LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE review: Android Wear goes cellular

So here’s the best way to look at the Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE: it’s a preview of what’s to come. Android Wear 2 promises to greatly expand upon a cellular connected watch’s abilities, allowing you to use all of its functions without a phone and even install apps directly to the watch itself. It will make using an Android Wear watch with an iPhone a much better experience, and it might even justify your carrier’s monthly service fee for the watch’s cellular features. It’s very likely that the Urbane 2 will receive the update this fall (developers can already install a preview of it on the watch now), and there will certainly be new cellular Android Wear watches hitting shelves around that time, too.

But for now, the Urbane 2 is a bit too large, a bit too expensive, and not differentiated enough from other Android Wear options to justify its higher cost and monthly fees. If you desperately want a watch with a cellular radio, wait until this one (or the next one) comes with the software to actually make that useful.

Update 11:15AM, May 31st: An earlier version of this article stated that the monthly cost for service on the Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE was $10 per month at both Verizon and AT&T. It is $5 per month at Verizon and $10 per month with AT&T.

Photography by Amelia Krales

Video by Mark Linsangan