One of the most intriguing products
on the show floor at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the LG Watch Urbane LTE, which is based on
the webOS platform acquired by LG a few years ago. While its name suggests that
it is just an LTE-capable version of the LG Watch Urbane, it is in fact an
entirely different product.
The Watch Urbane LTE is a product
that doesn't have a very clear target audience. Unlike most other smartwatches
which are accessories for their owners' smartphones, the Watch Urbane LTE can
work independently. It has its own LTE connection and can run apps that sync to
cloud services without needing an intermediary device.
This is one bulky smartwatch, and
frankly, it isn't very slick. This is definitely not the kind of smart device
that would appeal to anyone who thinks of watches as style statements. The bulk
is largely due to the antennas required, but also because there has to be space
for a large enough battery to keep the thing going. It has a microphone and a
speaker in addition to the now-standard heart rate sensor.
But of course the most interesting thing it has going for it is its
software. This is one of the most feature-rich implementations we've seen,
though it's still up for debate whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Not
everyone wants to run their digital lives from a tiny screen on their wrist.
The dial is circular, but all the watch faces we saw looked a bit
cartoonish. There was no attempt to make the device appear to be a traditional
watch, yet there were more analogue dials than digital ones - none that truly
exploited the screen. A long-tap on the screen brought us to the watch face
selection menu, and scrolling was as easy as flicking up or down.
In any list or menu, a grab handle appears on the edge of the screen. You
can tap it and swirl your finger around the edge of the screen as if the whole
thing is a jog dial, which makes scrolling a lot quicker. This is one of the
ways in which the webOS platform really embraces the circular screen concept.
You get to the main menu by pressing the middle button on the right edge.
This makes circular icons appear around the periphery of the screen - again,
just tap and swirl to scroll through them. We saw loads of apps including LG
Health, which lets you monitor vital signs and physical activity. There's also
a music app which plays tracks from the 4GB of built-in storage - it isn't just
a remote for your phone.
All the usual smartphone apps can be found - a calendar, contacts list,
alarm clock, voice recorder, photo gallery, email client, etc. Third-party apps
should also come out in due course, but we did see a golf app, which means more
specific ones are probably on the way from LG itself too.
The upper button brings up a circular quick settings menu, much like the
ones you see on smartphones. You can control volume, cellular data, brightness,
Bluetooth, and much more. This is also where you'll see battery and signal
strength level indicators.
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