Wearables

Moto 360 teardown reveals smaller than advertised 300mAh battery, Motorola quickly responds

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Moto 360 300mAh battery iFixit

During the hoopla that was this morning’s Apple event, the folks at iFixit published an interesting teardown of the Motorola Moto 360. During the gruesome autopsy, iFixit discovered the Moto 360 may have had a smaller battery than Motorola advertised on the smartwatch’s packaging: a 300mAh battery vs 320mAh as printed on the box.

With reports of the Moto 360’s lackluster battery life, this of course caused some alarm with early adopters who’ve already dropped a few bills on the watch. Fear not, as Motorola wasted no time in chiming in on the subject. Here’s Motorola’s full statement to help clear some things up:

“The typical battery capacity for Moto 360 is 320 mAh and the minimum is 300 mAh. In the mobile industry, sometimes both the minimum and typical capacity is listed on the battery, with the typical capacity quoted as the official battery size. Both figures are included on the batteries of our Moto X, Moto E and Moto G devices.

In the case of smaller devices, we aren’t always able to list both figures. For Moto 360 we only had room for one figure and choose to list the minimal capacity of the battery. We see how this can be confusing and we will look into ways to add the typical capacity as well in the future.”

So there you have it. Because battery charging capacity can vary device-to-device and Motorola couldn’t list both the typical and minimum mAh, they chose to only list the minimum. Don’t freak out too much, especially if you’ve heard battery life not even averaging a full day. We’re currently averaging about a full 24 hours or so with ambient mode turned off and will update you later after we perform some more tests. Cheers.

[iFixitArsTechnica]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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24 Comments

  1. I call B.S. on MOTO.
    This could have easily been printed on the battery.
    They got caught in their lie,forgetting that iFIXIT gets their hands on everything ………………

    Off topic,but,now that we’ve seen this up-close,ya gotta admit the watch is as about as stylish as a hockey puck w/a strap…….

    1. Normally I’d agree but there are things printed on it and in a certain order that have to comply with FCC regulation.

      1. I agree with your statement,but,they still could have made room for it,just as w/batteries you see w/phones.

        Or,put that information somewhere in the packaging/users manual.

        https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/964910/1409339319/redirect/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xNDEwMzAyMTA1L3NpZC9CaWlEMV8xbQ==/filename/68017750001a.pdf

      2. What FCC regulations? I see a CE Mark, and I believe that’s a RoHS Compliant Mark, but no FCC Mark, on the battery at least. I don’t think the FCC really cares about the battery, though they probably care about some of the other radiating features of the watch.

  2. stop being an apologist for Motorola. If Samsung did this it would be the end of the world, but no matter what Motorola does, poor battery life, sub par camera (moto X), 720 screen (Moto X) you still give them extreme praise. We get it. You will give Motorola a pass no matter what they produce. Same for ANY Nexus device. Still listing the Nexus 5 in the top 5 Android phones is a joke. Price aside, it was a mid level phone from the start

    1. Who are you talking about? I totally bashed the Moto X for having a 720p display and slower Snapdragon 400 processor, despite fans saying stuff like that didn’t matter to them.

      Now the Moto X (2nd Gen), that’s a different story. Love that phone.

      1. I’d look for a price break,or,a refresh w/better internals.

        Shows how out-of-touch all of the mfgs can be at times,thinking the public is uninformed & will be willing to pay top dollar for what is arguably the worst Android Wear watch out among the latest.

        No way they’re gonna move that many 360’S @ that price w/the outdated hardware/undersized battery.

        1. But yet the 360 is selling like hot cakes @ the 250 cost for old tech. People are willing to pay extra for a premium look even if old tech is used internally. I.e. Moto 360, All Apple products, cars, etc.

          1. Sounds like more people struck out, due to limited quantities.
            Now that the cat is out of the bag, sales will likely grind to a halt.

          2. I’ll take that bet

          3. Being willing. . And being duped are two completely different things. ..

        2. They already are, besides the hardware is perfectly fine for what it needs to do. The battery snafu is another story. And their excuse is lame and they have their maximums and minimums mixed up.

    2. i decided to pass on the nexus 5 because of battery size/camera, but typically its the horsepower that dictates whether something is mid level or not. Nexus 5 was as strong as any other device when it launched. Hardly mid level.

    3. Seeing as the N5 is still the smoothest phone on the market, it deserves it’s spot in the top 5. I haven’t played with any Android phone smoother than my N5. Despite the top end hardware on the current flagship phones, OEM skins don’t match vanilla Android in smoothness.

    4. What’s wrong with the 720p display..? Do you really enjoy wasting battery power on something that’s not really noticeable at that screen size?
      The camera is very crappy though… I almost completely stopped taking photos with my phone :(

  3. I’m starting to get the feeling Motorola lies alot….

  4. You would think that thay should have to, and the right thing to do, is list the minimum of the 2 specifications if you couldnt fit both. .
    It’s a bit like, the “typical” speed of the car is 100mph, but for yours, sorry you can only get to 80mph.

    1. They kind of already have that, your car can go to 160 or 180 yet it is governed to only 110 or 120… (of course varies per car, depending on what kind)

  5. Oh no.. should i be trusting Moto X’s advertised battery capacity? or the Moto G? hahah

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