Strap on the LG G Watch Urbane 2nd Edition and feel free to walk away from your smartphone, because this is the first Android Wear smartwatch with untethered cellular connectivity.
Compatible with both Android and iPhone, this revision of the first LG Watch Urbane makes and receives calls and data over 4G and 3G as well as the normal Wi-Fi and Bluetooth methods.
It's not the first smartwatch that can make calls untethered, though. Samsung Gear S and Gear S2 are able to do this, and LG did the same with the LG Watch Urbane LTE in South Korea.
The difference here is that the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition offers a high-end smartwatch with phone-free capabilities, while stilling Android Wear, not Samsung's Tizen software or LG's WebOS platform.
LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition specs
Like the LG V10, the phone we're also seeing today that's an alternative to the LG G4, there are only a few differences between the old and new watch aside from the hallmark LTE connection.
It runs the same 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor and 4GB of storage seen in pretty much every Android Wear smartwatch, and it has a 1.38-inch P-OLED display.
This time, the resolution has been upped to 480 x 480, with 348 pixels per inch, and the RAM is counted as 768MB, up from 512MB, in order to power that cellular connection.
Calls can drain the battery life, but the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition boosts its battery capacity to 570mAh instead of the previous 410mAh. The Apple Watch, by contrast as a 250mAh battery.
But all of the extra components and bigger battery make it thicker. It's now 14.2mm thick instead of 10.9mm thick. Yes, this already big watch just got a bit chunkier, according to LG's specs.
That said, with top-notch components and a fashionable design, if the LG Watch Urbane 2 really does fit you when it comes out soon, and you must have calls and data away from your phone, it's your first and only smartwatch option so far.
- See the LG V10 smartphone that was announced at the same time
