Earlier this week, seemingly out of nowhere, LG teased us with a video for a new smartwatch. A new round-faced smartwatch. A successor to the not-too-popular LG G Watch, it is called the LG G Watch R.
Internally, the G Watch R is almost exactly the same as the G Watch: a 1.2GHz processor, 8GB of storage with 512MB of RAM, and a 410 mAh battery (10 mAh more than the G Watch).
The key difference is, of course, the display. The G Watch’s rectangular screen measured in at a pretty sizeable 1.6 inches – the G Watch R is 1.3 inches. Of course being round that means it’s a little shorter but also a little wider, too. Either way, it’s still going to sit pretty large on the wrist.
Its strap is calfskin leather, and the whole device is (currently) only available in a black-on-black colour scheme. It’s also IP67 certified for a degree of water and dust-proofing.
Of course comparisons will be drawn between the G Watch R and Motorola’s Moto 360, the device which made everybody suddenly realise that they wanted a round smartwatch. One key distinction, however, is the nature of the watch’s face.
The Moto 360 actually has a very subtle, but very much real section of dead space at the bottom of its face. It’s unnoticeable when the face is blacked out, but when a notification pops up, or if you venture into an app, it becomes noticeable. Motorola says it’s needed to house components. LG has done away with it.
What the G Watch R has instead is a conventional dial with second/minute markings, which will presumably be used to house components in a more even, subtle manner.
Amongst those components housed is a heart-rate monitor, accelerometer, GPS, and all the necessary connectivity to link it with your Android smartphone (version 4.3 or higher).
There’s no word on a release date or pricing yet, but with the G Watch priced at around £150 at launch we can expect it to be in that region, too – perhaps a little higher.
