 I've been waiting for months for this. We've seen countless different ideas about how a smartwatch should look, how it should work, what it should do. But we've gotten these teasers, these glimpses of what seem to me to be by far the best answers to all those questions. A smartwatch should be first and foremost a watch. It should tell the time. It should feel good on my wrist. It should look awesome. Everything else is secondary. I've been waiting for the smartwatch that understood all of that, and now I have it on my wrist. This is the Moto 360. The 360 feels different from any other smartwatch from the moment you put it on. It feels lighter than it looks. It's smaller than it looks. I don't have big wrists by any means, and I don't prefer large watches, yet the 360 was comfortable right away. Of course, this isn't just a watch. It's all about the 1.65 inch screen, the round Gorilla Glass display that's ringed only by a tiny bezel. It has incredible viewing angles, it's easy to see even outdoors, and although it's an insane magnet for fingerprints, it's at least easy to keep clean. It's round, but it's not a perfect circle. Not really. There's a tiny black cutout at the bottom where all the device's innards go. It does take away from the appeal a little, but Motorola's other option was to make the bezel bigger, and it made the right decision. It does stick out above the bezel, though, and the angled glass catches light and gives off this ugly moire pattern. And honestly, it's just not high res enough to really look crisp and perfect. The screen is good enough, but it's not as good as the rest of the hardware here. It comes in two colors at launch, silver and black, with a couple of different strap colors as well. There are more straps coming, though, including two metal straps that cost an extra $50. I can't say it enough, this is what a smartwatch should look like. There are small changes I would make aesthetically, like to drop the screen flush with the case, and maybe make it ever so slightly smaller for my own wrists, but compared to the blocky rectangles that adorn every other smartwatch on the market, the 360 is in a class completely of its own. But for all it can do to differentiate its hardware, Motorola can't escape the fact that the Android Wear on the Moto 360 is the same as the Android Wear on the Samsung Gear Live, the LG G Watch, and countless other devices coming to market. That means the Moto 360 is primarily an inbox for everything, all the notifications and information on your phone. Google Now tells you when you have a calendar event coming up, or that your package is being delivered. You'll get notified about emails and calls and texts, and you can do quick Google searches, take notes, and set reminders. Android Wear is still best used when you don't use it much, when it's just an occasional add-on to your life. The 360's heart rate monitor and pedometer both work as well as any other device, and I've grown to love Android Wear's integration with apps like Run-Tastic. Apps are getting smarter about using your location to deliver handy, quick, useful information, and at giving you easy ways to find information or control basic things on your phone. In most ways, using the 360 is identical to other Android Wear devices. In a couple, it's much better. Motorola's watch faces are the best, classiest options I've seen by far, even if I would like a few more choices. It also has really impressive range. It stayed connected even as I walked down a floor in our hotel and down a hallway. In one key way, though, the 360 is much worse. Android Wear might technically work on round or square devices, but it's clearly designed for rectangles. You're basically getting a rectangular interface with the corners cut off. Sometimes that's fine, others it's a huge pain. All that I can live with, though. But the 360's worst feature is almost a deal breaker. Its battery life is rough. Motorola says it'll last a day, and is fairly explicit about the fact that you have to charge it every night. And at least the charger, a black wireless dock you drop the 360 into sideways, works well and looks good on my bedside table. But I got battery life more like 12 hours, even less with heavy use. Getting a day or a day and a night if you forget to charge it seems basically impossible. I don't need weeks or years for my smartwatch, but I don't think two days is too much to ask, and the 360 doesn't deliver. Right now, if you're buying a smartwatch, buy this one. This appears to be the best a manufacturer can do with Android Wear, the best thing available on the market. For $249, the Moto 360 is definitely the best of its kind, but right now that's still faint praise. I'm still waiting for a manufacturer, whether it's Apple or Samsung or HTC or Motorola itself, to come along and make us dream a little bit bigger about the devices we can wear on our wrists. Pretty is a good start. It's a really good start, but it can't be the finish line.