Gear Live at 300mAh while the G Watch has 400mAh. However, both tout ‘all day’ battery life. Rumour has it that the Moto 360 will support wireless charging.
LG G Watch vs Motorola Moto 360 vs Samsung Gear Live: Software
This is the one area where there is no difference, since all three run Android Wear. It’s worth noting that you’ll need an Android smartphone running version 4.3 (Jelly Bean) or higher to be compatible with the Android Wear smartwatches. Tech Advisor’s Reviews Editor, Chris has been reviewing all kinds of tech for over 10 years and specialises in audio. He also covers a range of topics including home entertainment, phones, laptops, tablets and more.
