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Google, LG Reportedly Partner on First Android Wear 2.0 Devices: LG Watch Sport, Watch Style

Google, LG Reportedly Partner on First Android Wear 2.0 Devices: LG Watch Sport, Watch Style

By Shekhar Thakran | Updated: 18 January 2017 12:43 IST

Highlights

The two are said to launch alongside Android Wear 2.0 on February 9
Smartwatches expected to go for sale next day after launch in the US
LG Watch Sport has been tipped to be the flagship variant

Google has been tipped to launch its own line of Android Wear smartwatches since July last year, but the search giant put that rumour to rest in December, saying it would launch two flagship Android Wear 2.0 smartwatches in collaboration with a manufacturing partner, featuring the latter's branding. Now, a new report claims these will be the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style, and launch on February 9 - the recently confirmed launch date of Android Wear 2.0.

As per Venture Beat's Evan Blass (aka @evleaks), Google has partnered with LG on the LG Watch Sport and LG Watch Style, which will be launched alongside Android Wear 2.0 on February 9. The publication cites leaked marketing material for the information. Interestingly, the smartwatches will start selling in the US from the very next day of launch, as per the report.

The rollout of the LG Watch Sport and Watch Style smartwatches to other regions will reportedly continue through March and are expected to be showcased by the company extensively at MWC 2017 in Barcelona next month. The highlight of the smartwatches are said to a digital crown button, similar to what Apple features on the Apple Watch. The button will be used help navigate the interface, and LG is also tipped to include touch sensitive displays that have handwriting recognition features.

The LG Watch Sport, which has been tipped to be the flagship watch among the two, is 14.2mm thick and will be made available in Titanium and Blue colour options while the LG Watch Style is 10.8mm thick and will come with Titanium, Silver, and Rose Gold colour options, apart from swappable straps, the report notes.

Both the smartwatches from LG will feature circular, plastic OLED displays but the Watch Sport is said to come with a 1.38-inch 480x480 pixels resolution display while the Watch Style will come with a smaller 1.2-inch 360x360 pixels resolution display. Even though both smartwatches are expected to sport 4GB of inbuilt storage, the Watch Sport is supposed to feature 768MB of RAM compared with 512MB of RAM on Watch Style. The LG Watch Sport further houses a larger 430mAh against the 240mAh battery on the Watch Style.

The two LG-made smartwatches come with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity but the Watch Sport model additionally features cellular connectivity (support for both 3G and LTE), GPS, and NFC radios, as per the report. The NFC radios will allow the LG Watch Sport model to make use of Android Pay feature in Android Wear 2.0. The LG Watch Sport has been tipped to feature a heart sensor as well.

While LG Watch Style comes with water and dust resistance rating of IP67, the Watch Sport will come with an IP68 rating. As earlier reports have already suggested, the smartwatches will feature Google Assistant integration.

As per the report, the final version of smartwatches closely resembles the mockups that were leaked shortly after the search giant was reported to be working on the smartwatches.

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