The LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE was announced at the start of October and was a significant announcement because it was the first Android Wear smartwatch to feature cellular capabilities. The watch was expected to be available for purchase in November in the U.S. and Korea, and shortly after in Europe. However, in a strange turn of events, the launch of the Urbane 2nd edition was canceled indefinitely. The reason given in November for the device’s cancellation was an “unspecified hardware issue.†However, last week, LG said the reason for withdrawing sales for the watch was not because of safety issues, but over the component’s potential to take away from the user experience over time. LG says this faulty component has never been used in any of its wearable devices before.
In a statement to Telegraph, LG stated: “For competitive and supplier relations reasons we are not in a position to communicate the specifics of the issue that led to this decision. However, what we can share is that the hardware issue was related to a new advanced component that we had incorporated in the device that had never been used in an LG wearable device before. During aggressive testing over thousands of hours under severe conditions, it was revealed that this component failed to meet LG’s quality standards and could potentially impact our image quality over the life of the device.”
I was not a fan of the original LG Watch Urbane’s chunky design, and much prefered the alluring sleekness of the Moto 360. However, I was still excited about the Urbane 2nd edition because, of course, its cellular capabilities and high resolution display. The Urbane 2nd edition was set to feature a 480×480 P-OLED display, meaning it would have been the most pixel-dense Android Wear smartwatch to ever have been released. Its cellular capabilities were also rather exciting, because users could make calls and texts directly from the watch itself, rather than through a Bluetooth-paired smartphone. This would’ve been great for runs and workouts, in which carrying a phone around is highly impractical.
LG did not specify whether or not a fixed model would be available soon. Were you excited to pick up the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE? Would you still want one if a revised model came out? Let us know in the comments below!
Via: Telegraph
