Last Fall, Samsung introduced the Gear S, a smartwatch that was capable of functioning on its own, complete with a 3G radio for calls and wireless connectivity. Now, LG is one-upping Samsung at their own game with a new version of the Watch Urbane complete with a 4G LTE radio and the ability to function on is own. based off of the same design as the Watch Urbane running Android Wear, this version is a creation all LG’s and it looks a little different as a result. The Watch Urabne LTE will be shown off next week during Mobile World Congress and we’ll be there on the show floor to get our hands on LG’s latest watch.
The Watch Urbane LTE doesn’t run Android Wear, and instead runs what LG is calling their “Wearable Platform operating system” which does share some features with the G Watch R, like similar watch faces and the same sort of ambient display technology that Android Wear uses. As of writing, we don’t know whether or not this version of the Watch Urbane will work with anything other than LG products, but their press release does refer to the LTE version as “proprietary”.
Where hardware is concerned, the Watch Urbane features three physical buttons on the right-hand side, with the top button functioning as a sort of settings button where users can check battery life and adjust buttons. The center button opens up the menu and scrolls through installed apps while the bottom button functions as the familiar ‘Back’ button. There’s even more packed into this little package than just LTE though, as NFC is onboard as well, which LG hopes people will be able to use to pay for things while on the move. There’s a heart-rate monitor here as well and on the inside, we’re looking at a 1.2 Ghz Snapragon 400 and 1GB of RAM. That’s right, 1GB of RAM inside of a wrist watch. To put things into perspective, that’s twice the amount in your average Moto 360.
For those interested in the full internals, this Watch Urbane is powered by a 700 mAh battery, there’s a 1.3 inch P-OLED display that’s a full circle, with a resolution of 320 x 320. Connectivity wise, there’s 4G LTE, as well as WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0, of course. The usual 4GB of internal storage is here as well for apps and games. It’s IP67 dust and water-resistant and there’s GPS onboard as well as a speaker and a microphone.
Those looking for a fitness watch shouldn’t be disappointed though, as there are features for cyclists, golfers and what LG is calling their “Fitness Coach”. It all sounds pretty nifty, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see what this watch is like in practice. Will LG’s Watch Urbane LTE have what it takes to pry people from Google’s Android Wear, or is it just one more operating system we could do without? We’ll have to wait and see, but we’ll have more information as well as hands-on next week from Barcelona.
