LG Watch Style

Turns out photographing the screen causes some weird purple galaxy effect!

I bought this Android Wear watch this summer after spotting it on eBay, brand new for around £90. I’ve been looking at the watches for a while, I tried out a Moto 360 when they first came out but it was still too new software wise, and poor battery life caused me to return it.

The new LG watches though have completely circular OLED screens, and I get battery life of two days, so its still OK if I don’t charge it overnight for any reason. After a few months with it, I still wouldn’t get any of these watches at full price (£200 and up), but for £90, yeah that feels right.

Nice Hardware, not so nice software

For me the smart watch is an extension of my phone. I don’t need it for fitness tracking or anything like that, just something that can add extra control to the phone, provide notifications, and just look nice with cool watch faces.

Android Wear 2.0 is not great at these things. Its focused more on getting apps on the watch, which I don’t really care about (although using Google Keep while in supermarket is quite good). Its reasonably good at handling the notifications, and I miss less calls and messages now (I walk a lot, and don’t feel the phone in my pocket).

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I barely use the apps on the device, they take too long to load, have controls that are too small to use quickly, and there’s no quick app switching. I just use it as an extension to the phone, for notifications and smart home controls, and it does pretty well in these use cases.

These controls are about half my fingertip size, try hitting those targets while walking!

Things I like

• Screen is a nice size, completely circular and OLED. Its fine to look at even outside and nice with the colours.
• The dial on the side can be used to scroll menus, its very smooth and often easier to use than swiping on the screen.

Things I’m ok with

• Battery life, I get about two days. I don’t stream music from the watch, the screen is not always on, but I get all my notifications on it, and use it for the Assistant and smart controls. I wish it lasted an extra day at least, as would let me go away for a weekend without having to charge it all day friday.
• The original watch band wasn’t very comfortable (I’ve since switched to this blue rubber band which is so much nicer).

Things I don’t like

• Software is still just a mess. No quick way to switch between apps and apps take time to load, so you just tend to open up the phone instead.
• Swiping left and right from the home screen opens the watch face switcher. Why. I end up switching faces all the time when I was just trying to swipe something away. Would have been far better to make this interaction like the ctrl-tab for apps.
• User controls are too small. While walking I have to lock my hand on my wrist to press a button, or stop and do it carefully. Buttons should be far bigger for quick interactions.

Things I love

• The Google Assistant works really well on this device, you just hold the crown and it loads pretty quickly. It works well for alarms and reminders, less useful when it needs to provide information obviously (no speaker, small screen). It would be better if it had hotword detection, but would take a massive hit to battery life I guess.
• I miss less notifications, particularly calls.
• Price was great for this nice a watch. These watches haven’t sold well, hence the price decrease from the rrp of £230. But for £90 its a good buy.

A speaker for responses would have been nice, but the microphone is good at least.

Verdict

I’m happy with the purchase, and I put it on every day which is a good measure. But likewise, I don’t worry too much if I’ve forgotten it, or if the power runs out.

After using it for a few months I think these things really are better as an extension of the phone. They’re too small for anything more than casual interactions, and I don’t want to walk around having a conversation with it just to send a message.

But as an extension, like a remote control with notifications, controls etc it works great. I can quickly pause anything playing on our Chromecasts, change the Hue lights, or answer/dismiss calls while walking. I’d love to see them extend this further, with volume controls for other devices perhaps.

At the price I bought it I can recommend if people just want a nice watch with switchable faces that can manage their notifications. Beyond that I can’t really see the point of them unless you’re into fitness tracking.