VERDICT
The LG Watch Sport is the brawny and brainy smartwatch that’s able to keep up with all of your gym workouts, and smart enough to make calls and use Google Assistant with or without your phone in tow. It has the best specs of any Google watch so far and runs Android Wear 2.0. We’d only like it better if it had longer battery life and more apps.
PROS:
- Doesn’t require phone tethering,Able to track strength training,Appealing design despite big size
CONS:
- Battery life falls short,Missing some major apps,Phone calls (US only) require a SIM card
Update: New LG Watch Sport availability information details have been added and new standalone apps have launching, including one for Uber.
The LG Watch Sport comes ready to play, offering more bells, whistles and watch faces than any other smartwatch or fitness tracker to date.
Headlined by Android Wear 2.0 , this feature-packed watch debuts the long-overdue upgrade to Google’s nearly three-year old wearables software.
What you get is a cleaner, yet more robust interface, one that powers what’s likely be your first LTE-connected smartwatch – if you're in the US it can function just fine without a phone nearby, for a small fee.
It’s a brawny-looking watch, built for fitness tracking thanks to a heart rate monitor, GPS chip, barometer and waterproof casing. You can even track strength training. Google to Apple: “Do you even lift?” Apple’s answer is “No.”
It’s pretty brainy, too. Android Pay lets you pay for things in stores from your wrist, and Google Assistant is the search engine giant’s context-understanding Siri rival.
This may not be enough to turn around flagging interest in smartwatches, though. If you didn’t want a watch before today, this isn’t likely going to change your mind about the product category.
Nevertheless, the watchmakers at LG and Google take significant steps in the right direction – the LG Watch Sport is enough to outperform the mighty Apple Watch 2and Samsung Gear S3 Frontier in many areas.
No, Android Wear 2.0 isn’t perfect. Yes, the LG Watch Sport is chunky. It’s especially big next to the slicker LG Watch Style that launched simultaneously.
But if you want top-of-the-line fitness and calling features on your wrist, the Sport is the more convincing choice, and a better contender for our best smartwatch list. Let’s get into why that is.
Price and release date
- $349 in the US, as low as $249 on contract
- $5 to $10 a month for LTE connectivity (optional)
- No UK and Australian price or release date yet
- Available at the Google Store, AT&T and Verizon
The LG Watch Sport is an expensive smartwatch, but since it also has better specs than your average watch – even the more expensive Apple Watch 2 – it’s a reasonable enough value.
It costs $349 in the US via the Google Store, and it's available on contract at both AT&T and Verizon. AT&T charges $249 with a two-year contract that costs $10 a month, while Verizon prices it at a higher $329, but charges just $5 monthly for its two-year contract. Don't be fooled: Verizon's plan is cheaper in the long run.
We don't yet have pricing and launch information for the UK and Australia, direct price conversions put it at about £300 and AU$455.
You’re going to want to save up a little more dough, however. The LG Watch Sport accepts nano SIM cards, enabling you to stay connected even when out of range of your traditional smartphone.
In the States, it costs $10 a month to keep the extra line active on AT&T. Verizon charges a $5 monthly fee, while T-Mobile and Sprint aren't compatible this new smartwatch.
That’s another – optional – $60 to $120 a year on top of the $349 price. Being cutting-edge is always going to cost you when it comes to technology.
The good news is that AT&T’s NumberSync feature is free, so you can link your phone’s existing number to the smartwatch number so no one sees your weird new watch number.
If you live in the UK you won't be able to link you current mobile number to the second SIM in the Watch Sport. Networks in Britain don't offer the feature, so when the wearable finally lands in the UK you'll have to shell out for a second contract with a second number - which is pretty frustrating.
Design and comfort
- Sizable watch that rises pretty high off the wrist
- Surprisingly comfortable fit with contoured lugs
- Rotating ‘main button’ and two customizable buttons
- Waterproof up to 1.5m (5ft) for 30 minutes
There’s nothing small about this sports-driven smartwatch, but it’s still stylish, form-fitting and surprisingly comfortable despite all its extra weight and girth.
It measures 45.4 x 51.21mm on the wrist, around the same as the LG Watch Urbane. And while it’s not nearly as slim – rising 14.2mm in the air – its lugs are more gracefully contoured.
The curved top and bottom lugs make the watch look and feel smaller than it really is, while it doesn’t seem as heavy as its weight of 89g, meaning medium-sized wrists can pull this off.
