LG G Watch, first impressions: Android Wear on your wrist
Smartwatches
[MUSIC]
Hi, I'm Scott Stein, and what do I have on my wrist?
Well this is one of two new Android wear watches, which are available for order now.
This is Goggles entry, into wearable tech on the wrist.
And the LG G watch is one of three.
There's also the Samsung Gear Live and MOTO 360, but the Samsung and LG1's are the only two available right now.
The MOTO1 is going to be later in the summer.
So what is the difference between these two?
And what do they do?
The LGG watch is the more expensive, it's 229.
And it's got a 280 by 280 IPSLCD screen.
It's a square screen, and it's got a comfy watch band.
It's like a silicon rubber type of band.
See attached like a regular watch band.
It actually has a very comfortable feel.
Very nice sleek materials.
Glass on top and metal in the middle, black or white.
And it uses Android ware.
What is that exactly?
Well we don't even really know because what we've been told is not exactly what it's going to become.
Right now it's basically Google services.
You're going to talk to your wrist, or you're going to swipe through notifications, which come up like cards, a lot like Google now if you use an Android phone.
So if wanna quickly ask it.
Who's the fifth, 12th president of the United States?
Or, where can I get pizza around here?
Or, where's the Mascony Center?
It'll pop up something really quick.
You can also check the weather.
And will also send notifications to you, from all the places that you get notifications.
If you have a Pebble watch, or if you manage notifications or you have another smart device.
You already know what that's about.
So I'll get some things from Twitter, Facebook, your emails.
And it can get kind of crazy, but you can also manage that back on an Android ware app, that runs on your phone.
This only runs as a companion to android phones.
Android 4.3 or above, there's a whole list of compatabilities, you have to have bluetooth 4.0, and there's a little bit of storage on this watch.
Four gigs and there's 512 megabytes of RAM.
Unclear on what that means in terms of how well it will run apps.
And there will be apps.
A number of Android apps, are going to run and then load onto this Android Wear Watch, once they're available.
There aren't really any right now.
There are also moments when I can look at something on the watch, or search for something.
And then press a button and bring it up on my phone if I want to read more.
So it's meant to be kind of a companion app experience between the watch and the phone.
The LGG watch is also IP67 water resistant.
It's the same type of water resistance, that you would see on things like Samsung's gear watches.
Battery life, right now it's hard to tell.
It's got a 400 miliamp battery.
And its getting a bad a day abuse.
Stay tuned for full battery test, but that certainly less than other watches out there, and it means you're gonna need to charge this thing pretty much everyday, that's if you keep the screen on all the time.
It goes in a sort of power saving [INAUDIBLE] mode, you can also have that screen turn off altogether after you've been using it for a few seconds.
And there are no buttons on this,.
You've gotta tap screen, or you've gotta activate it, or talk to it, so it gets a little disconcerting.
No way to figure out how you can override that with a button.
So what else you get in the box?
You get this watch, you also get a little magnetic charging cradle, that is micro USB, and the plug.
Plugs in here kinda nicely, has sticky, kind of gel on the bottom so it'll stick to a table.
And allow you to put that by your night stand and charge it.
The LG G watch, actually feels better than it looks, and it's one of the thinner of the Android Wear watches.
But at this point, early Android Wear software.
And there are more Android Wear watches to come, at least the Moto 360.
probably more, so stay tuned and see what's coming.
There's going to be a lot of these things, and we're going to have to see what the apps feel like too.
I'm Scott Stein, and that's a look, at the Android ware, on the LG G watch.
[MUSIC]