LG Watch W7 Hybrid Smartwatch With Wear OS by Google, Snapdragon Wear 2100 SoC Launched

LG has just launched its new smartwatch alongside the LG V40 ThinQ smartphone. The LG Watch W7 is an interesting new wearable as it is the company's first hybrid smartwatch. The South Korean manufacturer says that the smartwatch "combines mechanical movement with digital functionalities", meaning it blends a circular LCD with a pair of mechanical hands. The Watch W7 runs Wear OS by Google and can, therefore, be customised in various ways with different watch faces and complications available online.

The LG Watch W7 is the company's first wearable to run the new Wear OS by Google platform. LG says, the smartwatch is aimed at users who want "the look of a traditional analogue timepiece but desire the convenient functionalities of a connected smartwatch." It has been developed in partnership with Soprod SA of Switzerland. It is claimed to feature 'high-precision quartz movement' and physical watch hands packed in a stainless steel body. Notably, the smartwatch is compatible with all standard 22mm watch bands.

In terms of specifications, the LG Watch W7 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 processor and, as mentioned, runs Wear OS by Google. The hybrid smartwatch sports a 1.2-inch LCD (360x360 pixels) display with a PPI of 300 pixels per inch. In terms of dimensions, it measures 44.5x45.4x12.9mm and weighs 79.5 grams. In terms of storage, it comes with 768MB of LPDDR3 RAM and 4GB of eMMC storage.

The LG Watch W7 smartwatch is fuelled by a 240mAh battery. Connectivity options in the smartwatch include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 BLE. and USB Type-C 2.0 port. Sensors on board the wearable are 9-axis sensor and pressure sensor. Additionally, the Watch W7 is IP68 certified for water and dust resistance.

LG claims that in full operation mode on a single charge, the LG Watch W7 can run for up to two days and further an additional 3-4 days in analogue-only mode. Meanwhile, in the mechanical watch-only mode with its smart features disabled, the smartwatch is claimed to run up to 100 days, or more than three months before requiring another charge. Notably, the analog hands in LG Watch W7 also display details such as altimeter, barometer, stopwatch, timer, and compass directions.

The LG Watch W7 price has been set as $449.99 (about Rs. 33,200) for the US market, and will be available via Best Buy. Pre-orders are slated to begin on October 7 and release date is October 14. The launch dates and price for the other markets will be announced locally at the time of availability.