LG’s latest Android Wear watch was announced just prior to MWC, pairing the round face design of the G Watch R with the more a premium metal body construction than the previous models. LG hasn’t released the watch as yet, but they are showing it off at mobile world congress, so we dropped by the LG booth to take a look.
The watch itself is very similar, some would say identical in thickness as the LG G Watch R, but has a more classic look. The construction feels a little better but weight wise it feels about the same. The lugs for the strap have been slightly redesigned from the G Watch R but the body shape is still almost identical.
It’s a great looking watch and the black and brown bands are quite nice, though a little hard to tell apart unless you really look. The good news is that you can change the bands with any standard 22mm wide strap on the market.
The crown (the button on the side) has a nice click when you use it, just like the G Watch R. The software is running and seems very similar to the G Watch R, although with a new watch face or two thrown in for good measure.
On the rear of the G Watch Urbane you’ll find the same pogo pin connection used for charging and the dock appears to be identical to the G Watch R, in fact they’re interchangeable, with the G Watch R happily starting to charge when I popped it onto the charger.
Pricing and availability in Australia haven’t been announced but this is one good looking watch. If you have any questions sing out in the comments and I`ll run back to the booth if I get a chance and see what I can find.
We’ve run through a hands-on video here which gives you a bit better look at the LG Urbane so check it out.
Isn’t the Urbane running WebOS not Android Wear?
Hi Greg, there’s two versions of the LG Urbane, one running Android Wear and the other, which is NFC and LTE enabled, running WebOS. These were the Android Wear versions
Nice quick hands-on Dan.
The machined bezel on the dark one looks awesome.
Edit: mind doing a post on what it’s like over there by yourself? I’m amazed how you can do the hands on and video at the same time….. Go Pro with a head strap? 😛 get a pic of that!!
Comparison with the Huawei is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Would love to get the Huawei Watch out to take it over to the LG booth but alas that security guard that Huawei have next to it is pretty scary. I’ve used my LG G Watch R to give you a sense of scale for both. Hopefully that helps.
Did you have a chance to check out the Huawei watch?
I’m interested in the Huawei too… if its properly water resistant that is
I’ve been asking at the Huawei booth but no-one can help me answer that question unfortunately. I’ll query through Huawei in Australia and get back to you.
Sure did – http://ausdroid.net/2015/03/04/huawei-watch-australian-hands-on/ – Not much we can check out though, with Huawei very protective of it. No actual live Android Wear running on it, just the retail demo mode.