It’s ergonomically designed – just not as much so as the LG Watch Style – where it needs to be, and, first and foremost, it maintains top performance. The underside of the watch stands tall on your wrist so that you won’t have to move it down on your wrist to get a good heart rating reading.
Maybe it looks smaller than it really is because of those slimming colors: titanium or dark blue. The latter is a Google Store exclusive, that, like the Google Pixel and Pixel XL in Really Blue, could become hard to find in stock.
Neither color comes close to the infinitely more elegant-looking Huawei Watch – but this is a fitness watch, not a luxury timepiece. At the same time, it does a good job of blending into everyday life. It’s something you can wear outside of the gym, too.
Our titanium-colored review unit combines a matte stainless steel casing and dark gray watch band. It strikes an attractive two-toned finish whenever the thin, circular bezel catches the light.
A large watch like this deserves a sizable buckle to secure it to your wrist. The band is made of the usual Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), so it’s gym-appropriate, and will endure your sweatiest workouts.
The TPU here is stiffer and less rubbery than the band found on LG’s first Android Wear watch, the LG G Watch, which had the same type of material.
Not only does it feel better against our skin, it cleverly contains watch antennas. That means the watch band isn’t removable, unlike the one on the Mode band-compatible LG Watch Style; again, this watch is about functionality over fashion.
What you do get are a microphone and speaker for phone calls, and a hidden SIM card tray to make it all work with or without a phone. We’ll look at its performance in these areas later.
Also exclusive to the LG Watch Sport over the Style are two extra physical buttons in addition to the ‘Rotating Side Button’, a less clever name than Apple’s Digital Crown.
You can twist away at this knob without covering up the touchscreen with your fingers (and fingerprints), although we instinctively still did that. The two extra side buttons can be programmed, but by default they’re convenient shortcuts to the fitness app and Android Pay.
The watch casing is also water-resistant, with its IP68 rating meaning it can survive 1.5 meters (about 5ft) underwater for up to 30 minutes. Only Pebble smartwatches beat that rating.
IP68 makes it more waterproof than the first Apple Watch and LG Watch Style – both at IPX7 – and it ties the Gear S3. But like Samsung's watch, Google advises you not to go swimming with it on. This may have something to do with the fact that it doesn’t have a water-ejecting speaker along the lines of the new Apple Watch 2, which can go to a depth of 50 meters (164ft).
Screen
- Stylish, full circle 1.38-inch OLED display looks fantastic
- The always-on screen mode is useful, but is a battery drain
- Gets brighter outdoors for decent visibility in sunlight
The LG Watch Sport has a beautiful, round screen with a sharp 480 x 480 resolution, better than any other Android smartwatch and matching the LG Watch Urbane 2nd Edition LTE.
It’s the circular 1.38-inch OLED display and always-on mode that really sell this Android Wear, however – it’s the classic-looking face many Apple Watch owners wish they had instead.
There are some trade-offs with this, however. You’ll find more usable screen space on boxy watch faces, like that of the Apple Watch, and the always-on display can be a significant battery drain.
We let the LG Watch Sport sit idle with the always-on display enabled and, yes, it sucked up less battery life in this craftily dimmed mode. But it drained nearly 2% every hour, and that really adds up – if you don’t put it back on the charger at night you'll start the day at around 80%.
Outdoor visibility remains a challenge in direct sunlight, as it does for all watches, although it has an auto-brightness mode (on by default) that goes some way to addressing the problem. The Gorilla Glass 3 protection also helps to reduce unwanted reflections.
Android Wear 2.0 and apps
- Revamped wearable operating system
- Apps can be installed from the watch
- There still aren’t enough apps
The LG Watch Sport is more than just an iterative, athletic-themed smartwatch, and the Korean company’s fourth Android Wear smartwatch since 2014. The hardware is just half the story.
Android Wear 2.0, the latest version of Google’s wearables-tailored operating system, marks its debut on the LG Watch Sport and the LG Watch Style – and there are a lot of changes here.
Google’s Material Design ethos flattens previously embossed menus and icons, making way for a modern-looking interface. The themes are also darker, so the entire UI is easier on your eyes and on the watch's battery.
Surprise, surprise, circular smartwatches remain popular, so someone named Captain Obvious told Google to make more round menus that better fit the trendiest watch style.
Scrolling through the new crescent-shaped app launcher menu allows you to see more of your apps at once, as you whip them around the watch face perimeter via the rotating dial.
