LG has just raised the bar in the smartwatch market. Less than a week before MWC 2015 in Spain, the company has announced the LG Watch Urbane LTE which will include not only LTE (obviously) capabilities, but also NFC and other features.
Current smartwatches like the Moto 360, Samsung Gear Live, and the LG G Watch (and G Watch R), all use the Android Wear OS and require a connection to an Android device in order to take full advantage of their features. LG has ditched Android Wear with the Watch Urbane LTE, opting to go instead with “the all new LG Wearable Platform operating system.”
“The LG Watch Urbane LTE is an example of the kind of innovation that’s possible when you’re the industry leader in LTE technology,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “This smartwatch breaks new ground with the world’s first LTE connectivity and the real-watch styling of a high-end modern classic watch. It embodies our philosophy, innovation for a better life.”
The device itself will feature a 1.3-inch Plastic-OLED (P-OLED) display, 700mAh battery, can make and answer calls and texts, offers push-to-talk capability (based on carrier availability), utilize NFC for mobile payments, include a heart rate monitor and advanced motion sensors for fitness tracking, and is IP67 dust and waterproof certified – allowing it to be submerged for up to 30 minutes in a meter of water.
The list of specifications include:
- Chipset: 1.2GHz Qualcomm® SnapdragonTM 400
- Operating System: LG Wearable Platform
- Display: 1.3-inch P-OLED (320 x 320 / 245ppi)
- Network: LTE
- Memory: 4GB eMMC / 1GB LPDDR3
- Battery: 700mAh
- Sensors: 9 Axis / Barometer / PPG / GPS
- Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b, g, n / Bluetooth 4.0LE / NFC
- Color: Silver
- Other: Dust and Water Resistant (IP67) / Speaker / Microphone
Instead of a single button like most current smartwatches, the LG Watch Urbane LTE will have three physical buttons to allow for easier access to the watch functions. The top button allows the user to access the Quick Setting menu, the middle button will allow switching between the watchface and a list of installed apps, while the bottom button has two purposes: a back button when pressed quickly, or a safety beacon which automatically dials any preset phone number and sends your location when long pressed.
It’s interesting that LG chose not to go with Android Wear, and depending on price and how well the LG Wearable Platform works, this could really be a game changer in the smartwatch field.
Let us know what you think about LG’s announcement – does a smartwatch that allows you to make calls and send and received texts interest you? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.lgnewsroom.com/newsroom/contents/65121″ icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: LG[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
