Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch goes on sale in the UK alongside Moto X and Moto G

The first circular smartwatch to go on sale is attracting a lot of attention - but Apple is set to unveil their own rival device next Tuesday

James Vincent
Saturday 06 September 2014 04:28 BST
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Motorola’s highly-anticipated circular smartwatch, the Moto 360, has gone on sale and will be available in the UK from the end of September for £200.

The device – which runs Google’s ultra-mobile operating system Android Wear – has been widely praised by tech critics for crossing the boundary from technology to fashion, offering a choice of leather, metal and plastic bands.

Motorola, which is still owned by Google until the end of 2015, also unveiled a pair of new smartphones, updates to the Moto X and Moto G – a flagship and budget device respectively.

The Moto G succesor comes in a range of colours and can be customized prior to purchase.

The new Moto X will sell for £419 and features a 5.2-inch full HD screen, a 2.5Ghz quad-core processor, 16GB or 32GB of storage, a 13-megapixel camera. Customers can also choose between leather and wooden backs for the device.

The updated Moto G, which was highly praised for offering premium build quality at a low price, will sell for £144.99 and also features a slightly bigger screen than its predecessor (5.-inches), an improved 8-megapixel camera and a faster processor. However, the phone is still not 4G-capable – a downside for users wanting the fastest internet possible.

Although the original Moto X and Moto G helped to revitalize Motorola’s reputation and made its devices stand out against a sea of capable-but-boring Android smartphones, it’s the Moto 360 that gives an idea of where the company's future might lie.

The Moto 360 comes in a range of styles.

The smartwatch will be going up against rival devices from Samsung and LG and features a 1.5-inch LCD waterproof touch screen. Inside the device, movement sensors will keep an eye on the wearers’ activity while an optical heart-rate sensor (located on the back pressed against the skin) gives your activity a rating of either Inactive, Active or Vigorous.

Like many other smartwatches on the market, the Moto 360 depends on a connection to a smartphone for feeding it data and various notifications about incoming messages, emails and calls.

However, competition for the Moto 360 is already pretty tough, with LG announcing its G Watch R (which also features a circular watch face - and without the 'flat tire' divot that Motorola uses to keep its light sensor) and Apple rumoured to be unveiling its iWatch next Tuesday.

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