I have a hard time caring about smartwatches. They sound neat, but most of them have tiny batteries that can barely last a couple days. Why can’t someone make a watch that both looks swanky and has a decent sized battery? Well, LG just did: it’s called the Watch Urbane LTE.
https://gizmodo.com/the-best-smartwatch-for-every-wrist-1671271995
Yes, I know that name sounds familiar, but try to forget about it. Despite sharing an almost identical name with LG’s (also recently announced) LG Watch Urbane, the LTE model is a completely different wearable. It has more buttons. It uses LG’s custom Wearable Platform OS instead of Android Wear. There’s a heart rate monitor, NFC support (for mobile payments) and apps for golfing (how’s your swing?), hiking and cycling. It has a huge 700mAh battery—almost doubling the power stores of every other smartwatch out there. The name is confusing and awful, but it actually sounds like a pretty good timepiece.
At least the name calls attention to one of its main features: LTE support. The new Urbane can make and answer calls, handle text messaging and even supports push-to-talk on some carriers. There’s a discreet “panic button” too: holding down the third button on the watch’s side will automatically call a pre-set emergency number and transmit your location. Neat.
So, is LG’s wearable OS any good? Does it play nice with your phone notifications? Is it a heavy, bulky disaster? Is it expensive? Maybe, probably, hopefully not and almost assuredly—but we’ll be sure to find out soon.
