LG Watch Urbane: Two Stylish Smartwatches Unveiled at MWC 2015

by Todd R. Weiss

The LG Watch Urbane is a highly stylized all-metal watch that includes a classic round 1.3-inch display and a polished silver or gold finish, as shown here. The new smartwatch is aimed directly at fashion-conscious luxury goods buyers.

The Urbane includes the same 1.3-inch, full-circle P-OLED display that appeared on last September’s LG G Watch R smartwatch, but has a narrower bezel with sleeker lines. The new watch is a more formal-looking device, compared with plastic watches for more active users.

The Urbane also includes a stitched natural leather strap that can be swapped out for any 22mm watchband, giving users a lot of styling choices. The standard Urbane smartwatch runs on the Android Wear operating system.

The LG Watch Urbane also includes a touch-based user interface that’s compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 and above. Also included is a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor that can measure a wearer’s heart rate and average pulse during exercise.

The LG Watch Urbane includes a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor; 512MB of LPDDR2 memory; 4GB of eMMC storage; a 410mAh battery; and a 9-axis gyro, accelerometer, compass and barometer sensor. The watch also meets IP67 dust and water resistance standards.

With a design built to complement the style and needs of male and female customers, the Urbane smartwatch includes an “Always-On” ambient display mode that shows the time on the display at all times in dimmed mode, conserving battery life.

The LG Watch Urbane LTE builds on the foundation of the standard Urbane watch by adding LTE connectivity as well as NFC and a host of other smartwatch features. It is built around the same 1.3-inch Plastic-OLED display but adds smartphone communications capabilities.

The upscale LG Watch Urbane LTE is built on the all new LG Wearable Platform operating system and includes a more powerful 700mAh battery to give the LTE-enabled smartwatch long talk and use times.

The LG Watch Urbane LTE can be personalized with thousands of watch face designs and many other options using three physical buttons on the right side of the smartwatch without the user having to swipe through multiple and confusing menu screens.