An even bolder change to Android Wear 2.0 apps comes in the form of standalone apps – these can be installed from a Google Play Store that now lives on the watch.
You never have to rely on your phone to add new apps or watch faces. Standalone apps are faster and, for the first time, you can download apps and faces if you’re using an iPhone. Apple’s app store restrictions led to a barren iPhone Android Wear app, relying on pre-installed items. So this is a great workaround, even if iPhone compatibility is still hobbled elsewhere.
Here’s the problem though: we only felt compelled to keep using a few third-party apps we downloaded to the watch. Grocery list ‘Bring!’ let us keep both hands free while checking off our list; American Airlines let us see our QR code boarding pass; and Kwikset's Kevo app let us into our front door without the need for a key.
Android Wear still needs some major apps – Facebook and Twitter. Uber came to the platform one week after the LG Watch Sport launch. It's getting there.
Of course, even when more new apps do come onboard, you’re more likely to rely on the pre-installed apps and notifications, just like Apple Watch users do.
To get the best of the LG Watch Sport you’ll need an Android phone. Features like Google Assistant and Android Pay demand it, while Google Fit leaves you hanging without a iPhone app counterpart; your stats are viewable on either the watch or the web.
Google Assistant, which debuted on the Google Pixel and Pixel XL, brings its smarts over to the watch. Whenever we pressed the rotating button in, we were greeted with a silent Google Assistant prompt: How can I help you?
It understands context, like it does on the phones and Google Home. Asking “What is a zebra?” gives you a Wikipedia summary. Requesting “Show me a picture of it”, lo-and-behold, still brings up zebra photos. Assistant knows what ‘it’ is; Siri just refers you to the scary Stephen King clown.
This has become our standard Google Assistant test, so our zebra knowledge expands tenfold with every new Assistant product launch. Fun fact: they can sleep standing up.
Android Pay works as advertised, as long as you don’t mind a lock screen every time you take the watch on and off. Paying for store items with a watch is a minor but worthwhile convenience it if you have your hands full and want to take advantage of hands-free payments.
Whether you’re searching through the miniaturized Google Play Store for watch apps and faces, or messaging friends, there are new input methods that make navigation more manageable.
Loud environments that once thwarted your dictation are no match for Android Wear 2.0.
Now you can use a swiping-style keyboard to type out predictive words – it’s incredibly accurate for a cramped keyboard - while handwriting recognition lets you draw out words.
There are about 250 watch faces in the Google Play Store right now, so if you don’t like the nine default faces there’s some brilliant artwork on tap to instantly transform your circular LG Watch Sport into something special.
Android Wear 2.0 introduces watch face 'complications', inserting small widgets onto the tiny home screen. With just a glance, we found it easy to see our ongoing activity goals, battery life percentage, the time in other time zones and our next calendar appointment.
A lot of complications – like the weather – are just lifeless app shortcuts though; Apple has more intricate complications in watchOS 3, but something tells us Google and developers will catch up soon.
A lack of apps and complications are just two of Android Wear’s holes. Here are a few more missteps:
- There’s no easy way to return to an ongoing call or in-progress workout after you return to the home screen – on purpose or accidentally. That would be like the little green bar not existing at the top of your phone when you navigate away from an ongoing call. It’s a little too easy to get lost in your first week with Android Wear 2.0.
- You can’t unlock your Mac or Windows computer, something we love about watch OS3 and macOS. (But you can unlock your Android phone or Chromebook with the watch’s ‘trusted device’ feature.)
- You can’t view your phone photos on the watch, or conversely easily take screenshots of the watch to view on your phone. There is a screenshot menu item in the Android Wear (Android only) app, but it doesn’t even work well since it doesn’t automatically save. Clear the lock screen item, and you’ve lost your photo.
- You can’t tinker with watch faces from your phone’s Android Wear app.
- There’s no way to Cast media, such as Google Play Music, from the watch to your Google Chromecast or Nexus Player.
- Android Device Manager’s ability to ring your phone should be in the quick settings, not tucked inside the app launcher list. It’s one to favorite for sure if you habitually lose your phone.
Specs and performance
The LG Watch Style is as close as it comes to a flagship Google smartwatch. It has top-of-the-line specs and launches with the latest version of Android Wear right out of the box.
That translates into snappy performance, due in part to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 chipset clocked at 1.1GHz and its 768MB of RAM. It’s superior to everything else out there.
Okay, you don’t really need a faster smartwatch. That’s dumb. But the processor is designed to yield other important benefits, like better battery efficiency while handling heavy-duty tasks like fitness tracking. Now that’s important.
