LG today announced a variant of its Watch Urbane smartwatch that adds support for LTE and NFC.
Because Google’s Android Wear platform doesn’t yet support LTE and NFC, the Watch Urbane LTE runs LG’s proprietary wearables platform. LG said its own platform offers most of the same features found on the Android Wear version of the Watch Urbane.
With LTE, the Watch Urbane can make and receive phone calls, send and receive messages, enable carry out push-to-talk conversations, and perform other network-centric tasks without requiring a nearby smartphone. The Watch Urbane LTE has a 1.3-inch 320 x 320 P-OLED display, Qualcomm 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor with 1GB of RAM and 4GB of storage, and a bevy of sensors for tracking motion and other metrics.
LG significantly increased the size of the battery from 410mAh to 700mAh to accommodate the LTE radio’s power requirements. LG claims the watch can last for days in standby mode. The Watch Urbane LTE is protected from water and dust thanks to its IP67 rating. LG didn’t disclose pricing or availability.
