As a running store manager and just plain old running geek I love being surrounded with cutting edge products designed to make my run just plain better. About a month ago the nice people over at Verizon wireless here in Minnesota aloud me to use one of the new MOTOACTV by Motorola to see what I thought. They paid me nothing, just let me use a unit to see what I thought. This is my findings so far.
My Overview:
To start the watch has a nice look to it. It is not to big but yet it is big enough to make the readouts on the watch the perfect size. The band on the watch is very comfortable which means a lot to me as being a ultra marathon runner I have my watch on for many hours at a time.
The battery time on the watch is pretty good. Much like the many other GPS watches I have tried the more stuff you have running the shorter the life of the battery. All in all it is on par with the other options out on the market as of now.
The music player is very easy to use. I found moving music from my iTunes library to the watch to be smooth and easy. In fact I love how I can not only have tunes on the player but different play lists no different than my iPod.
You have the option to remove the watch/ music player from the wrist unit and put a clip on it so you can wear it on your shorts much like a iPod shuffle. This was a pretty cool option I thought since I am not the kind of guy who likes the arm band option which you can also do. Now you could still listen to it while wearing it on your wrist but when running I think that is no good since I for one tend to swing my arms pretty good. I could see if you wear biking how that would work.
I thought the GPS signal loaded up pretty fast overall. Like other GPS watches I tend to just set them outside and let them load while I tie my shoes and stuff to I am not freaking out while looking at the watch wanting to run that very second. I did do many runs using this unit on one wrist while using a different company on the other wrist to compare the readouts on distance. On the roads the MOTOACTV was every bit as good as many of the other competitors, but on the trails I seem to always have it reading a shorter distance than what I was also using.
The post running run info on the MOTOACTV is very nice. With in seconds of ending the run you can see all your info, even every mile split!! Also the online info once downloaded is nice as well.
Conclusion:
Do I think it is a good watch? Yes most differently a solid GPS watch. Would I by it? Yes without question I think it is worth buying, especially if you do not have a iPod yet. To me that is the biggest selling point on the MOTOACTV. To have everything in one unit is a big plus and something to think about. I look forward to seeing what the next version is like but at the time it is one heck of a watch/ music player.
