Moto Watch Ultra hands-on: I discovered what Google's Pixel Watch is missing

For Android users today, there's no dearth of smartwatch options to pick from. Google and Samsung are the biggest Wear OS names, but OnePlus and Xiaomi have joined in, and now, there's another new(ish) entrant on the market: Motorola.

After going hands-on with the new Moto Watch Ultra, though, I would temper my excitement a bit. Sure, this is an excellent smartwatch at an excellent price point, and it looks very reminiscent of the iconic Moto 360 and the glorious 2010s Android Wear days, but this isn't exactly the same.

The Moto Watch Ultra ticks a lot of good boxes, misses out on a few, and as a Pixel Watch 5 fan , it made me just a bit jealous in a few key areas, specificaly the value proposition.

Motorola built a very elegant and classic watch

... and which happens to be smart

Although I personally love the simpler, domed, and all-black-glass look of my Pixel Watch 5, I can't help but admit that Moto's new Watch Ultra looks very, very nice on my wrist with its more traditional stainless body, which vaguely resembles the older Moto 360 designs.

Whereas Google's watch looks minimalistic and futuristic, the Moto Watch Ultra appears more classic-inspired. Fans of analog watch designs and the OnePlus Watch 3 are sure to love it. I can easily imagine it attracting the same crowd.

Perhaps the most fetching aspect, though, is the large 1.5-inch display with its very bright 2,700-nit POLED 1-60Hz refresh rate panel. On paper, the 46mm watch is "only" 1mm larger than my Pixel Watch 5, but in reality, it looks significantly more massive. I blame all those bezels and the permanent minute marks!

Seriously speaking, though, I love larger watches on my wrist, and I think this one has a more imposing and interesting appearance on my hand than my Pixel Watch 5.

Motorola is also shipping each Watch Ultra with two bands out of the box — a move that recognizes that we all want more versatility during the day. I wish Google or Samsung would do the same thing too, instead of charging upwards of $80-100 for an extra leather band.

The black stainless steel watch ships with two black straps — one leather with red stitches and one silicone. The silver one comes with a green silicone strap and a brown leather one. All four look fetching, even if the overall aesthetic skews much more masculine than feminine.

If these aren't enough, you can use any standard 22mm band, without having to look for a compatible band as you do for Google's proprietary attachment mechanism (which makes third-party bands often unreliable).

Inside, Motorola opted for a few interesting upgrades, too. For one, the battery capacity is 550mAh, which promises to last for 50 hours of active use with AOD off, and give you 24 hours with a quick 15-minute charging session.

Comparatively, my 45mm Pixel Watch has a much smaller 465mAh battery, and lasts up to 40 hours on a charge. I've never managed to eke out two full days and nights out of it (or any previous Pixel Watch for that matter), whereas Motorola says it will.

And that extra night is all the difference between a weekend getaway smartwatch or a watch that forces you to take the charger with you everywhere you go, even on weekends.

Fitness tracking from the best: Polar on board

Why reinvent the wheel with a new health platform?

Moving on to fitness: Instead of endeavoring to build an entire health and activity platform from scratch — hi, OnePlus! — Moto has done the smart thing here and opted to use an existing, well-established solution by Polar.

100+ activity types, multi-stage sleep tracking, heart rate (which is Polar's bread and butter), stress, SPO2, and all the health metrics integrate into the Polar ecosystem and use the company's algorithm. You even get readiness scores, stamina updates throughout the day, and a running coach.

That solves such a huge dilemma for Wear OS smartwatch makers who don't have access to Google's Fitbit and have to scramble to create a health solution from scratch. I'm glad Moto didn't fall for that trap and used an existing and solid platform. Why reinvent the wheel?

Where Motorola missed the mark

It's a good first try, though

While the new Moto Watch Ultra seems to tick a lot of boxes, it's not without its faults, especially compared to the Google Pixel Watch 5.

You get the less resistant Gorilla Glass 3 instead of Gorilla Glass 5 (let alone sapphire glass protection), and a slightly less bright display (2,700 nits to Google's 3,000 nits). But the biggest difference is in the processor.

Moto has opted for the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 — a chip that doesn't offer satellite connectivity, but does have a low-energy coprocessor for background tasks like notifications and heart rate tracking. Clearly, an affordability move to keep the price down.

Meanwhile, the Pixel Watch 5 runs the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 with satellite connectivity but no coprocessor, and the Galaxy Smartwatch 9 packs the advanced Snapdragon SW6100 Wear Elite with its 3nm processor, faster CPU, and dedicated NPU for AI tasks.

The new Moto Watch Ultra also sticks with basic memory and storage solutions — 2GB and 32GB, respectively, whereas the Pixel Watch 5 has upped those to 3GB and 64GB. All of these make it a slightly underpowered, and definitely a little "older in the tooth" watch.

But once again, this is essential in keeping a balanced value for the watch and making sure it remains relatively affordable compared to its competitors.

At least I'm happy that Motorola finally switched to Wear OS. The Watch Ultra gets Wear OS 6 out of the box, and offers access to the Play Store, Google Wallet, Maps, Gmail, Calendar, YouTube Music, and plenty of other useful tools you couldn't get on its older RTOS watches.

It's really exciting to see Motorola back with new smartwatches

Motorola will always have an iconic name among Android smartwatch fans because of its excellent Moto 360 design, so it's incredibly nice to see it back with a new watch that ticks a lot of boxes, from looks to health platform, even passing by the band straps in the box.

There's still work to be done to convince me to switch over from my trusty Pixel Watch 5, which I already love more than my older Pixel Watch 4 , but I think it's a step in the right direction for Moto, especially considering the partnership with Polar.

Given the 46mm size, integrated LTE, and leather band in the box, the $350 price is beyond logical. An LTE 45mm Pixel Watch 5 runs $530 without the extra leather band, or $610 with it. That's nearly double the price.

If Motorola did one thing right here, more than anything, it's that it's keeping the new Moto Watch Ultra competitive with its pricing. This will be an easy watch to recommend for someone who needs a large LTE watch — everything else on the market is much more expensive.