Following the circular trend of the Motorola Moto 360. LG actually made the screen circular with the LG G Watch R. Fashionistas will finally have a smartwatch that they will not be ashamed to wear it on their wrist.
Look and Feel
When I first wore the G Watch R, because of its beautiful round design, it became my favorite among all of the smartwatches available in the market. I know that it is not the first circular smartwatch ever released, but unlike the Moto 360, it actually looks like a simple and ordinary watch.
The home button located on the side seemingly looks like a regular crown. You can actually twist it but it does nothing expect make you feel like you’re setting the time. It comes with a strap made from leather. The watch uses a standard strap connection, so you can swap it out with any strap you want.
From a distance, if you are not a smartwatch fanatic, you would not immediately recognize it as a smartwatch if not for the backlight that it emits. I definitely think that the G Watch R is the best looking smartwatch available in the market, but I know some will not agree to that.
Display
The watch is packed with a 320×320 screen resolution. That is the same resolution you’ll find in the majority of Android Wear smartwatches, same as the Moto 360. The Moto 360, although with a round body, isn’t completely circular, it has an odd corner at the bottom of the screen. This is where the G Watch R holds its ground.
The quality of the screen is surprisingly good. It’s an OLED panel, with a sharp color and deep contrast. It’s really bright, enough to counter the lights indoors but coping up with harsh sunlight may not be sufficient enough.
There are a number of watch faces that you can choose from. But you’ll notice that almost all of the watch faces are analog-looking. Majority of them has dark backgrounds which is suited for the black body of the watch.
Software
If you came from Android watch, you’ll be familiar with the interface of the G Watch R. The watch face, as always, serves as your home screen. Your notifications will appear on the bottom half of the screen and swiping up will bring up these alerts and cards.
The most common cards you’ll encounter are your step count, upcoming calendar reminders, and travel information to you regularly visited destinations. It syncs with your Google accounts, pulling the information from there. Swiping the card left will show you more information. Swiping right will dismiss the card. You can also use voice commands to set a timer, ask for the weather, or bring up your schedule.
Storage
The G Watch R comes with a 4GB internal storage that allows you to store files for viewing even the watch is disconnected from the phone. The watch can also pair with a bluetooth speaker and stream directly into it.
Performance
The device is powered by a Snapdragon 400 chip together with 512MB RAM. You won’t really notice the performance as most of the Android wearables are the same and has very smooth transitions.
The G Watch R has an IP67 rating which mean it is water and dust resistant, so you’ll be confident in wearing it everyday under any circumstances.
With battery life, the G Watch R can last up to two days being paired with you smartphone and can last 5 days on standby.
The retail price may seem to be off as it costs Php 13,990, I feel that it’s above the normal price of smartwatches.
What we like:
- Round design
- Metal frame
- Appealing watch faces
- Acceptable performance
What we didn’t like:
- A little bit pricy
- Only charges with dock
- Battery life
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