Motorola Moto 360 Smartwatch Lineup Offers Wearable DiversityMotorola Moto 360 Smartwatch Lineup Offers Wearable Diversity

10 Cool Fitness Trackers That Aren't Apple Watch

BERLIN -- Motorola unveiled a wristful of new smartwatches this week at the IFA trade show here. The collection of timepieces varies in size, color, and design, and includes a series specifically for women. These wearables pack a punch in the performance department, too, and offer more than just good looks.

The Moto 360 comes in two sizes: 42mm or 46mm for men, and 42mm for women. Each measures 11.4mm thick. The screens measure 1.37-inches for the 42mm size and 1.56-inches for the 42mm size. The display, which is a backlit LCD protected by Gorilla Glass, has a resolution of 360 by 360 pixels. In person, the screens are bright and look sharp. How you adorn the screen is up to you.

Motorola is allowing people to design their own watch through its Moto Maker website. The list of custom options is extensive. The case comes in silver, black, or gold, and shoppers can select matching (or not matching, if that's how you roll) bezels with a fine finish or micro knurl (textured) finish. In other words, if you want a gold watch case but a silver bezel or a black case with a gold bezel, go for it.

Next up, the straps. Shoppers can choose from black or brown leather, or silver, gold, and black steel. One interesting change this year: Motorola altered the strap design to conform to the standard 22mm set-up so straps can be more easily swapped in and out. The original Moto 360's strap design was such that only jewelers or watch shops had the chops to change the bands.

No matter which series of choices you make, these variants of the Moto 360 offer the same feature set.

The wearables are powered by a 1.2-GHz, quad-core Snapdragon 400 processor with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of storage. The Moto 360 packs sensors such as an accelerometer, a barometer, a gyroscope, and a heart rate monitor. Bluetooth Low Energy will keep the Moto 360 connected to your Android or iOS smartphone, and WiFi lets the Moto 360 sync through known WiFi networks when the phone isn't nearby.

But what of the battery? The first-generation Moto 360 delivered notoriously short battery life -- as in mere hours of up time. Motorola appears to have resolved the issue.

The 42mm Moto 360 has a 300mAh battery. Motorola says it will provide one and one-half days of mixed use with the ambient display off, or one full day with the ambient display on. The 46mm Moto 360 has a 400mAh battery that provides about the same levels of up time. This will be a relief to those tired of their watch conking out at 4 pm or earlier.

Android Wear 1.3 is the base platform, which means the wearables are compatible with some 4,000 apps in the Google Play Store. The Moto 360 delivers notifications and information at a glance. Google Now lets people issue voice commands and dictate messages. Motorola added its Moto Body app, which is an in-depth fitness tool for managing health and well-being.

Last, there will be a fitness-focused version of the Moto 360. It differs in two main respects: The display will be brighter and more visible when outdoors, and it will include GPS for tracking runs, walks, bike rides, and other workouts.

[Read more about the wearable and smartwatch market.]

The Moto 360 is available for preorder from Motorola beginning Thursday, Sept. 3. In addition to designing your own through Moto Maker, Motorola is selling a range of preconfigured options from Amazon and Best Buy later this month. Pricing starts at $299 and goes up to $449, depending on options. The Moto 360 ships the end of September, but many options are already back-ordered into October.

The GSP-enabled version of the watch is shipping at some point later this year. Pricing is unknown.

Despite its battery problems, the Moto 360 was the most popular Android Wear device in the latter half of 2014 and first half of 2015. The new wave of wearables introduced by the likes of ZTE, Huawei, Samsung, and others this week will give the second-generation Moto 360 a run for its money.