We also ran into less slowdown when transitioning between menus than we did with first-generation of Android Wear watches. The hardware and software upgrades over the last two and a half years have delivered just that.
There are a lot of sensors and antennas packed into this watch: an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a heart rate monitor, a GPS chip, NFC and an ambient light sensor. The latter is tucked behind the screen for space-saving efficiency. LG also squeezed in a barometer for altitude tracking.
Calls
Opening the back of the LG Watch Sports (using a special tool) reveals a nano SIM card tray where the gears would be on a traditional watch.
We were able to make calls directly from the smartwatch, without our phone nearby. But you’ll have to buy a second nanoSIM card and, in the US, pay $10 a month to AT&T for a smartwatch plan (Verizon charges $5 a month and will likely stick to that price when it launches the Watch Sport).
Making phone calls, and sending and receiving data without your phone present, is something that not even the Apple Watch 2 can do (it’s a rumored feature for theApple Watch 3 ). It’s a great idea for when you want to go phone-free at the gym or on a run.
What’s odd is that, without a SIM card installed, we weren’t able to make phone calls while connected to our phone or Wi-Fi – the Apple Watch can do that at least.
How did calls sound? Okay. The microphone and speaker made both sides of the conversation sound as if they were on speakerphone; there was no hiding it. However, voices sounded clear, and the speaker gets loud enough if you’re not in a crowded room or city. Otherwise, you’re going to be holding your watch to your ear like a weirdo. Don’t do that.
Cellular calls and data are unique selling points for the LG Watch Sport, and other watches down the line are going to embrace the idea. But, in the immediate future at least, we have to question if people are willing to pay $10 a month, and sometimes leave their phone at home... if you do that, there’s no way to view funny cat videos while you’re waiting in line at the store.
Compatibility
There’s a very good chance that your Android phone will work just fine with the LG Watch Sport. Android Wear 2.0 is compatible with devices running Android 4.3 Jelly Bean or higher.
Google’s operating system even works across the aisle by pairing with an iPhone. It’s great for receiving notifications, and the fact that standalone apps can be installed directly onto the watch does bypass one Apple limitation.
However, we couldn’t do everything we wanted to on our iPhone 7 Plus . Here’s what’s missing:
- No Android Pay
- No replying to iMessages
- No screenshot ability via the Wear app
- Google Fit tracking works on the watch and can be viewed on the web at fit.google.com. But there’s no iPhone app counterpart.
- Google Assistant’s ‘send to phone’ links open in an Android Wear app browser, not in Safari or Google Chrome.
It’s great to see that Google is finding ways to make its watches work with the iPhone, but you’re probably better off with the Apple Watch Series 1 if you’re looking for an iPhone-compatible smartwatch at a discount.
Fitness tracking
- Tracks strength training as well as runs
- You can set fully customizable goals
- No stand-up reminders
The rather overt ‘LG Watch Sport’ name puts a lot of weight on the fitness tracking capabilities of this smartwatch, and for the most part it succeeds where others have too often failed.
The difference is that LG includes the right mix of sensors inside the watch for granular fitness tracking, while Google revamped its Google Fit app to properly record the results.
What you end up with are more modes than you typically see on a smartwatch, all the way down to what we were most impressed with: strength training.
Strength training on the LG Watch Sport solves the big problem of not getting any credit for upper body workouts when you can so easily track high-intensity runs; it’s just not fair.
The Sport is able to count the number of reps, and guess at the exercise (one of 33 in the database) and the weight. All of this is editable if the app gets it wrong, and it learns from your quick edits.
The ability to log all sorts of machines and free weight exercises automatically makes this Android Wear 2.0 watch unique – you won’t find strength training even on the LG Watch Style.
Besides strength training, GPS runs and the heart rate monitor, the two new watches share every other mode and capability.
- Walking
- Running
- Treadmill running
- Biking
- Stationary biking
- Aerobics
- Stair climbing machine
- Strength training (with 33 different exercises)
- Push-ups challenge
- Sit-ups challenge
- Squat challenge
Google Fit also sets up customizable goals. You can pick from three pre-set goals – take 10,000 steps a day, be active for 30 minutes or run three times a week – or set up your own, based on factors like steps, distance, active time, calories burned, floors climbed, walking, running and biking.
These can be daily goals, weekly goals, based on minutes, miles trekked or the number of times you just got out there and performed the routine. It’s very fluid.
