I’ve always been an early adopter when it comes to technology. When google released the moto 360 way back in September 2014 with android 1.0 i couldn't get my hands on it quick enough. And now google is giving android wear a much needed updated with their new Android wear 2.0. Google in partnership is LG has also launched two new smart watches to feature the new OS. And today we’ve got one of those watches, the LG Watch Style for review. 

First up is the unboxing, and damn does this thing have a big box for a smart watch. presentation is nice, when you open the lid every thing is laid out for out neatly. inside you’ll find the watch it self, a wall wart, some documentation, and a charging puck. i wish they had included a cleaning cloth. this watch only comes in one size which is a let down. id imagine people will larger wrists will have a problem wearing this watch since i’ve got average wrists and I'm already at the third to last hole. 

Design wise, the watch does ok. you get a stainless steel housing that comes in either silver, rose gold, or titanium. theres also a mirrored surface that goes all around the watch. sadly, the back of the watch is made out of plastic and thats so it can have wireless charging. the lg watch style also comes with genuine leather straps, but their quality does leave something to be desired. i fear that in six months these straps will be totally destroyed. but on the bright side these wrist bands are interchangeable. and swapping wrists bands here is much easier than on the apple watch. 

moving into specs we’ve got an 1.2 inch round POLED display, with a 299 ppi, and cornering gorilla glass 3 covering it all. the screen on this watch is much brighter, crisper, and has deeper colors than the runIQ I reviewed. the watch style is also 10.8 mm thick which sits very nicely on your wrist. it also ways just 46 grams. this watch also sports 512 MB of ram and 4 gigs on board storage so you can download apps from the play store. theres also a 240mAH battery which should last you a whole day. The lg watch style also has a built in microphone so you can use google assistant but there is no speaker on board. when it comes to connectivity you get wifi, and bluetooth low energy. and finally this watch is IP67 water and dust resistant as well.  

But more important than the features this watch has are the features that its missing. first up you should have noticed that this watch doesn't have a heart rate sensor. so if you’re looking for something to wear while working out then this isn't for you. theres also no NFC chip so you cant use tap to pay, which is a big new feature for android wear 2.0.  theres also no LTE connectivity on the LG watch style but to me that really doesn't matter. I don't need to make phone calls off of my watch and adding a watch to my mobile plan doesn't really matter to me either. 

using the lg watch and navigating through the cards is like butter. theres no lag and no hesitation. LG also copied apple’s rotating crown design which allows you scroll through your cards or the app drawer without having to smudge your screen. android wear also introduced a whole bunch of watch faces, some that can display a ton of information at a glance and some that have a much more classic design to them. but if you wanted to you could go into the play store to down load more watch faces, apps, and even games. 

Smart watches are great for people who are always on the move and need to be on top of their emails, texts, calendar events, phone calls, and reminders. and android wear 2.0 still does a great job of showing you all of that information at a glance. and if you need to reply to either one of those texts or emails or can do so a few different ways. you can either use pre made responses, voice to text, or even swipe on a miniature key board which is fairly accurate. 

over all the LG watch style does a great job of doing what its supposed to do. it looks good on your wrist and shows you phone notifications as they come in. the simple and classy design looks good now and will still look good in 2 years. but for 250 dollars its grossly over priced. Smart watch sales have never taken off as much as manufactures had hoped and sales have actually declined. which is why a lot of brands are leaning towards the fitness crowd. so the LG watch style not having built heart rate sensor is a flop. it dosnt even have NFC which means you cant use tap to pay, a feature thats becoming more and more common. with morenew android watches just around the corner i would recommend you hold off on this one. or look into this watch’s big brother the LG watch Sport, review on that coming soon. If LG wanted to be competitive they should have priced this watch at $160 or so. c