14 DAY TRIAL // We certainly weren't expecting this now. Surely you remember, a few days ago LG released the official teaser for its upcoming round smartwatch which was pegged for IFA 2014.
A week before the event starts off in Berlin, the company has decided to let the cat out of the bag and announced the LG G Watch R.
Just two months and a half have passed since LG rolled out its original G Watch at the Google I/O conference, but the pressure of this budding market seems to have driven the company to extreme measures.
Fearing that the advent of the highly hyped Moto 360 will overshadow its efforts, today LG comes out with a circular smartwatch of its own. The LG G Watch R is being touted as the world’s first intelligent smart piece to arrive with a circular Plastic OLED (or P-OLED) display that utilizes 100% of the watch’s face.
The Korean company claims the new watch will provide absolute clarity and great readability in direct sunlight, but it remains to be seen if the new screen technology can make a real difference, given the small size of the display.
The watch’s powerhouse is a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor working hand in hand with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. It also has a 410 mAh battery, but LG doesn't say anything about the device’s life cycle.
As you might have expected, the new device runs Android Wear out of the box, so like in the case of the LG G Watch, customers will be able to access all the Google goodness they want.
LG has bundled the watch with a host of health and fitness apps, so users will be able to monitor their heart rate via the embedded photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor.
The wearable also takes advantage of a 9-axis (gryo/accelerometer/compass), barometer and is dust and water resistant (IP67).
Aesthetically speaking, the watch resembles a traditional timepiece very well. It comes with an interchangeable 22mm calf skin leather strap and a suite of different watch faces that can easily be changed by virtue of a few taps.
The watch will be making it out onto the market in Q4 2014 but pricing specifications haven’t been revealed. LG promises to share that information if you’re willing to take a stroll by their booth at the IFA 2014 show next week.
