Background
The LG G Watch is the very first Android Wear Smart watch unveiled by Google in mid-2014 along the Samsung Gear Live. Android Wear also had went a long way since then, as smart watches began to look more and more like watches, and less like a box strapped on the wrist.
So after 18 months of release, what is my impression of the LG G Watch? As this is also my very first smart watch review, I will also be going through the Android Wear ecosystem as well.
Physical Hardware
Look at the first sentence again. That is my very first impression of the device.
After I wore it though, things are not as bad. Many of my friends (and even my dad) said that this device looks ugly, and I don’t blame them as I compared this watch with the Huawei Watch. However to me, by itself it looks actually quite nice when wore on the wrist.
I got myself the White Gold version of the watch, and as the watch is from Carousell, this device is actually a year old. Surprisingly the watch held up well despite it being white in colour at the back. After using a microfiber cloth to polish it furiously, it managed to turn out quite pristine in condition.
The watch also is IP67 certified, which meant that it can probably survive a water spill and basin water. Do not risk swimming with this watch as IP67 only means resistances to fresh water rather than chlorinated water. Showering is risky too due to soaps and shampoo.
Although it does not look like it, the LG G Watch is actually almost fully metal, and it really felt that way. It is extremely well-built and felt solid when I wore it. The rubber strap does not feel premium by any means compared to leather and stainless steel, however it is a strap I believe could stand the test of time.
At the back of the watch we have the charging pins which are used to charge the device with the cradle. Speaking of the cradle, it is rather nice as well as it is strongly magnetized and snaps in place when I place the watch on the cradle. The cradle connects to any micro-USB cable, so it also works with power banks as well.
The front has the 1.65 inch screen, and nothing else. The sides have absolutely nothing as well, making this truly a box being strapped on the wrist by having absolutely no buttons.
Specifications
This is probably the main reason why I bought the LG G Watch. The LG G Watch offers a competitive price with similar specifications as other smart watches. It runs the same processor and same amount of RAM as 99% of the Android Wear Smart watches. The only exception is again the Tag Heuer Connected Smart watch, but again it’s USD 1,500 so what to expect?
It is running a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 512MB of RAM. There is also 4GB of internal storage in the device for all your files well. There is however some stuff which the watch lacks compared to other Smart Watches, namely the lack of WiFI antenna and Heart-rate monitors. I will touch on these 2 features when I get my hands on the Huawei Watch in the next review, but for now we will continue the device review.
The IPS LCD screen is probably one of the weaker points of the device. The resolution is 280 x 280 pixels, which is one of the lowest on android wear smart watches in general. However that does not meant it is a bad display. At 240 pixels per inch, I can see pixels; however it is still sharp enough for me to not be disturbed by it. The colours are also good enough, although the vibrancy leaves something to be desired.
At the end of the day, although there is some small compromises, what is on the G Watch can match the other Android Wear Smart watches surprisingly well considering that it is a year old.
Performance
This is usually where I comment the fluidity and daily performance of the device, and to be honest, there is nothing much to comment about.
I will say this though, it is not perfect. Similar to Android, there are occasional stutters sometimes. In general though, performance is very good and responsive. App load times are also good.
However to be honest, this is not as important compared to a phone, as the watch is not meant to be as powerful as the phone. So what is more important is the experience using the device.
Controlling the Watch
I mention above that there are absolutely no buttons on the device. So let me explain. The watch will automatically turn on when it is charging on the cradle. To turn it off I will go to the setting to turn it off. To wake the screen, I could either tap on the screen, or do it via gesture control. The gesture control seems to work most of the time. The trick is to make my movement more obvious. Straighten my arms when looking at the watch seems to help a bit.
The gesture control can also help to scroll my notifications up and down through some wrist rotations. I prefer not to do wrist exercises and simply use the touch screen; however it could be nifty when I am eating and my hands are oily.
Lastly, my favourite part of the watch is how to turn it off. I just use my hands to cover the screen and it will either go to the low-light mode or turn the screen off depending on the setting.
Notifications
Connecting the Smart watch with my LG G Flex 2 is extremely easy. By downloading the Android Wear app and following the instructions on the watch and phone, I got it to work within the first 15 minutes of the device.
Notifications work very well throughout all the apps I use frequently. This includes standard phone calls, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, and many other miscellaneous notifications. If I do not want to see a notification again, I just swipe right until I see the “Block App” button and block it. To me that is rather intuitive indeed.
There are also some nifty features too. The watch could actually accept the phone call by itself. However as it does not have a speaker, this meant that either I need to take out my phone to use the earpiece (which is rather counter-intuitive), or have a wireless Bluetooth headset. I would suggest the latter.
The watch can also reply to messages such as text and WhatsApp. There is however a rather inconvenient limitation; it only accepts voice inputs. There is no alternative method out of the box if the place is too noisy or too quiet. So this means that you need to take out your phone again to type your messages (again). This can be corrected using 3rd part applications, which I will go through below.
