MotoActv: Unboxed

There is no problem in buying gadgets after gadgets, as long as your financial affordability allows the spending. However, with more gadgets at home, you might incline to stay at home most of (if not all) the times. With all the gadgets I possessed, especially with the in-house cinema,  I am tricked into the exact situation. I warned myself, this is not healthy and I must work something to escape from this!

Geek is still a geek, I can't run away from being a geek when looking for an escape solution. :") As a result, it's still a "gadgety" method which might help me stay out of gadgets/home and stay healthily...

The Motorola MotoActv Fitness Watch cum MP3 player. It's an Android based sport/fitness watch that combines many sport/fitness features, music player feature and watch into a single device. Think of iPod Nano for its music player feature and basic fitness feature (when paired with Nike+), MotoActv packs with advanced features that only found in sport watches like Garmin Forerunner series. In short, the combination of iPod Nano and sport watch is what you get from the MotoActv.

Let's see what's in the box (btw, you can click on the images to see the larger size in overlay)...

Manuals, dual ports wall charger, micro USB cable, SF200 wired headphone with spare ear buds, the watch and a clip-on mount. 

I particularly love the dual ports wall charger (max output is 5.1V with 750mA). I can now charge my phone and MotoActv simultaneously. It saves me from allocating one extra wall socket to charge the watch and I don't have to bring extra charger when travel. 

One worthy note here, you don't get the sport watch strap out-of-box like I shown above. You will have to buy it separately at USD$29.99. Perhaps it's a way of making extra bucks by Motorola since many would definitely add this as accessories. You still can get it free (while stock lasts) if you buy the MotoActv now at MotoActv.com, either the 8GB or the 16GB model...

Plus, you get a free 2-day shipping (within US) now. Motorola currently do not ship to Malaysia, I am not in the States but I shipped it to a colleague who happened to be in New York for a business trip. You can try Amazon.com but you might not get the free watch strap and higher shipping cost to ship internationally.

Let's have a merry-go-round look on the device...

Following the photo sequence - on front, a touch capacitive back button; On left, micro USB port for charging and data sync; On right, volume + and - as well as power button; On top, the "Start Workout" and Music button and finally a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom.

One major draw back I dislike about MotoActv is the headphone and USB port. The MotoActv is rated IP55 (check out Wikipedia about IP rating or here on what does IP55 mean) and I believe it's rated such because of these exposed ports (especially the headphone jack). Having said that, MotoActv is not designed for watersports and I can't use it to track my swimming sessions. IMO, since MotoActv already comes with wireless (both WiFi and Bluetooth) data sync and look at the metal base of MotoActv...

The shinny metal base does nothing except to clip-on to the mount kits (such as the sport watch strap and bike mount). I reckon it can be designed to be the base for specially designed charge pad or even the wireless inductive charging to get rid of the USB port (see Energizer Qi charger). I don't mind (and I believe many owners too) to pay little premium for this feature. Headphone jack? Bluetooth stereo headphone is very common nowadays (I guess many still using wired though). Anyhow, I hope Motorola could design a rugged case as accessories making MotoActv a true sport watch for all kind of sports.

Let's see how does it fit with the 2 mount kits I have, the clip-on and the watch strap. The MotoActv is designed square in shape, therefore it can be mounted anyway you like...

The clip on mount has limited angle on things you can clip-on but it should be fit for most apparels...

Now the sport watch strap...

It does look a little bulkier on average Asian's wrist (especially ladies) but should look good if you're an active sport man (which means you have a "good sized" wrist). In addition, I swear to you this gorgeous watch is an eye catcher. I have been drawing attention when I wear this walking around office, malls etc, or is it because I look macho? :P

Overall, I am very impressed with the built quality. The built is very solid, feels light (compared to other branded watch like Tissot, Tag Hueur etc)  but the weight can still be substantially felt on your wrist. It's not plasticky and the buttons are tight but still easy to press. Beside the drawback I mentioned above, the other thing I like to criticize is the screen quality. It's good but a little pixelized compare to iPod Nano. Apple is still the best in screen competition, from the iPod, to iPhone and iPad.

End for now, the MotoActv needs some charging. The juice comes out-of-box does not even allow me to finish the initial setup, I shall continue blogging about its setup on my next post.

p/s: This is the first post of a series related to MotoActv. You can check out my other MotoActv related posts here.