The Moto 360 and LG G Watch R may have dominated the smartwatch landscape in 2015, but there are plenty more great Android smartwatch options already available with even more coming up in the very near future, including the long-awaited Moto 360 (second generation). These are the best Android smartwatches on the market, including both Android Wear and other Android-based smartwatches, now with a convenient buying guide and quick comparison chart.
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If the LG Watch Urbane looks familiar, that's because it is. The Watch Urbane is basically just a fancier looking G Watch R. The only real difference is the price. This is why we think the ZenWatch deserves the number two position: because there's simply not enough to differentiate between the Watch Urbane and G Watch R to justify the additional price. And we prefer the G Watch R's style anyway.
Having sad that the Watch Urbane is still a stand-out smartwatch, delivering the same specs as the G Watch R with the addition of Wi-Fi out of the box (the G Watch is getting Wi-Fi via a software patch in July). It takes a more classical, elegant approach to the design, and comes in a silver or gold version. Expect to pay a little more though.
The Moto 360 in many ways kicked off the serious interest in smartwatches this year. While the battery life hasn't knocked anyone's socks off (even though it has been improved), the ability to charge the Moto 360 wirelessly with the included Qi dock is a big selling point for the 360, along with its impressive styling.
The Moto 360 is a little large for some, but it has a beautiful edge to edge round display. A small black bezel at the bottom of the screen, humorously dubbed the "flat tyre" holds various sensors, including an ambient light sensor and display drivers.
The Moto 360 certainly set the standard for style with its circular design and classic looks and for many represents the benchmark for how a smartwatch should look.
Samsung has delivered a few Gear watches on different platforms already, including the first major Android watch: the Galaxy Gear. Then came the Gear 2 on Tizen, followed by the Gear Live on Android Wear with the SIM-equipped Gear S based on Tizen without the need for a paired smartwatch.
Samsung added a heart rate sensor to their hardware with the Gear Live and it also features an OLED display, which is brighter than the original G Watch's LCD but isn't so easy to see in bright daylight. On the other hand, it isn't as irritating at night because a lot of the pixels are off. The silly charging cradle is very annoying though and easy to lose.
The LG G Watch might be a fairly unattractive slab with big old bezels, but the G Watch is still a very respectable smartwatch. It does away with some of the additions that Samsung bundled with the Gear Live (charging cradle and heart rate monitor) and comes with an LCD display instead. It's not the sexiest watch around, but its battery life and solid performance endeared it to many.
The G Watch's LCD display tends to be easier to read in daylight, but the G Watch is quite bright at night because it still has back-lit pixels, even when the screen is dimmed. The G Watch screen also has fewer pixels than the Gear Live, so it isn't quite as fine, but it does handle screen dimming transitions better and shows more content on-screen when the screen is in its default state.
With all the fuss over the Moto 360 and LG G Watch R, Sony's update to their wearable effort, the Smartwatch 3, went a little unnoticed when it appeared in September at IFA 2014. The Smartwatch 3 is obviously Sony's third crack at the whip, and they're starting to get things right, even if there's not much going on in the looks department.
Running Android Wear, the Smartwatch 3 is a removable pod that pops out of interchangeable plastic wrist bands and is charged by microUSB. The Smartwatch 3 can reportedly be used in ''other devices'' but Sony wouldn't tell us what exactly. Sony is slowly improving their smartwatches, but we're yet to see the "wow' release.
If you've decided to take the plunge and invest in a smartwatch you've got a few decisions in front of you, the first of which is do you want an Android Wear device or something else?
There are other smartwatch options available running on Samsung's Tizen platform as well as interesting devices by Pebble and Omate. We've listed some of the better options for you below. Assuming you're focused on Android Wear, we'll continue.
There are a few things to think about: size and weight, style, display type (some displays are easier to read outdoors than others), battery size and so on. Consider what you want from your watch and how you plan to use it. All of them offer a degree of water-resistancy and all are light enough.
