A first look at LG and Samsung Android Wear smartwatches

Beyond detailing Android Wear, Google unveiled a pair of smartwatches at its I/O Keynote yesterday, the LG G Watch and Samsung Gear Live. These are the first Android Wear powered devices to market and became available to pre-order immediately. However, Motorola’s circular Moto 360 will not become available until “later this summer,” according to Google’s blog.

Moto 360

LG G Watch

Featuring a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, the LG G Watch has an always-on 1.65-inch IPS 280 x 280 pixel display, which switches from black and white to full colour when the wearer interacts with it. It is also dust and water resistant for up to 30 minutes in one metre of water and available in Black Titan and White Gold colour variations.

LG G Watch

Weighing in at 63g, the smartwatch can be personalised with any standard 22mm strap available in the market. Inside 4GB of storage, 512MB of RAM, a 400mAg battery, Bluetooth 4.0 and a 9-axis sensor form the basis of the system.

“As one of the first to market with Android Wear, LG wanted to develop a product that functions as an essential companion device but most importantly, was simple to use,” said Dr. Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, reports NDTV. “We wanted a device that would be simple to learn and so intuitive that users wouldn’t even have to think about how to use its features. That’s what the LG G Watch is all about.”

Priced at $229 (£145), the LG G watch will initially be available in 12 countries including the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Korea and Japan.

Samsung Gear Live

The Samsung Gear Live is priced at $200 (£118), and features a 1.63-inch super AMOLED 320 x 320pixel display. The smartwatch runs on a 1.2GHz processor paired with 512MB of RAM alongside 4GB of inbuilt storage. It runs on a 300mAh battery and weighs 59g. Samsung’s new wearable includes many sensors such as a heart rate monitor, accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. The Samsung Gear Live is also water and dust resistant – which seems like a standard smartwatch feature.

Samsung Gear Live

Both watches are due to start shipment from 7th July and are compatible with Android 4.3 smartphones or above.