LG G Watch R

Available now
28th August 2014

The LG G Watch R follows on from the original G Watch announced slightly earlier this year, but where the G Watch is a utilitarian affair, the G Watch R is a much more elegant one, and has a circular display similar to the Moto 360.

Clearly, the display is the obvious attraction here, the 1.3" Plastic OLED display measures 320 pixels in both directions, covering the entire watch face and is enclosed in a stainless steel frame. The Android Wear OS that the Watch R runs is designed to cope with this type of display as well as the plain old rectangular screens of less interesting rivals.

Inside is a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of non-expandable flash memory, along with a 410 mAh battery. The LG G Watch R has a full set of sensors including a heart rate monitor, barometer plus a gyroscope, accelerometer and a compass. It is water and dust resistant to IP67 standards as well.

There's a set of fitness and personal information management tools too, and the LG G Watch R should work in conjunction with any Android smartphones running version 4.3 and above. Full details of the Watch R's capabilities should be known next month.

LG say that the G Watch R should be available in key markets during early Q4 2014, with prices and local release dates to come. Prices are not known, but should be comfortably more than the rather good value basic G Watch which retails for €160 to €200 or so in the shops.