If you plan to never take your smartwatch off except to charge it, then a large battery is critical. If you're outdoors a lot then you might want to opt for a smartwatch with an LCD display. OLED displays are better for battery life but they are not always so visible in the sunshine.
Internally, most Android Wear watches are about the same, so there's no real technical advantage of one over the other. Battery size and life, screen resolution and type are the main considerations. Of course, if you have a very slim wrist you might want to avoid the particularly large ones though, so keep an eye on size too. Style is probably the biggest factor for you though.
Here's a quick reference guide of the most critical aspects of choosing a smartwatch. Check the individual entries above for more information or visit our full reviews for even more detail and evaluation.
SCREEN SIZE
SCREEN TYPE
RESOLUTION
BATTERY SIZE
DIMENSIONS
WI-FI
PRICE
LG G WATCH R
1.3-inch circle
P-OLED
320 x 320 pixels, 348 ppi
410 mAh
46.4 x 53.6 x 9.7 ~ 11.1 mm
Yes (in July)
~254 USD / ~190 GBP
ASUS ZENWATCH
1.63-inch square
AMOLED
320 x 320 pixels, 278 ppi
369 mAh
39.9 x 51 x 7.9 ~ 9.4 mm
No
~149 USD / ~179 GBP
LG WATCH URBANE
1.3-inch circle
P-OLED
320 x 320 pixels, 348 ppi
410 mAh
45.5 x 52.2 x 10.9 mm
Yes
~300 USD / ~226 GBP
MOTOROLA MOTO 360
1.56-inch circle
LCD
320 x 290 pixels, 205 ppi
320 mAh
46 mm (diameter) x 11.5 mm
Yes
~175 USD / ~150 GBP
SAMSUNG GEAR LIVE
1.63-inch square
AMOLED
320 x 320 pixels, 278 ppi
300 mAh
37.9 x 56.4 x 8.9 mm
Yes
~170 USD / ~199 GBP
LG G WATCH
1.65-inch square
LCD
280 x 280 pixels, 240 ppi
400 mAh
37.9 x 46.5 x 9.95 mm
No
~115 USD / ~99 GBP
SONY SMARTWATCH 3
1.6-inch square
LCD
320 x 320 pixels, 278 ppi
420 mAh
36 x 51 x 10 mm
Yes
~175 USD / ~120 GBP
Smartwatches compatible with Android (not Android Wear)
Samsung's Gear S is the first smartwatch equipped with its very own SIM card, meaning it does not require a smartphone in order to function.
As the first standalone smartwatch, the Gear S has attracted a lot of attention for that reason alone, but once again Samsung may have shot itself in the foot by running it on Tizen rather than Android Wear. The Gear S also features a curved OLED display, which is, in our opinion, one of the best things about it.
The Omate X has also ditched Android in favor of an RTOS (real-time operating system) by the name of Nucleus. This means both Android and iOS devices can be paired with the wearable.
The Omate X is also a stunner in the design stakes, with a great metal build and slightly curved display. At a rock-bottom 129 USD it's a frontrunner in the price stakes too.
Pebble rocked our smartwatch expectations a long time ago, but they never really delivered a knock-out device until the Pebble Steel. It has an all-new interface and more importantly, it looks fantastic.
It doesn't run on Android Wear, and it's not quite as kitted out with functionality as the new batch of Android Wear watches but there's no denying the Pebble Steel was the first smartwatch this year to make us realize smartwatches could actually look good too.
Samsung's Gear 2 made the switch to the Tizen platform after the first Galaxy Gear wasn't received so well. The pimple-like wrist camera with terrible resolution was ditched and a little more attention was paid to the design of the watch, but it still looked much like the previous one.
Samsung is taking a bit of a punt on Tizen as an alternative wearable platform, flying in the face of Google's Android Wear. While we're happy to have a competing platform on the market, it will be hard for Samsung to compete with the Google juggernaut in the wearable OS stakes.
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