Tech Stuff: LG G Watch R

I had been planning to purchase a smartwatch for a while now and had in fact had my eyes on the Moto 360 but was put off by the dead space at the bottom of the watch face. That defeated the whole purpose of having a round watch face.

The LG G Watch R doesn't suffer from the same problem and there is no dead space anywhere on the screen. In fact the screen on the G Watch R looks gorgeous. It weighs in with a pixel density of 348ppi against the Moto 360s' 205ppi.

I usually wear a Casio G Shock and the G Watch R (it's a mouthful typing it everytime, LG should have really come up with something a little more catchy) is slightly smaller than that. It is lighter than the G Shock but I do worry about scratching the screen.

The salesperson assured me that I could step into any watch shop, purchase any 22mm bands and it would fit the watch. I'm still using the leather straps that came with the watch and after a week of use, they are starting to feel more comfortable.

The G Watch R is also IP67 rated which means it can stay up to 1m underwater for 30 minutes, which is pretty cool if you forget and bring the watch into the shower or plunge into the pool.

Batterywise, the G Watch R comes with a 410 mAh battery which based on my week of usage is plenty to last through 2 days. This is with the always-on feature activated. Sadly, the watch comes with its own dock. A future version with wireless charging would be a great improvement.

I also cannot fail to mention how much I love the vibrant watch faces and I have pretty much left it on a photo watch face displaying gorgeous pictures at random intervals. (will see about putting a photo up of that later)

The watch has made replying to Hangout messages pretty painless - all you have to do is say "Ok Google" and proceed to send your messages. I like to think that it makes it safer to use your phone while driving. It can be tricky though to get the diction correct or you'd be sending out all sorts of weird messages. I know I have!

The G Watch R runs Android Wear and is thus compatible with any Android device and is not limited to LG smartphones. I use the watch together with a Samsung Note 3 and face no problems at all. A huge downside though is the battery drain on the Note 3. With Bluetooth and location services turned on at all times, I found myself having to top up the battery on the smartphone from time to time.

All in all, I've been pretty pleased with the purchase. It did take a bit of hunting to purchase one of them in Singapore. They are availble at the telcos for $398 but I bought mine for $350 with a little shopping around.

The box it comes in.

G Watch R in its box

And out of the box