14 DAY TRIAL // Just yesterday LG officially introduced its second-generation smartwatch, the G Watch R. And while the English press release walked us through most of the specifications of the device, the most important information was conspicuously left out – the pricing of the product.
However, a look at the German press release detailing the same product reveals the watch is expected to go on sale in the country for a chunky €299 / $393.
Hopefully, the high price tag is explainable by the presence of the European VAT which is applied in the country. To us it makes sense, LG will want to sell its circular smartwatch in some markets for a more competitive price.
In all possibility, once it arrives on the US market, the watch will be up for grabs for $299 / €227, which is still quite a lot to our minds.
To compare, currently Samsung sells its Gear 2 smartwatch for the same amount of money (but the watch also includes a camera), while LG’s first intelligent timepiece can be yours for $229 / €173.
For those who have made it late to the story, the LG G Watch R is the company’s second smartwatch, which has been released just two and a half months after the first one made it into the wild.
The device is said to be the first of its kind to arrive with a circular Plastic OLED (or P-OLED) that utilizes 100% of the watch’s face.
The Korean tech giant claims the display will be able to deliver great clarity and readability in direct sunlight, but it remains to be seen if customers will see a real difference, given its small size.
LG makes use of a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor fitted with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage. Life onboard of the watch is sustained by a 410 mAh battery, but LG doesn't provide us with any specifics about the device’s life cycle.
Unlike Samsung’s new Gear S which was also unveiled yesterday, the G Watch P follows the tradition of the company’s first timepiece and continues to make use of Android Wear.
The company also offers a bunch of health and fitness apps which aggregate the information picked up by the photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor and 9-axis (gyro/accelerometer/compass).
The watch is dust and water resistant (IP67 certified) so you won’t have to take off when you wash your hands or lay in the sun at the pool.
LG says the watch will make it into retail in Q4 2014, but more details are going to be revealed at IFA 2014, which will start in Berlin next week.