Voice Assistant
The watch also launches Google Now, so a simple call of “Ok Google” will open the voice search on the watch. Using key phrases, such as “Navigate” or “Call”, I can do specific tasks, such as giving me directions with the Navigate command, or call by phone with the “Call” command. It is similar to Google Now on Android, so for those who are used to Google Now, you are right at home.
This meant that there are the same limitations as Google Now. It does not recognise some of the local Singaporean terms very well. I could get it to recognise Singapore places and some of the Singaporean terms that are actually English. However if it is not English it is not going to respond very well. Notable examples include Char Kuay Teow, and any Singlish terms that you add. So keep your “lahs” and “lehs” when talking to the watch. (For some odd reason, I cannot get the watch to show me pictures of Hainanese Chicken Rice).
Some other minor peeves includes being required to say the punctuation marks to insert those into my messages and navigation only provide me with directions through walking and driving when I hoped for public transit.
Overall I would say the voice assistant is very good if not for one point. The main weakness is that my phone will need a data connection when I want to use the voice assistant. So for the LG G Watch, as there is no Wi-Fi antenna inside, this meant that my smart watch will almost instantly becomes a dumb watch if my phone is not connected to Wi-Fi or Data connection. This is also true if I do not have my smartphone with me.
Applications
Being in the Android Wear eco-system’s biggest advantage is the app support. There are an abundance of apps that supports Android Wear and help complement the experience.
That means that app support is definitely good, and it seems that it will probably continue to grow in the near future as well. Android applications will also install on the Android Wear device if there is a counterpart app for the watch. This will hold true in apps such as WhatsApp.
If there is no app support, it does not mean that the app will not sent notification to the watch. It just meant that you cannot interact with the notification nearly as well. This will be true especially for iOS users, as the watch cannot interact with your phone other than showing notifications.
The app support also meant that the watch can either do very nice things, such as sleep tracking and song search, to absolutely ridiculous things such as surfing the web and watching videos on the watch (which I recommend going the phone as I am not crazy).
There is also the sweet feature of able to store music on the watch itself. However there is no speaker. So again, bring your Bluetooth Earpiece along. This feature will be extremely useful for those who are into running and do not want to lug around a phone just to listen to it.
Overall, the app situation will only get better as time goes by, and that is a good thing. Coupling with the fact that my G Watch has the same specifications as most other watches, the LG G Watch can hold itself well with the applications.
Battery
The LG G Watch contains a 400mAh battery, and this is on the bigger side compared to the other Android Wear smart watches. The main is that is not going for the LG G Watch is that the display is LCD rather than OLED on most other modern smart watches.
However, I would say that the battery is rather satisfactory. With the screen always on, after about 24 hours not charging the device I am left with about 30% battery, which meant that it should be able to last through 1.5 days of use. Turn off the “always on” setting improves the battery life to about 2 days. I will recommend doing this as the watch being LCD meant that the whole display needs to be turned on even at the dimmed mode.
As for impact on my LG G Flex 2, the screen on time went down ever so slightly due to turning on Bluetooth all the time. However as I have the watch, I no longer need to keep checking my phones for notification. So it evens out at the very end.
Availability
For a local set, price ranges from 150 SGD to 180 SGD from various mobile shops. This price makes this easily the cheapest Android Wear wearable to purchase in Singapore. Doing some deal hunting on Carousell can lower the price even further to below 100 SGD if you do not mind a second-hand set.
Amazon also retails this watch at a very affordable 85 USD brand new, or a refurbished set cuts that off to 75 USD. So importing one in is actually not a bad idea as well.
Conclusion
Overall, I found the experience on the LG G Watch to be really nice over the course of the few days I spent with the device. Although my first impressions of the aesthetics were not very favourable, the general software experiences and the convenience at not looking at my smart phone all the time won me over.
I also am thankful for purchasing a white G Watch rather than the black one, as I find that the White one seems to have a personality to the look. That is still personal preference though.
For the 80 SGD I spent on this G Watch, is this watch worth it? Personally, it definitely is. It is not perfect; however none of the imperfections is something I could not deal with. Being able to reply WhatsApp messages on my wrist is awesome and something that techies should try.
So at the end of the day, if you aren’t so sure about whether a smart watch is for you, why not try the LG G Watch? It is something that you should try for yourself rather than simply playing around with display sets in a shopping mall.
“Although being more than a year old, the LG G Watch performed well enough to stand on the same level as other Android Wear smartwatches. With price drops coming from many retailers, it might be worthwhile picking this watch up despite several aesthetic and functional compromises.”
End of Part 2
However that is not the end. It might be worth the small dough for the LG G Watch; however is it worth it to invest much more on a smart timepiece? Join us for the final part of the series, as we take a look at one of the pinnacles of Android Wear; the Huawei Watch and have our final conclusion regarding Android Wear.
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