LG Announces The LG Watch Urbane
by Brandon Chester on February 15, 2015 10:22 PM EST
LG doesn't seem intent on waiting for large industry events to announce their wearable products. Last year the company announced their LG G3 Stylus and the LG Watch R shortly before the beginning of IFA, and today we're seeing a similar announcement only a few weeks before the start of Mobile World Congress. Today's announcement is the LG Watch Urbane, a smartwatch that is described as a more premium version of the LG Watch R. While the LG Watch R targeted users who were interested in something to augment their fitness routines, the LG Watch Urbane targets people who want something with a design and construction more similar to a traditional watch.
The internal specifications of the LG Watch Urbane are the same as the LG Watch R. It's powered by Qualcomm's APQ8026 which is a quad core Cortex-A7 SoC running at 1.2GHz paired with an Adreno 305 and 512MB of RAM plus 4GB of NAND. It retains the IP67 rating for submersion in water up to 1 meter deep for 30 minutes which has become standard across all of LG's wearables. The display is also the same circular 1.3" 320x320 plastic OLED display. What differentiates the LG Watch Urbane from the LG Watch R is its premium build, with a stainless steel body, a thinner bezel around the display, and a stitched leather strap.
LG is yet to provide information about pricing or when it will be available for sale, but with MWC on the horizon we're likely to get more information about the LG Watch Urbane soon.
Source: LG
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jameskatt - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
It kills the battery.FunBunny2 - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Well, it's the WinTel monopoly all over again, except cpu makers have a raft of different conspirators. But it's the same paradigm: cpu makers (Intel, ARM, etc.) need takers for the increase in cycles/power they keep churning out, while their clients need ever more cycles/power from the cpu to deal with the bloatware they produce. Actually making something new and better? Not on the menu. And don't give me Apple; they've never been first mover in anything that's worked. The flame outs *have* been new stuff. They're really a rather conservative company.eanazag - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link
Apple is generally slow to new tech. The exceptions are as of late. Those exceptions would be computers with PCIexpress SSDs. They have been on the front end of WiFi AC and when you look at all their main products they are leading the AC race. Laptops with the Crystalwell Intel chips mostly only fall in Apple's boat. The Apple TV and device screen streaming was a year ahead in the mobile space. The Apple TV price is too high now; I don't expect it to be at Chromecast pricing. It needs to be around $50.00 today.They were a whole year behind in getting 4G in their devices - it was pathetic. NFC was years behind, yet the come to market with a real NFC push on use case - Apple Pay. Many NFC devices were pointless. The Apple Watch is way late as the announcement was almost pointless - it was for investors and not consumers. Yet, the Apple Watch will likely be one of the best sellers in the segment.
fteoath64 - Wednesday, February 18, 2015 - link
Still no GPS and no ANT+ either ?! sony is ahead but chooses not to focus on shell/casing design. You can bet the Apple Watch is 70% design and 30% function. some just prefers it this way...blzd - Thursday, February 19, 2015 - link
What they usually don't mention is that only 1 of the cores is enabled.They could use older, slower SoCs (like Moto did with their TI powered Moto 360) but it actually costs them about the same due to Qualcomm wanting their chips in there and offering manufacturers a good deal. Also the power consumption is probably better on the newer chips with cores disabled.
SodaAnt - Tuesday, February 17, 2015 - link
Because it doesn't, not really. The quad core CPUs in wear watches usually have 3 of the 4 cores disabled, so they are really single core procs. The RAM is just an artifact of them running basically full android, and more RAM really doesn't use that much more power.jameskatt - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
This LG watch looks CHEAP. Why would anyone who does not want to look cheap wear this watch? You might as well buy a Timex or Armitron watch.JeffDM - Monday, February 16, 2015 - link
Hello, marketing people - adequate battery life is feature #1. I call BS on this product. A supercomputing watch with a dead battery is dead weight.It's nice that it has water resistance though.