Newsletter 
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently certified two different smartwatch models from the South Korean consumer electronics giant, LG. While one of them comes with model number W270, the other bears the model number W280. The second one, in fact, comes in two different variants bearing model numbers W280A and W280V. Online speculations seem to suggest that these will be the carrier-specific variants for AT&T and Verizon, respectively. While the listing on the FCC website doesn’t really give away a whole lot, the one thing that the listing does apparently reveal is that the upcoming device may have a round dial, much like its predecessors. It will also be interesting to see whether the W270 and the W280 are different iterations of the same device or different devices entirely.
Another important piece of information that we can garner from the FCC listing is that the W280 will have wireless charging capabilities and comes with multi-band LTE connectivity. LG had earlier launched an LTE-compatible smartwatch called the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition back in late 2015, but that device was recalled within days of its launch before being reintroduced months later. LG is expected to launch multiple smartwatches this year, having not launched any new model in 2016. According to various reports doing the rounds over the past few weeks, between four to six different smartwatch models are expected to be launched by the South Korean firm this year. Although concrete news regarding the devices are hard to come by, the company has reportedly applied for trademarks on a number of possible names for its 2017 smartwatches, including Watch Style, Watch Pro, Watch Force and Watch Sole.
LG has used Android Wear as well as WebOS for its earlier smartwatches, but this time around, rumors seem to suggest that it will launch its next-generation wearables with Google’s wearables platform. With Android Wear 2.0 all set to hit primetime, rumors suggest that the upcoming device(s) from the South Korean firm might just run on the latest version of the OS. LG is also expected to use Snapdragon Wear chips for its upcoming wearable devices, although the exact SoCs are yet to be confirmed. Reports out of China have also suggested that LG’s upcoming smartwatches may have a stainless steel build and come with an IP67 rating, rendering them dustproof and waterproof. Whether all these rumors hold up in the long term remains to be seen, but the fact that the company will get back into the smartwatch market this year, seems more and more likely with every new development.
