The Moto 360 is certainly the best-looking smartwatch on the market, but it also has a couple of glaring flaws, according to some users.
Apparently the Motorola smartwatch's back can suffer from cracks that appear to be caused by pressure from its band, as well as dark or light spots on its screen.
Moto 360 Product Manager Eric Berdinis and Motorola User Experience Designer Rick Hoobler have addressed these issues in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session. Berdinis admitted he was "eager" to tackle complaints around the smartwatch.
He said the back-cracking issue affects just "a fraction of a percent of devices," and that it's fully covered under Motorola's warranty. "We don't think people should have to wear Moto 360 one way or another to prevent this from happening," he wrote. "Just wear it like you normally would and we'll cover you for the rest."
'Air quotes'
Berdinis further explained the apparent "dead pixels" are actually anomalies or debris in the display, taking a dig at Samsung in the process: "These can cause tiny dark spots or bright spots that look similar to 'dead pixels' you might see on a Samsung product," he wrote.
He added Motorola will replace any Moto 360 suffering from either problem.
Meanwhile Hoobler addressed some more fun questions, including the possibilities of a keyboard on the Moto 360's tiny screen or a new Moto 360 with a smaller watchface for people with slimmer wrists.
Regarding a Moto 360 keyboard on-screen, he said, "It's very intriguing and we've spent a lot of time on that. The trick is we're also trying to keep the watch very focused on quick interactions, canned responses and voice input and then use your phone for a proper keypad. We're still working on this, but that is the tension we are dealing with."
Possibilities
As far as the smaller version, he said they're "obsessed" with designing devices for more wrist sizes, and that they're "always looking into new options."
Finally, Hoobler took on one other elephant in the room: the Moto 360's slightly cropped display, which some think contrasts poorly with the LG G Watch R's fully round screen.
"We looked at fully round with the necessary thicker bezel (in order to cover the display driver) and compared that to a very thin bezel and slightly cropped round display," Hoobler explained. "We strongly believed that our design with the beauty of our larger display, pixels to the edge, and thin bezel won the day."
Hopefully Moto 360 owners agree, or LG might be gaining some new customers.
