Meet LG’s New Urbane Smartwatch, Now With LTE Connectivity

An excellent watch, that does a lot, including connect you with people and emails, over 4G LTE!

LG just unveiled the fourth smartwatch at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), 2015. The webOS-powered variant of Urbane, known as the LG Watch Urbane LTE, is a definite step away from it’s predecessor

This is the first smartwatch that’s blessed with the ability to connect to a high-speed 4G wireless network .

Not only that, LG, in the Urbane LTE is choosing to go with its own webOS operating system for this device instead of the established Android OS.

The company’s motive seems clear with the use of its proprietary operating system (after acquiring it from Hewlett-Packard in 2013) — LG is going to leverage it’s own Wearable platform to power multiple products, rather than to splinter it’s wares across competing platforms.

There’s obviously another reason — to reduce the dependence on Google and its Android OS.

I’d put it another way, to make it easier to comprehend LG’s motives — LG, while maintaining the tie-up with Google, is strengthening an alternative platform that is versatile according to its own needs.

The Urbane LTE sports the same 1.3-inch 320x320-pixel Plastic-organic-light-emitting diode (P-OLED) circular display with a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 4 GB of memory.

Unlike the Urbane, the Urbane LTE is blessed with the ability to make and receive calls and text messages, and also to check emails, all by itself.

There is an interesting walkie-talkie like feature too, which lets the wearer connect to multiple people at the same time, without the use of a smartphone!

Oh! Almost forgot, the device is also enabled to do humdrum things like tracking the activities of the user.

The battery stands more powerful at 700 mAh (as compared to LG’s earlier smartwatches, including the recently released LG Urbane), thus improving the standby period.

The device can also be used as a voice translator with the built-in voice translator app, and also as a mobile wallet able to pay at NFC-enabled registers, with the new NFC chip introduced. The wrist-wallet can be used to pay for everything ranging from clothes to public transport. The device is also dust- and water-resistant, with an IP67 rating.

There is also the presence of three physical buttons on the right side of the device — the top button for accessing the settings, the center button for switching between the watch and apps, and the lower button to act as a back function. Safety signals can be sent to the preset emergency contact by holding down the back button, which when pressed down sends your location to the person you’re calling.

In a press release, LG President and CEO, Juno Cho said “The LG Watch Urbane LTE is an example of the kind of innovation that’s possible when you’re the industry leader in LTE technology”. This shows the confidence of Mr. Cho for the model packed with diverse features looking to break away from the smartwatch pack.

In terms of the look, it is larger than the other variant. The watch case is extended to house the 700 mAh battery which can be a challenge for those with smaller wrists, but not an insurmountable one, and most people should get used to the extra heft over time.

The strap is a rugged-feeling rubber strap, cutting the profile of an expensive watch.

The device is available only in Silver colour, unlike the Urbane which is available in both, Gold and Silver.

Originally published at Chip-Monks.