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One of the biggest sticking points with smartwatches is battery life, and unfortunately things are no different with the LG G Watch R.
First up, the good news. The G Watch R sports a 410mAh battery which is bigger than the 320mAh power pack stuffed into the Moto 360.
The G Watch R then, delivers better battery performance over its rounded Motorola rival as well as the square faced options, but don't get too excited. I found that the G Watch R could last two days on a single charge, but no longer than that.
So while the nightly charging ritual isn't required, having to charge it every other night is just as frustrating.
I still look in envy at the likes of the Pebble and Pebble Steel which can get seven days from one charge, but that's understandable with black and white displays and fewer functions.
Still, having to charge your watch as well as your smartphone on a bi-nightly, if not nightly, basis is counter productive and it will put off a number of people.
LG provides a similar magnetic charging cradle to the one bundled with the original G Watch, only this time it's round to fit the shape of the G Watch R.
It's easy to plonk the G Watch R down on it at night, but there were a few times I forgot and then had the watch die on me in the middle of the day with the charging cradle back at home.
Without that there's no way to recharge the watch and thus it's ultimately useless if you go away and forget this vital piece of kit.
The Qi wireless charging cradle for the Moto 360 is a lot more stylish in its implementation and useful as it doubles as a bedside/desk clock while it sits on the stand, but again you're constrained by the need for the cradle.
The Sony Smartwatch 3 has a microUSB port on the side, allowing you to charge it using a standard smartphone cable which is far more practical, but adds additional bulk to the device.
In short the charging solution for the G Watch R isn't terrible, but it's also not the best and the fact it can't go more than two days on a single charge is still a huge irritation.
Connectivity wise Android Wear smartwatches are still pretty limited. The LG G Watch R sports Bluetooth 4.0 and that's about it.
There's no GPS, NFC or cellular connections available and as I've already mentioned it's also devoid of a microUSB port.
You also can't build on the 4GB of internal storage with a memory card, but hey, at least it has a barometer.
