iFixit tears down the Moto 360 and finds parts inside

In the early morning light of new competing watch platforms, we have some Android Wear news! iFixit has gotten a hold of the latest Android Wear release, the Motorola Moto 360, and has done their usual teardown of the watch.

The Moto 360 scores a pretty dismal 3 out of 10 for repairability, with iFixit citing a rear panel which requires ‘heat and careful prying’ to remove, as well as a battery which is hard to reach being housed deep within the inner housing. Also of note was the display requiring complete disassembly of the watch to replace.

The 3 out of 10 favours poorly compared to other Android Wear watches reviewed by iFixit, with the LG G Watch receiving a 9 out of 10, and the Samsung Gear Live receiving an 8 out of 10 for repairability when they were torn down. It’s salient to remember that the Moto 360 IS the first circular Android Wear device to hit the market, so it will be interesting to see how the LG G Watch R fares when it hits the teardown bench.

The good news is that the watch has an easy to remove (read: replace) band, which will be good news for early purchasers who wish to look at the metal band for the Moto 360 which is due to launch later this month.

During the teardown, iFixit made a notable discovery in that the advertised 320mAh battery is actually marked on the part inside as being 300mAh – something of concern with such small batteries on-board these new devices.

Motorola have actually responded to ArsTechncia about the discrepancy in the battery size found and the advertised size, saying:

The typical battery capacity for Moto 360 is 320 mAh and the minimum is 300 mAh. In the mobile industry, sometimes both the minimum and typical capacity is listed on the battery, with the typical capacity quoted as the official battery size. Both figures are included on the batteries of our Moto X, Moto E and Moto G devices. In the case of smaller devices, we aren’t always able to list both figures. For Moto 360 we only had room for one figure and choose to list the minimal capacity of the battery. We see how this can be confusing and we will look into ways to add the typical capacity as well in the future.

Well, there you have it. Now to wait for the watch to reach Australian shores. We have no further details on when the Moto 360 will launch in Australia, beyond the in time for Christmas time-frame we heard last month. Rest assured, as soon as we have anything to share, we’ll let you know.