Yesterday, Google announced on its blog that the new Android Wear based LG Watch Style and LG Watch Sport will available at select retail stores and on Google Store on February 10.
We’re showcasing the LG Watch Style today, which is currently posted at Best Buy for a retail price of $249.99. LG Watch Sport will be available from AT&T, Verizon and Google Store, also today.
Right now, you might see “Coming Soon” and “Notify me when available” as the two options. If the offer is not up when you visit the site, simply choose the second option for a notification.
See the LG Watch Style Offer on Best Buy
But there’s one bit of news that’s a little disappointing…no Android Wear 2.0 yet, it seems.
LG Watch Style Features – No Android Wear 2.0 Yet, But It’s Coming Soon
Designed in collaboration with Google, LG Watch Style is the first of two models of smart watches that come with Google Assistant and other features that were brought into the Android Wear 2.0 smart watch operating system.
However, Google says nothing about the watch having Android Wear 2.0. All it says is this:
“Android Wear 2.0 will be available for all supported watches in the coming weeks. We hope Android Wear 2.0 lets you stay more informed, organized, healthy and connected to what matters most.”
The Android Wear 2.0 update will likely drop as an over-the-air (OTA) update before the end of February, but you can already buy the watch right now with the older Android Wear OS, and then update the software when it is available to the public. We believe Android Wear 2.0 could now be on its final beta ahead of the full public release.
The smart watch is compatible with all smartphones running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or iOS 9 and higher. The 1.2-inch P-OLED touch display comes with 360 x 360 pixels resolution. It also comes with gesture control. Simply flick your wrist to check your notifications and messages; but the feature is turned off by default so you’ll need to go into Settings to enable it.
Though not suitable for swimming or diving, the LG Watch Style does come with IP67 rating, which means it is dust and water resistant to a degree – splashes and such.
You can also “snap-and-swap” the silicone and leather that come included in the box for two unique looks.
The rotary control on the power button allows you to scroll through the app launcher and your stream, or you can simply ask the Google Assistant to pull up whatever you need.
On the LG Watch Sport (not on LG Watch Style, as far as we know), Android Wear 2.0 will be able to let you process Android Pay transactions using near field communication, or NFC. Just look for the contactless payment logo at whatever store you go to and wave your wrist over the card terminal. Of course, you’ll need to set up your card information in the system in your settings before you can start using it this way.
The smart watch market is still dominated by Apple Watch and Apple Watch series 2, with a 49% market share in 2016 according to an Android Headlines report yesterday. Samsung, unfortunately, was overtaken by Fitbit last year, which hit 17% market share against Samsung’s 15%.
Google is a minor player in the smart watch market with its Nexus-compatible line-up but, hopefully, when more models of NFC-capable devices are launched over the course of the year, Android Wear 2.0 could help Google pick up a respectable share of the smart watch market over 2017 and 2018.
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