Skip to main content

A new LG smartwatch featuring Android Wear just earned FCC certification

LG Watch Urbane LTE 2nd gen
Malarie Gokey/Digital Trends
LG has been one of the most faithful Android Wear companies since the line of wearables was first launched, and it looks like the company is prepping yet another smartwatch for 2017. The Federal Communications Commission has issued certification for at least one device this year, but some rumors suggest that we may actually end up with as many as four LG smartwatches.

Unfortunately, the documents reveal very little information about what we should expect to see from LG’s upcoming smartwatch or smartwatches, but it did give us one detail — the watch will be round.

That’s because a few screenshots were provided as part of the listing, and all of those screenshots were images of a round smartwatch. Nothing in the screenshots really gave much away — they just depicted how to navigate to regulatory information, as well as the regulatory information itself. Based on the screenshots, we can also safely say that the device will run Android Wear.

The screenshots follow news from last year that suggested LG was prepping four new watches, to be called the LG Watch Style, Watch Pro, Watch Force, and Watch Sole. The news was discovered through trademark filings by Dutch website GSMInfo, but the names were really all that we know about the devices.

While we don’t know much official information about the watch, we can certainly speculate. It’s likely that the device will run Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor, which promises to offer as much as 25 percent better battery efficiency than the Snapdragon 400, which can be found in many older smartwatches. The chip also supports 3G and 4G connectivity, so it’s possible that LG’s new watch or watches will need a data plan as well, to allow them to function perfectly fine without a connected smartphone.

It makes sense that companies like LG would want to launch multiple devices — companies are increasingly realizing that watches are a fashion statement, and as such, the “one-style-fits-all” approach that worked in the smartphone industry isn’t necessarily as effective in the smartwatch industry.

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Wear OS 5 is the future of Android smartwatches. Here’s what’s new
A person wearing the Google Pixel Watch 2.

With the Google I/O 2024 opening keynote having come and gone yesterday, showcasing Google’s various AI initiatives with Gemini AI and more, news about the Wear OS took second fiddle -- until now. After revealing that Wear OS grew its user base by 40% in 2023, Google has just announced Wear OS 5, along with a slew of new watch face updates and health-tracking features.

Here’s what’s new.
Wear OS 5

Read more
Google just released the first Android 15 beta. Here’s what’s new
The Android 15 logo on a smartphone.

Google has just released the first public beta build of Android 15, marking an end to the developer-focused test phase. The beta version’s release also means that Android 15 is finally in a state where it can be tried by the masses without people having to worry about too many bugs leaving their phone in a sorry state.

The first beta version of Android 15 doesn’t introduce a ton of new features, as most of the notable additions have already appeared in the Developer Preview builds. Google’s blog post, however, mentions the following features as the key highlights

Read more
The OnePlus Watch 2 is the Wear OS smartwatch I’ve been waiting for
Person wearing OnePlus Watch 2 with a green strap on their left wrist.

The OnePlus Watch 2 -- the company's first Wear OS watch -- has entered a market that Samsung dominates. However, OnePlus' popularity as a smartphone brand can be expected to bring small, yet meaningful changes that benefit not only OnePlus users, but all of the Wear OS segment in general.

For almost a decade, Samsung and Apple have predominantly been the default options if you want a smartwatch that is actually useful and goes beyond flashy features. With Samsung shifting gears and migrating from its own Tizen OS to the (relatively) more universal Wear OS platform and Google releasing its own Pixel Watch after struggling with an identity crisis in the smartwatch world, the platform has much more traction than it did a few years ago. As OnePlus carves its way into the segment, it has the opportunity to entice people who don't wish to live within Samsung's limitations when using a Galaxy Watch with another brand's phone.

Read more