LG’s Watch Urbane 2nd Edition is the first LTE-enabled Android Wear smartwatch

LG today announced the successor to the company’s relatively well received LG Watch Urbane, the Watch Urbane 2nd Edition.

While the Korean company hasn’t yet revealed pricing or availability, we know that the smartwatch will feature LTE wireless connectivity, making it the first Android Wear device to offer an independent LTE data connection. LG previously announced an LTE-powered smartwatch that runs a variant of webOS.

This means that the Watch Urbane 2nd Edition will function without being tethered to a smartphone and operates as an independent smartwatch. While LG’s Watch Urbane 2nd Edition is far from the first smartwatch to offer this functionality, wearables such as the Samsung Gear S and Gear S2, two smartwatches featuring built-in data connections, run Tizen rather than Google’s Android Wear OS.

The LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition’s technical specifications include a 1.38-inch 480 x 480 “pixel plastic” OLED display, a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and a 570 mAh battery. The original LG Watch Urbane featured a 1.3-inch 320 x 320 pixel display, 410 mAh battery, and 512MB of RAM, so in terms of specs, the device’s 2nd edition is an all around upgrade.

Other changes include a new GPS receiver added to the smartwatch for fitness tracking purposes, and three buttons instead of the single input featured on the first Urbane. The LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition’s strap is also no longer swappable because of hardware built directly into it. The smartwatch’s straps will come in three different colours: space black, opal blue, luxe white and signature brown.

LG is holding an event in New York later today where the company is expected to discuss the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition and the recently revealed LG V10 “ticker display” smartphone in greater detail.

Related link: The LG V10 is a G4 with more powerful specs and a second screen

[source]ZDNet[/source], [source]LG[source]