LG G Watch Urbane: Good looks but software still a work in progress

The Android Wear watch that could give the Apple Watch a run for its money

One of the grouses against smartwatches has been that they look geeky - something one could sport during one's morning run or with a hoodie but definitely not in boardrooms. The Apple Watch? Well, um, it's an Apple, so we'll let that pass.

Let me confess: Though I'm proud to be a geek, I hate wearing those geeky smartwatches as I have a fetish for analogue chronographs. Thus, I hadn't to be coaxed to wear the LG G Watch Urbane to work. However, how the watch looks and feels depends on the size of your wrists - my wife tried it on and wasn't impressed.

In the office, it was deadline time and some of us, completing the task at hand, decided to measure our heartbeat on the Urbane, to prove how cool we were. The results gave us bragging rights and me a watch with a depleted battery. That's when I realised one major shortcoming of the Urbane. One needs to carry the magnetic charging puck at all times. I had a microUSB charger and not the puck!

The Urbane runs the latest version of Android Wear. The 1.3-inch brilliant P-OLED screen has three flickable menus - apps, contacts and tasks to do. One can initiate calls from the watch, though one does need the phone to talk. Also, practically all notifications (including from Truecaller, yay!) are available on the watch. As the screen is recessed from the bezel, one might face difficulties flicking away Google Now cards. It's easy to read the screen in sunlight once one has increased the brightness with the crown. The Urbane, sadly, lacks an ambient light sensor.

There are many Android Wear apps available but I ended up using Google Fit and the several watch faces, especially the chronograph one, the most. The pedometer is for casual usage, as it didn't quite match with the one on a GPS watch. GPS is another thing the Urbane misses, something one doesn't expect at this price. Also, Android Wear tends to crash, especially if you get a lot of notifications together.

At Rs 35,000 (available on Amazon.in for Rs 29,990), the LG G Watch Urbane will offer serious competition to the Apple Watch when it comes to India (and we hope it will be priced similarly) but Android Wear is still a work in progress. Be it so, the Urbane is the best-looking Android watch in the market now.