LG Watch Urbane LTE officially announced with webOS

Meet the LG Watch Urbane LTE, which accompanies the previously announced LG Watch Urbane at LG's MWC 2015 lineup. The LG Watch Urbane LTE is the more premium of the two wearables, featuring full 4G LTE capabilities and webOS instead of Android Wear.

With 4G LTE connectivity, you can make calls and send messages directly from your wrist. This is because your smartwatch is fully independent from your smartphone, so while you can connect the two, you do not need your smartphone to use the watch. There is also a useful walkie-talkie feature that lets you even more quickly communicate with people anywhere.

The other noticeable difference between the two LG Watch Urbane units is the underlying operating system. The LTE model comes with webOS instead of Android Wear with its Google Play services.

You have a 1.3 inch plastic OLED display you customizable watch faces. The user interface can be activated by pressing the physical button on the side, and you have apps like calendar and notifications for your day to day needs. Inside the watch is a 1.2-GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, 4GB of storage and a 700mAh battery, which LG claims can "go for days in standby mode."

LG is including apps such as a translation app that currently can identify English, Chinese and Japanese and translate it using voice recognition. The golf app on the Watch Urbane LTE will suggest ways to improve your stroke formation, while also giving you easy access to course information.

You'll be able to make NFC payments from the smartwatch as well, so you won't even have to pull out your phone or wallet to pay for lunch. Thanks to the combination of LTE, GPS and a heart rate monitor, cyclists can see speed, distance, heart rate and directions on their wrists and hikers can use the smartwatch for trail information, waypoint directions, and altitude readings in addition to time and distance tracking.

For those who don't need the convenience of a wrist-bound LTE device, LG has the Watch Urbane, which essentially is a sexier version of the LG G Watch R. The body of the watch is slimmer and sleeker than the G Watch R, featuring a narrower bezel and a polished metal finish. You'll be able to get the Watch Urbane in either a silver or gold tone, and the stitched leather, interchangeable strap finishes off the device with classic style. Unfortunately, the Watch Urbane LTE that we saw only has a clunky rubber band. Both the Watch Urbane and Watch Urbane LTE have an IP67 rating, meaning these smartwatches can withstand dust and water as deep as one meter.

Key Specifications:

• 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

There's no word yet on the pricing for the LG Watch Urbane, or plan details for the Watch Urbane LTE. However, AT&T has announced that it will be the first carrier to have the Watch Urbane in the US at the end of April. In the short time we had with the devices, they are two of the most stylish smartwatches we've ever seen, and we're particularly intrigued by webOS on the Urbane LTE. Stay tuned for full reviews of both smartwatches in the coming months.


source - LG