AT&T has just announced their intent to carry LG’s latest Android Wear smartwatch. This time it’s the LG Watch Sport and it’ll be available on Friday, February 10th for just $17.50/month for 20 months on AT&T Next. That brings the full retail price to about $349, making it $30 cheaper than what Verizon is offering. AT&T is also touting that you can pick up the LG Watch Sport for just $49.99 with a two-year contract, if you purchase the LG G5 or LG V20 from them. Making it a pretty sweet combination, if you were looking to purchase an LG smartphone on AT&T.
The LG Watch Sport does support AT&T’s NumberSync service, which allows you to use your one number on multiple devices. It was previously available on Samsung’s smartwatches, since those did support LTE connectivity, and now the LG Watch Sport does as well. With NumberSync, you’ll be able to make and receive text messages and calls from your smartwatch, using the same number that is associated with your smartphone, all without having your smartphone with you. A pretty big deal in convenience there.
Android Wear 2.0 is the bigger story with the LG Watch Sport though. This is a huge update to the platform and was actually announced at Google I/O last year, and has launched as of today. This update to Android Wear brings a slew of new features, which also includes bringing Android Pay to your wrist. Allowing you to make mobile payments without needing your phone, you can even leave your smartphone at home and still use Android Pay. Additionally, the entire user interface of Android Wear has been updated, and the smartwatch even has a keyboard now. Something that Google had tried to stay away from in the early days of smartwatches.
The LG Watch Sport, unlike other smartwatches, cannot have its straps replaced. And this is due to the fact that the straps include a slew of antennas. So they aren’t swappable like older Android Wear watches, but it makes perfect sense as to why. Having NFC in the strap makes it easier to actually use Android Pay, since that does indeed use NFC to make the transaction.
LG Watch Sport at AT&T