LG’s Korean site has today teased a new variant of the LG Watch Urbane, due to be announced at Mobile World Congress 2015, which will be the first watch to come to market with LTE connectivity.
The post detailed some functions and features that LG says will set its new watch apart from the competition:
- The world’s first LTE communication module in watch MWC 2015 debut
- Further evolution of the smart watch UX (user experience)
- World’s first NFC-equipped to simple e-wallet payment on the smart watch
- Foreign language translation capabilities via voice recognition
- World’s largest capacity battery attached at 700mAh capacity battery
- Metal body and three physical keys on the side (the “crown”)
There’s a bevy of fairly standard sensors built in like gyroscopes and acceleration, compass, barometric pressure, heart rate, and for the first time in an LG watch, GPS. LG says that when a user wears this watch and plays golf, for example, it automatically informs him/her of their swing speed and course information.
Charging is done in a dock as with LG’s other watches, though this one is said to mount upright at 90 degrees. Another neat feature is “Wear Detection” by which the watch knows when it’s not being worn and switches off. LG has also included a “safety guardian” function – when the user presses and holds the three physical keys on the watch body, it calls a pre-set number automatically and transmits your current location information.
The watch has a scratch-resistant stainless steel metal body and is sweat corrosion resistant with an IP67 dust/waterproof rating, meaning it can withstand up to 30 minutes under water at a maximum depth of 1m.
Wear Forward
It looks like this watch will push the Android Wear platform forward with a few new features. The major one is of course phone-independent LTE connectivity, which has been rumoured for a while now.
Besides LTE connectivity with VoLTE support, the big news is NFC for mobile payments. We first saw hints that Android Wear was ready to sprout NFC features a few months ago – this could be the first watch to use the feature.
This will also be the first Android Wear watch to feature multiple buttons, and a speaker. Extra buttons on the watch are said to be for “Quick Settings” and “Back” functions.
Finally, this is the first Android Wear watch to feature a speaker.
LG Watch Urbane LTE product specifications
- Network: LTE
- Chipset: 400 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
- Display: 1.3 inches plastic OLED (320 * 320, 245ppi)
- Memory: 1GB LPDDR3 / 4GB eMMC
- Sensors: 9-axis (gyro / acceleration / compass), barometric pressure sensor, heart rate sensor, GPS
- Waterproof and dustproof: IP67 certified
- Battery: 700mAh
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi (802.11 b, g, n)
- Bluetooth 4.0LE
- NFC
- Colors: Silver
- Speaker, microphone
The LG Watch Urbane LTE is compatible with all Android smartphones with Android OS 4.4 version or higher. We’ve no idea which LTE network bands the watch will support, or whether we’re looking at one SKU (only with LTE connectivity) or two (one with, one more standard without) but it shouldn’t be long until we find out – the watch is due to be announced next week at Mobile World Congress 2015, and we’ll be on the ground to report on it live.
Note that details for this article were translated from Korean, so some errors may be present.
Are you excited for LG’s new watch? Tell us in the comments!
I want this watch 😉
LTE technology in watch. That is pretty awesome.
Not Android Wear according to the Verge
it must be running webOS as LG has acquired it after HP sold its plam sector.
And @Ausdroid Also this is not the first watch to have NFC, sony smart watch 3 already has NFC
Verge suggests not WebOS either
MWC will show us soon 🙂
“World’s first NFC-equipped to simple e-wallet payment on the smart watch”
Sony never used theirs to pay with.