LG Announces World’s First 4G Smartwatch

LG has revealed the world’s fastest wearable technology – a smartwatch sporting 4G connectivity.

The LG Watch Urbane LTE is a super-powered version of the company’s Watch Urbane, which was announced earlier this month and is set to be revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.

The South Korean manufacturer announced the news today on its local news site, with the new device boasting a range of interesting features.

Superfast

In contrast to its smaller brother (pictured left), the Watch Urbane LTE will not run Google’s Android Wear software, which is especially designed for wearable devices, but will instead by its own ‘LG Wearable Platform’.

The device will be able to make LTE phone calls, send texts and will be able to send walkie-talkie-style short voice messages. It will also support Bluetooth 4.0, and be able to share your GPS location, translate foreign speech, and measure a wearer’s heart rate and average pulse during exercise thanks to an in-built sensor.

The Watch Urbane LTE also features a more powerful 700mAh battery than its predecessor, and intriguingly will support mobile payments using NFC technology. LG isn’t revealing too much about this feature at the moment, but the support for NFC could mean users will be able to pay for goods using the smartwatch similar to how they currently use contactless cards or a mobile device.

There are three buttons on the side instead of the Urbane’s one, which LG says are for navigation and quick settings.

LG is set to reveal all its new devices at a press conference in Barcelona next week, so we’ll find out more details soon.

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