LG G Watch R - My Favorite Smartwatch Yet!
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,560 words · ~7 min read
0:00
as a surprising number of you have noticed I've been wearing a new
0:04
smartwatch for the last month or so without reviewing it sorry it's taken so
0:09
long but sometimes it does take a while to get to a particular device CU it's
0:14
really inconvenient to stop using it long enough for Brandon to get a chance
0:18
to shoot some b-roll I've actually had a couple of things like that recently
0:21
including the obutto gaming cockpit which is coming soon and this guy right
0:26
here welcome to my review of the LG gatch are my favorite Smartwatch so
0:39
far experience silent performance with the new Cooler Master silencio 652 s
0:44
minimalist design maximum compatibility click now to learn more so after
0:49
reviewing the Moto 360 I resolved to let
0:53
Android Wear mature a little until sometime after the Apple watch launch so
0:57
I could compare its progress to Apple's mation but after seeing how disappointed
1:03
I was with the Moto 360's poor battery life with the screen in ambient usually
1:07
on mode with no option for Always on at all and the general bugginess of Android
1:12
Weare 4.4 one of my colleagues edzel instead of getting scared off of Android
1:17
Weare ran out and bought an LG Gat R which he declared to be awesome and said
1:21
that I should get one too so I did and it turns out he was right but don't tell
1:26
him that the hardware specs are better than the 360 mostly I mean like anything
1:30
it's a trade-off but it's a trade-off that I happen to like better the gatr
1:35
features a much newer more efficient and significantly faster processor a 30%
1:39
larger 410 milliamp battery a power
1:43
sipping ped display that some folks are
1:46
concerned about burning with but careful selection of watch faces and the short
1:50
realistic lifespan of a piece of tech like this thanks to software updates and
1:54
limited battery charge cycles makes that a bit of a nonissue for me but some
1:58
drawbacks to LG's apprach do show up when we look at the construction the
2:02
Moto 360 features a larger display with gorilla glass protecting it and a
2:07
reasonably nice leather strap included in the Box while LG relies on the Gat
2:12
R's thick bezel to protect its smaller
2:15
plastic face and includes one of the worst leather watch straps I've ever
2:19
encountered in my life although the fact that it can be easily changed out for
2:24
any standard 22mm strap like this Kevlar fabric one that edzel picked up for his
2:29
without any special tools makes it less
2:32
of an issue because that's a great way to enhance the comfort and style of the
2:36
watch to appeal to folks who like velcro bands metal bands or anything in between
2:42
and maybe that's the biggest reason that I like the gatr better LG didn't blow me
2:48
away with their like Space Age industrial design and great you know
2:52
durable material choices but the watch
2:55
just plain suits me better and at the end of the day it's a watch and I have
3:00
to wear it the build quality is solid enough I didn't get any chips or
3:04
anything on it in the last month or so and the round sporty look appeals to my
3:09
practical side which I suspect will be the case for a lot of LG's target
3:13
audience for this thing since the folks who are into Super high-end formal dress
3:17
watches were unlikely to buy something that doesn't have mechanical movement
3:21
anyway but if you're going to appeal to practical people then you better provide
3:25
some practical functionality right the gatr has a heart rate monitor visible on
3:29
the bottom of the unit that I didn't use at all because as long as the old girl's
3:33
still ticking in there I'm not too fussed about how fast but it also has
3:37
some stuff that does matter to me including an IP67 Ingress Protection
3:40
rating which you can learn more about here but in short means that you can't
3:44
go scuba diving with it but that would be stupid anyway because capacitive
3:48
touch screens don't work underwater and it only has one physical button on the
3:51
right side but in you know your normal
3:54
life for normal people it'll keep water and dust out of the casing for as long
3:57
as I think a half an hour under a meter of water it's also got a gyro
4:01
accelerometer and compass for step tracking and motion control with only a
4:05
GPS sensor really missing for folks who want to go running or whatever and not
4:09
bring their tethered phone with them now normally I would cover the software of
4:13
the device at this point in the review but Android Weare is I mean it's the
4:17
same on every device that runs it and it just doesn't really do that much I mean
4:21
you can put apps on it you can put
4:25
custom watch faces on it both of which I demo in the Moto 360 review which you
4:29
can watch here but if you're buying this device so you can use a wrists sized
4:33
internet browser instead of a pocket sized one then you're definitely missing
4:37
the point Android Weare devices are for lightning fast notifications of
4:41
reminders upcoming events and messages quick handsfree memo creation and
4:46
replies to emails and text and Hangout messages turn BYT navigation for folks
4:51
who don't have a car dock for their phone telling the time onscreen music
4:56
control and for me very importantly letting you know when you leave your
4:59
phone behind somewhere because it loses the connection and that aside from some
5:05
frustrations like poor support from third party applications like Twitter
5:09
which in some cases won't even let you read a notification properly much less
5:13
open it on the phone or heaven forbid interact with it through the watch and
5:16
Google Now's laughable predictions for cards that I'd like to see and finally
5:20
the weak media controls that bury you
5:23
know your music Control under other cards and totally needs to be revamped
5:27
is what the gwat are does so it's getting a glowing review from me but
5:33
lonus the Moto 360 does that stuff too and you were pretty harsh on it how much
5:37
is LG paying you great question nothing by the way but I actually noticed the
5:43
difference in tone for this review too when I was rewatching my Moto 360 video
5:47
and reading this one to to prep for this and I was pretty down on that device for
5:51
some stuff that in retrospect seems pretty minor doesn't it for some reason
5:56
I accept 1 and 1/2 days of battery now actually once I got two to which was
6:00
nice I accept the proprietary charger dock that doesn't even have a handy
6:04
dandy bedside mode and isn't even a cool Wireless one this time and I accept the
6:09
general quirkiness of Android Wear so it
6:12
took me a while to nail this down but at the end of the day I think the reason
6:16
the gatr gives me so many warm fuzzies and will remain on my wrist now that I'm
6:20
done with this review is that I can use it as much as I want have my screen
6:25
always on so I can always see the time even without a goofy gesture and still
6:30
get that one and a half days of battery that I need that's where the Moto 360
6:35
failed me and that's where the Apple watch has already failed me if the
6:38
rumored internal battery life targets are anywhere close to True a watch needs
6:42
to be a functional watch first before it can get my attention for all the other
6:47
little tricks it does which is why I tolerated Pebbles you know truncated
6:51
email notifications so willingly up
6:54
until now because it was a watch first and it did all that other stuff well now
6:59
Android Wear has a watch that it runs onto one that still needs Google to get
7:04
their crap together on a few things uh replying to email for example on the
7:09
watch leaves it unread in my inbox for some reason but it's still the best
7:13
wearable experience I've had so far and I hardly recommend it assuming you've
7:17
got as much uh as you'd spend on a decent smartphone to spend on a watch so
7:23
that's pretty much it guys like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment if your
7:27
feelings are more complicated than this as always we we have a link in the video description where you can buy a cool
7:31
t-shirt like this one give us a monthly contribution if you want us to keep making videos change your Amazon
7:35
bookmark to one with our affiliate code so we get a kickback whenever you buy stuff like this and I think that pretty
7:40
much wraps it up thanks for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe