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LG has just launched its latest smartwatch, and it is a strange one: the LG Watch W7. Unlike older company models such as Watch Style and Watch Sport, the W7 combines a circular LCD display with a pair of mechanical hands, just as you would with an old dumbwatch. The idea is based on sound ideas, for example that the analog system offers a battery life extending over several months, but between the functions of the mainstream smartwatch, an exorbitant price and the hands Clearly hiding the screen, it's hard to pinpoint exactly who this watch might appeal to.
Let's start with the material. Physically, the W7 Watch is not too shocking. Its stainless steel metal body is comfortable and sturdy. Although he is of average height and weight, he manages to avoid the trap, so that many of his comrades fall in places where the watch seems too voluminous. It has three physical buttons, including one with a rotating crown entry, and supports 22mm alternate straps, if you want to mix things up.
Inside, we are looking at a silicon-based watch from the previous generation. Rather than taking advantage of the new Snapdragon 3100, the W7 Watch is using the old 2100 platform. Honestly, smartwatch technology had stagnated for so long before the 3100's debut that it's hard to take it seriously. hardware based on the 2100. We continue to give the W7 a look because of its unique hybrid analog design, but it is clear that any watch produced today with this hardware works at a disadvantage.
OK, with that, what's the problem with these analog hands? Well, most of the time, they work exactly as they would with a regular watch, indicating the time. And if you choose to give up all the features of the smartwatch, they can keep the W7 time to say that LG claims up to 100 billing days. Even if you use the W7 as an appropriate smartwatch and the battery is so discharged that the watch can no longer use its touch screen (which, according to LG, will take about two days – I'll believe it when I see it), you can two more days of analog operation only. This is a good idea, which could reassure users fearing the limited life of smartwatches, which leaves them dry.
But we are still talking about a mobile platform that was not designed for watch hands to develop from the center of the screen. Do not they stand in the way? Oh, they absolutely make.
Sometimes it does not matter, you always understand the essence of what you are looking at and you can just pretend that the hands are not there. On other occasions, it is a big problem, as when you try to read a text blocked by the hands. Fortunately, LG has a solution – I'm not convinced yet that this is a particularly interesting solution.
By pressing the top button on the side of the W7, the contents of the screen shift slightly, from top to bottom, depending on the context. This allows you to "peek" behind the clock and drag your content to give you a glimpse. When you look, your hands pivot to flatten in a horizontal line to minimize their impact blocking the screen. It works, I concede a lot, but I can imagine that it starts to look like a real chore when many notifications are processed.
By pressing the top button to "take a look" behind the hands – and block any other text in the process.
What works a little better are applications designed to take full advantage of analog hands. By pressing the bottom button on the side of the W7, you get the preinstalled main tools, a collection of apps that offer basic sensor and timing features: a barometer, a compass, a stopwatch, and more. When you use one of these, the hands meet to act as an analog needle gauge, pointing in the direction of the north, or off when you follow your lap times. It's a great demo of what the W7 is capable of, but I'm afraid this only remind users of how much other Wear apps are concerned about when you have watch hands.
The North is like that.
In my conversations with LG, the company repeatedly pointed out that it considered the Watch W7 as a "watchmaking piece". This is not primarily a miniature smartphone attached to your wrist, nor even a fitness tracker. This is for people who want something good that says the hour. And while it does much more than follow the Earth's rotation, this emphasis on "the most important thing is these watch hands" has unfortunately overshadowed some other design issues.
Unlike many of its peers, the W7 does not offer a heart rate monitor. There is no LTE version for users who want to leave their phone behind them. And there is no NFC connectivity to make mobile payments.
The display screen of the LG Watch W7 (left), its battery of 240 mAh (right)
I understand that space is always limited when designing a smart watch, and finding room for the engine to move these hands puts the W7 at a disadvantage compared to all other Wear OS models, but all these sacrifices are worth they worth it? LG representatives seemed not to be worried by concerns about these missing features when launching the notebook, pointing out that it was a device aimed at buyers looking for something. an advanced timepiece (as opposed to a well-equipped capital-S smart watch, I suppose).
People who have been using the W7 for much longer than my brief schedule with the watch say you're getting used to its eccentricities. Maybe yes, and maybe everyone does not need "advanced" features other than basic ones, but why pay so much for that?
I first thought that the hands covering the screen was silly, but I got used to it after a week. I was sad when I left Google and I had to make it.
– Kurt Nelson (@kurtisnelson) October 3, 2018
Oh, that's right, we have not tackled the price problem yet. Suppose you are legitimately curious about this wacky smartwatch experience and you intend to choose it. In fact, you will have very soon the opportunity, with pre-orders opening Sunday, October 7 at Best Buy, before availability in stores on October 14th. And you will pay $ 450 to bring one home.
Yes, it's four hundred and fifty dollars. That's more than your basic Apple Watch. And that's more than the new Samsung Galaxy Watch.
So, who is going to pay this money for a laptop lacking several popular smartwatch functions, whose display layout inevitably masks content on the screen, and which is far from being the thickest and the heaviest ever designed, offers a design that will make it hard for you to compete in the styles department with more traditional timepieces at ~ $ 500 level? In the current state of affairs, I simply do not have an answer to that. I hope that LG has a stellar marketing campaign in preparation, because at the moment, we have the impression that the W7 has much more effect against him than for him.
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