Moto 360 biggest benefit: better screen-to-body ratio than all the rest

With so many leaks and rumors, the second generation of one of the most popular Android Wear smartwatches - the Moto 360 - seems to be right around the corner. 

We've seen leaked images of the devices in two sizes, and even a ruggedized sport version in the plans, and all these new watches are said to feature that 'flat tire' styled screen rather than going to a fully 360-degree circle for the screen.

Many have criticized Motorola for this decision, but a leaked slide from what seems like an internal presentation shows that Motorola finds it as more of an advantage rather than a flaw. The reason for this is that such a design makes it possible to reach for a record 71.7% screen to body ration on the Motorola Moto 360 (it's not clear whether the slide refers to the old, first-gen device or the second generation, but it seems that the two are largely similar).

In comparison, the screen occupies a much smaller space of the overall footprint of otherwatches, and even the praised Apple Watch has a screen-to-body ratio of just 49.1% (actually, it's one of the worst in this regard).

Next-gen Moto 360 gets photographed on people's wrists

At its big event last month, Motorola announced three smartphones but no new smartwatch. Still, the company is quite clearly working on a successor to last year's Moto 360, as has been revealed multiple times so far. The new wearable may even be offered in two different sizes, a la Apple.

Today a few images have been leaked showing the new model in the wild, on people's wrists actually.

Although it bears quite a resemblance to its predecessor, including that 'flat tire' for the screen, this is the next generation Moto 360 - and you can tell because of the position of its button.

On the original this was placed at the 3 o'clock mark, while this time around Motorola's moved it to 2 o'clock for whatever reason.

These shots allegedly come from around Chicago, an area in which Motorola has its US headquarters. So these may be company employees testing the device.

As before, it looks like Motorola will bet big on customization. These pictures show two different versions of the 360, an all-black one with leather strap, and another with a Rose Gold casing and Cognac band.

We could be quite close to the new smartwatch's announcement now that it's being internally tested.

Moto 360 successor possibly leaked in a tweet by Motorola

Motorola might have accidentally leaked the successor of the Moto 360 smartwatch on Twitter. A render of a mysterious wearable device appeared in one of the manufacturer’s official tweets earlier today.

The unannounced smartwatch features a round body, but different button placement than the original Moto 360. While we were preparing this post, Motorola removed the tweet, thus further suggesting that we saw something we weren’t originally supposed to.

Curiously, the leaked smartwatch appears to feature a screen that’s not fully circular - just like the first-generation Moto 360. We certainly hope that this will not be the case when the new Moto 360 debuts, as both LG and Samsung have competitors with fully circular displays already available or on the way.