The Google Music app has been revamped with the ability to match your exercise, and the beats keep playing through your Bluetooth headphones whether you’re on Wi-Fi or cellular.
This revamped Google Fit app doesn’t get everything right. It’s way more in-depth and geeky than Apple’s fitness app, but it’s also a lot less flashy – we do miss the colorful and animated Apple presentation, even if it didn’t track a lot of what we wanted.
The one goal that’s missing is the popular stand-up goal – you won’t be reminded hourly that you’re a sloth, but third-party apps do fill the void for a very small fee.
Swimming is something of a miss with the Sport though - Apple and other brands have been making a big deal of this capability, and its omission is poor for a watch that's all about exercise.
Battery life
- Lasted 14 hours and 8 minutes with the always-on screen activated
- That's shy of a full day, but relying on Wi-Fi or Bluetooth gave it a boost
- Fitness tracking and cellular data tax the battery too
The LG Watch Sport is designed to last all day and, for us, while it didn’t quite cross the finish line it did get fairly close on a number of occasions.
On average we were getting 14 hours and 8 minutes from normal use with an hour-long daily workout where we tracked our fitness; that’s not the best run time. It was slightly less time with heavier workouts, and when we tested out the SIM card on its own.
We were able to get a full day with more conservative use and by turning off the always-on screen (even though we like it) when we didn’t need to glance down at it continually. And there’s a battery saver mode that kicks in at 15% and which turns off the always-on screen, whether you like it or not.
Truthfully, we really wanted this smartwatch to last at least 16 hours under normal use, as that’s the average full day if you were to get eight hours of sleep. You’re going to be doing some unexpected sprints to keep this battery charged.
What’s amazing is that the LG Watch Style probably couldn’t have existed before today. It squeezes in a big (for a watch battery) 430mAh battery and uses the more advanced 1.1GHz Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset, not the older Snapdragon 400 chipset that’s inside almost every other Android watch.
It’s hard to imagine what it would be like with the older chip and the more average 300mAh battery size.
Here’s another metric: The watch took two hours and six minutes to charge. It does so through an included wireless charging stand – it’s made of what feels like cheap plastic, but it gets the job done, albeit taking longer than we’d like.
Even when using a phone’s Quick Charge plug, this the LG Watch Sport isn’t going to charge any faster.
The LG Watch Sport gives Android Wear 2.0 a great running start. Google’s software revamp makes use of all of the sensors and antennas inside this smartwatch. It tracks exercises as granular as strength training, and makes calls and gets data even if your smartphone isn’t nearby.
It’s a big watch, and not for light wrists – anyone turned off by the design should check out the LG Watch Style. But it packages all of its top-of-the-line specs into a stylish enough, circular form factor that we wanted to wear it even after we left the gym.
You just have to set your expectations for its limitations. Android Wear apps aren't as plentiful as they should be nearly three years in, the just-shy-of-a-day battery life means you’ll want to keep the charger close by, and you’ll have to pay for a SIM card smartwatch line to make calls.
Who’s this for?
Anyone who's into fitness but finds that current trackers just don’t record the right data will appreciate the LG Watch Sport the most.
Early adopters will enjoy using the cellular phone and data capabilities, and everyone who tries this watch will dig Android Wear 2.0 (although no one will think there are too many Android Wear apps).
Should you buy it?
If you’ve been waiting for an untethered smartwatch, have a desire for logging your workouts and don’t mind being an early adopter, this smartwatch is a good fit. It’s not going to change any minds about the usefulness of smartwatches if you've dismissed them as irrelevant previously – that’s a tall order.
But if you’re curious about Android Wear 2.0, the LG Watch Sport acts as a great introduction to the updated OS.
Competition
LG Watch Style
The LG Watch Style is the lightweight Android Wear 2.0 alternative to the more robust (in all ways) LG Watch Sport. It too has a circular screen, but it’s smaller, thinner and lets you swap out the bands. It’s a case of fashion over functionality, though; it doesn’t have all the sensors that are on board the Sport, and can’t track strength training or make cellular calls.
- Read our full LG Watch Style review
Apple Watch 2
The choice here is pretty simple: if you have an iPhone, you should get an Apple Watch. If you have an Android phone, then consider the LG Watch Sport. Yes, the Sport is compatible with Apple’s phones, but it lacks so many features that it’s hardly a serious competitor. Android Wear, even with Android Wear 2.0 launched, just can’t compete.
- Read our full Apple Watch 2 review
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