You Don't Need LTE In A Smartwatch

This week LG revealed the Watch Urbane 2, a smartwatch with the ability to connect to a 4G LTE data network. This part of the watch is a gimmick. If that's what it takes to get you to purchase a watch that is, by all means, one of the nicest smartwatches on the market, then so be it. But you don't actually need it. Using Android Wear as Google intends it, (read: without rooting and adding odd apps not approved by Google Play), there's no real reason for you to be using LTE-speed data.

Android Wear works with Wi-fi now – that means it'll connect to a wi-fi network without the aid of your smartphone just so long as that network requires no authorization or web browser-based "accept" screen action. That's not why you don't need LTE. You don't need LTE because even the apps that use the MOST data on a smartwatch do not need nearly as much as many smartphone apps would need.

The amount of data you're going to need to load on a smartwatch running Android Wear is tiny. The difference in loading that data with 3G vs 4G LTE is very, very small.

True, the watch will be semi-future-proofed in that you wont have to worry about being caught with your pants down when 3G ceases to exist.

But by the time that happens, the watch will have been replaced by new models several times over.

Android Wear – the software this watch runs – was made to run with very little data, and often without data at all. The LG Watch Urbane 2 was meant to be more independent of the smartphone than most Android Wear watches, but still, the appearance of LTE on a watch comes well before its necessary – several generations earlier than it should.

Have a peek at our LG Watch Urbane 2 hands-on to see what else this watch is all about. It's top-quality hardware, that's for certain.