LG makes its circular smartwatch more stylish

With CES over, all eyes are on Mobile World Congress, the next global stage for companies to show their wares, with telecommunications big on the agenda, and LG is getting in early with a preview for the next generation of its smartwatch.

It doesn’t seem all that long ago that LG tried its hand at developing a smartwatch. In fact it was just March last year that we first received a glimpse of LG’s first foray in this category, one of only two companies initially announcing that it was working on an Android Wear-based device, alongside Motorola.

Eventually, we saw something from Samsung with Asus and Sony also joining in with their own products, but LG was among the first, and it is also among the first to show off what it has in store for people at this year’s Mobile World Congress starting off with another watch.

This is the third smartwatch from LG, and is called the LG Watch Urbane, drawing inspiration from LG’s G Watch R, retaining the 320×320 1.3 inch Plastic OLED screen (P-OLED) used in LG’s first circular smartwatch, the aforementioned G Watch R.

But it is a different device, and LG’s Urbane relies on a slimmer design with thinner bezels, a stainless steel body with either a polished silver or a gold look to it, as well as another leather strap that can be easily replaced by the other thanks to the 22mm band width.

A heart-rate sensor is also included, just like it was on the G Watch R, as is a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, 4GB storage, 512MB RAM, and a 410mAh battery, making this model practically identical to the G Watch R except for body design.

“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 LG’s Juno Cho.

“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.”

As with most announcements that occur at overseas trade shows, LG has yet to announce anything in regards to official pricing or availability in Australia, but we’d expect this some time either in March or April, with a price likely $50 to $100 higher than what we’ve seen the G Watch R for, suggesting we should see it for somewhere between $399 and $499.