LG Replaces Android Wear: Adds LTE, GPS and NFC to the Watch Urbane
by Stephen Barrett on February 26, 2015 11:45 AM EST- Posted in
- Wearables
- LG
- LG Watch Urbane
Today LG pre-announced significant additions to their high-end wearable, the LG Watch Urbane, via a new edition called the LG Watch Urbane LTE. Both devices will officially launch at Mobile World Congress next week. From a feature standpoint, the LG Watch Urbane LTE adds more wireless functionality via the inclusion of LTE, VoLTE (not 3G voice), GPS, and NFC.
These additions dramatically expand LG's ability to cover the movement use case of wearables and places the Watch Urbane LTE alongside the Samsung Gear S as the only devices to include cellular functionality. This provides a safety net when making a fitness excursion, as emergency calls are now possible. LG had this use case in mind specifically as they included a single key press to initiate an emergency call. Additionally, the inclusion of NFC enables mobile payments, although LG has not yet provided details on how this works. Finally, LG has dramatically increased the battery size from 410mAH to 700mAH, which will help immensely with powering the LTE radio. I should note this is the largest battery I have seen to date in a wearable.
From an industry perspective, the most interesting part of this announcement is that LG has ditched Android Wear which was used for the non-LTE edition of the Watch Urbane. As Android Wear does not support NFC payments or cellular, this was a necessity to bring the Watch Urbane LTE to market, but it highlights that device makers like LG and Samsung are not waiting for Google to add functionality. Google needs to improve the pace of Android Wear updates if they want to keep their partners using the platform.
| LG Watch Urbane LTE | LG Watch Urbane | |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 1.2GHz |
| Memory | 1GB LPDDR3 | 512MB LPDDR3 |
| Display | 1.3" plastic OLED (320 x 320, 245ppi) | 1.3" plastic OLED (320 x 320, 245ppi) |
| Storage | 4GB eMMC | 4GB eMMC |
| Wireless | LTE, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 | Bluetooth 4.0 |
| Ingress protection | IP67 | IP67 |
| Battery | 700mAH | 410mAH |
| Sensors | Gyro, accelerometer, compass, barometer, heart rate, GPS | Gyro, accelerometer, compass, barometer, heart rate |
| I/O | Touch screen, buttons, speaker, microphone | Touch screen, buttons, microphone |
| OS | "LG Wearable Platform Operating System" |
Android Wear |
Update: It appears the watch might not run a customized Android distribution but rather something more custom. LG describes it as "LG Wearable Platform Operating System". Other news are reporting this as WebOS derived but nothing has been confirmed from LG. WebOS would be impressive considering we haven't seen a version including VoLTE.
Price and availability remain unknown. Look for additional details as Mobile World Congress 2015 begins next week.
Source: LG Newsroom
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Hrel - Friday, February 27, 2015 - link
I have an LG G2 as a personal phone and a Motorola Moto X as a business phone. The moto is much closer to stock Android, and significantly less useful. The LG skin on Android adds a lot useful features and is just organized better.Based on this experience, and pas experiences with HTC and Samsung skins, I no longer look at "stock Android" as a good thing. It's decidedly not.
nismotigerwvu - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
Props to Stephen on this one by bolding the differences of the new model on the table, it really is a nice touch. More to the point, I really do like the styling on this model, but without a frame of reference it is really difficult to get a feel for its size.mkozakewich - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
Needs banana for scale.ant6n - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
needs weighthrrmph - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
By supporting only LTE-Voice (and not supporting 3G-Voice), this watch probably won't travel from continent to continent very well. The benefit of this arrangement is probably better battery life, but still...toyotabedzrock - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
They are falling victim to the include everything idea. It is too much for a watch and no one willing to pay that price will want the bulk.melgross - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
Not true. I don't know who you figure will be buying this. But the price should be ok. As far as bulk goes, don't you know that all watches are getting bigger and heavier? I'm seeing watches that are .75" thick and close to 2" in diameter.JeffFlanagan - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
I worked an event a couple of months ago, talking one on one with hundreds of people, and was surprised at how huge regular watches have gotten. Smart-watches are much thinner than the current fashion.Samus - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
This isn't Apple we're talking about here. The Koreans have long thrown in everything + the kitchen sink for the same or less than Apple charges for inferior specs. The Galaxy S3 vs the iPhone 4S/5 is a good example. Samsung had LTE, NFC, larger/higher res screen and numerous other technologies implemented before Apple, and they charged $100 less MSRP.secretmanofagent - Thursday, February 26, 2015 - link
The update is actually incorrect, there has been a WebOS wearable shown before: http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/7/7511883/lg-webos-...It was shown at CES2015 and designed for use with an Audi. It's unclear if it has LTE capabilities, though.