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Face-Off: Android Wear smart watches - LG G Watch W100 Vs Samsung Gear Live

The debut on two new smart watches of Android Wear sees Google on wrists, but which app-laden time piece is worth spending your days with?

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Jamie Carter

While Samsung's Gear Live (HK$1,795, expansys.com.hk) has gone for a traditional watch face augmented by a small screen, LG's G Watch (HK$1,895, expansys.com.hk) goes straight for the jugular with a full-screen touch-panel. Exactly 37.9 x 56.4 x 8.9mm, and weighing in at 59 grams, the water-resistant and either black or wine-red Gear Live has a 1.63-inch AMOLED screen that measures 320 x 320 pixels. AMOLED has great contrast and fabulous colours. The IPS LCD screen on LG's stainless steel G Watch isn't quite as impressive and has a lower resolution at only 280 x 280 pixels, but it is slightly bigger at 1.65 inches. The G Watch, which is also water-resistant, comes in black titan and white gold and works with any watch strap. Heavier than the Gear Live at 63 grams, the G Watch measures 37.9 x 46.5 x 9.95mm, so has a smaller footprint, but a slightly thicker face. Neither has any buttons, relying largely on touch and voice commands.

Both smart watches have similar core specs, using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, 4GB of internal storage, 512MB of RAM and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy. But what really unites the G Watch and the Gear Live is their use of Google's new Android Wear platform. Debuting this summer, Google Wear is all about Google Now, the personal assistant that's currently found on Android smartphones and tablets. As well as telling the time, both watches connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth, and can display messages and information on incoming calls. It's also possible to control music playback, which could be a killer app for commuters. The watches also feature Google Maps-powered notifications, effectively replacing the need to fire-up apps. For instance, both the Gear Live and the G Watch — both of which are loaded with an accelerometer, compass, gyroscope and heart rate monitor — can give real-time answers to all kinds of questions. Android Wear makes it possible to send text messages, have conversations on Google Hangouts, set alarms, check your schedule on Google Calendar, but it's also capable of giving directions and geo-location data.


Being able to read app notifications and messages from friends on your wrist feels a whole lot more natural than via a smartphone. By glancing quickly at these messages, there's a lot less need to drag a device out of your pocket when you're wearing a Gear Live or a G Watch. While the Gear Live has a traditional watch face that can be read any time, and a touchscreen that needs to be woken up, the G Watch's display is always on. Consequently, battery life is a concern for both. Neither the Gear Live or the G Watch has an enormous battery, the former housing a small 300mAh battery and the latter 400mAh. Even more concerning is that both devices rely on recharging cradles that use proprietary connections rather than the universal micro USB slots that all Android smartphones and tablets now use. A nightly charge is inevitable, as is travelling everywhere with that cradle.

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