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LG Watch Urbane to rival Apple Watch, with stylish all-metal body

by Mark Tyson on 16 February 2015, 12:05

Tags: LG Electronics (066570.KS), PC

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LG has announced details of its latest Android Wear smartwatch, dubbed the LG Watch Urbane, ready to take on the Apple Watch as the Cupertino tech goliath prepares to enter the wearables arena. The stylish LG wearable will sport a circular display like the G Watch R, with the 1.3-inch Plastic OLED display encased in a 'luxury' stainless steel body.

The first full metal LG branded smartwatch will be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress next month. Designed to look more like a classic timepiece and to appeal to both sexes, it hopes to attract fashion-conscious gadget enthusiasts with a choice of polished silver or gold finishes. In addition, it has a natural leather strap that can be replaced by any 22mm-wide regular watch band to suit the wearer's style and personal taste.

"The LG Watch Urbane’s classic design and smart features make it the perfect smartwatch to complement our G Watch and G Watch R, which were designed as more casual and active devices," said Juno Cho, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. "LG Watch Urbane is an important part of our strategy to develop wearable devices that are worn and viewed as everyday accessories, not electronic gadgets."

Specs wise, the device will be powered by a 2.1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 and come with 512MB of DDR2 RAM and 4GB of storage. It will have TP67 certification for water and dust resistance and includes a built-in heart rate sensor. The display has a 320x320 pixel resolution with a 245ppi pixel density. LG's Watch Urbane features an always-on ambient display which shows the time with dimmed lighting that extends the life of the 410mAh battery.

Pricing will be announced as and when the LG Watch Urbane smartwatch becomes available. LG's new wearable looks to be a good Apple Watch alternative, if it can match the style and design appeal at an attractive price.

LG to launch G4 in April

With Samsung and HTC, among others, expected to be launching their upcoming flagship smartphones at MWC 2015, LG will be delaying the launch of its G4 until April, according to PocketLint.

"We rolled out the G3 in May last year so we do not plan to unveil the G4 at this year's Mobile World Congress and [will] spend more time perfecting the new phone," said an LG executive. The company seems to be in no rush to release its upcoming flagship and has plans to wait until the hype of other flagship smartphones dies down before unveiling its own.

HEXUS Forums :: 13 Comments

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Posted by azrael- - Mon 16 Feb 2015 12:28
Wait? What? The Apple Watch stylish?
Posted by Roobubba - Mon 16 Feb 2015 12:33
While this looks nice (and at least to my eyes infinitely more stylish than the Apple watch), I am still quite unsure of how these watches fit in the market.

Priced near to expensive designer watches, they don't make sense. At all. A watch is a long-term purchase, say a present at a milestone birthday, or another special occasion, meant to last for years - decades at least. Within 4 years, all of these things will be outdated, obsolete and before much longer they'll also be using defunct communication technologies.

By all means, make them look stylish - that's great. But by their very nature, they really can't go head to head with traditional watches. I suspect Apple will get away with it once the iSheep are sold (they mostly are already, of course), and there's a group with more money than sense if ever there was one.
Posted by tigertop1 - Mon 16 Feb 2015 14:52
Roobubba
While this looks nice (and at least to my eyes infinitely more stylish than the Apple watch), I am still quite unsure of how these watches fit in the market.

Priced near to expensive designer watches, they don't make sense. At all. A watch is a long-term purchase, say a present at a milestone birthday, or another special occasion, meant to last for years - decades at least. Within 4 years, all of these things will be outdated, obsolete and before much longer they'll also be using defunct communication technologies.

By all means, make them look stylish - that's great. But by their very nature, they really can't go head to head with traditional watches. I suspect Apple will get away with it once the iSheep are sold (they mostly are already, of course), and there's a group with more money than sense if ever there was one.

Just a very well made point! The Omega Seamaster on my wrist right now keeps perfect time and is 58 years old It is probably worth 10 times over what I paid for it in 1957. I wonder how much a new 2015 Apple or LG watch will be worth in 2073?
Posted by shaithis - Mon 16 Feb 2015 16:09
These make me chuckle, I still cannot think of a decent use for one (especially as they are almost useless without a smartphone in your pocket), although these is something about them that makes me think I may want one…..this one has been designed to look very nice all well.

You don't need to go back very far before you would laugh at someone for saying we would get stylish watches with a quad core CPU, 512MB RAM and 4GB storage in them!
Posted by GuidoLS - Mon 16 Feb 2015 17:34
These look nice, for a change - it's kind of difficult to go out in public, dressed nicely, wearing something that looks like it comes out of the child's department in the local WalMart/MegaMart… at least for anyone that has any self-esteem. I still don't see the use for one, much like I don't see the need for a smart phone. But they are nice to look at. Not $300US plus nice, but nice.

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