LG introduce a new smartwatch version: LG Watch Urbane LTE. The new watch is presented with more changes than we might expect, the first is obvious, and it is nothing other than the addition of LTE connectivity on a clock. The first time a smartwatch dares to this type of connectivity is also accompanied by the NFC support.
In terms of design, we have a remarkable difference in the keypad, while the original Urbane presented with a single button, in the LTE model we see that there are up to three on the side. The upper button opens the information related to the battery, brightness, and other important parameters, while the lower button is navigation and takes you back to the operating system.
An alternative to Android Wear
Apart from the hardware innovations, the most striking point is found in the absence of Android Wear operating system, which is precisely using the original Urbane. Strange change, especially if we take into account that does not tell us what is the alternative.
Some might think of webOS, as it is the case of the prototype that we were taught with Audi, but some media have contacted LG to know that that is not the option. It seems that LG would be developing a new platform, which naturally remains compatible with Android phones (version 4.4 onwards).
The operating system is webOS, confirmed
Payments with clock
The inclusion of NFC support is not trivial, as in the case of Apple Watch, will be used to make payments to the device. LG did not give more details, but invites us to think about payment contact without the phone is present in the operation.
More battery
On technical specifications, the LG Watch Urbane LTE has a 700mAh battery, which is 1.7 times larger than that of an LG G Watch R, or the original Urbane model (both feature a 410mAh unit).
Inside not missing sensors of all kinds, such as accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometric pressure, heart rate, even GPS. More interesting is to find that doubles the RAM to 1GB, while the storage remains in 4GB.
There seems to be changes in 1.3 inch P-OLED display with a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels, either at Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (can offer LTE).
The luxury watch LG will see at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, as the first model with LTE connectivity see the light.