Motorola GPS

I've had it for half a year now. The interface is easier to use than any other GPS watch I've seen. Large color screen makes it easy to see everything, though keeping it on shortens battery life. The touch screen is surprisingly responsive and I haven't had any major issues with it. I haven't used any of the new Garmins but it's lightyears ahead of the 305/405 generation stuff. The software isn't quite advanced enough for everything a runner would want, for example it won't show cumulative elevation gain, though they seem to slowly add stuff through firmware updates every 3 months or so. The online site is ok but also lacking many stats and features you'd expect from a Garmin. Battery life sucked at first and was only 3-4 hours, but with software updates I can get up to 8 or 10 hours with the screen off most of the time and the least accurate GPS mode. Speaking of GPS, it seems a bit less accurate than Garmins I've used especially on battery saver mode, but not terrible. The built in WiFi is actually one of the features I expected the least out of but enjoy most. It syncs by the time I have it plugged in to charge again. The watch is rather large, but fits reasonably well. Slides around a bit but not uncomfortable. I haven't really used the music so I can't comment on that, but I'd recommend the bluetooth headphones as a cord from a wristwatch can get a bit annoying. There's some fancy features about getting calls, texts, and facebook updates through the watch when you have your smartphone nearby, I tried it and it worked well but honestly don't have the desire to ever use it daily.

There's a lot of potential for it to be better with a few key software updates. As-is it's great if you want the easiest user interface and can live with moderate specs and metrics. For serious runners I'd probably recommend something cheaper or more geared toward running.

On a side note, it's running Android under the hood and someone figured out how to hack it. You'll be the coolest kid around playing Angry Birds while running a new 5k PR.

How can you take splits? Is there a way to hit it for a split like on a garmin or regular watch?

It has a laps feature, though it's not necessarily straight forward. Look at page 16:

http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Support/US-EN/Mobile%20Phones%20Accessories/MOTOACTV/Documents/Staticfiles/MOTOACTV_UG_US_68016649001a.pdf

There is an auto-split feature I use all the time that is nice if it meets what you're looking to do. Mine's set for 1 mile and at the end of the workout it shows each mile split (or whatever distance you set). I've used it in speed workouts of 1 mile on, 1/2 mile off by setting it to 1/2 mile and just adding the splits. I believe there's a way to set up more complex workouts but never bothered to try it.

Streaker wrote:

There's a lot of potential for it to be better with a few key software updates.

Unfortunately, it's rumored to be discontinued as of last month.

Dan

what do you mean 'rumored'? Did Motorola state this on their web site?

Clell Adams wrote:

what do you mean 'rumored'? Did Motorola state this on their web site?

Dan