Verizon is now taking advance orders for its version of LG's Watch Urbane 2nd Edition smartwatch and is offering a few perks for the earliest of birds.
The Watch Urbane 2 will go for $500 outright and $450 for those who agree to two-year terms with Verizon. Those looking to add a two-year commitment for the smartwatch to existing plans can do so for $5 per month.
For those who really like LG and plan to get the LG G5 or V10 from Verizon, the wireless carrier is offering $100 off the price of the Watch Urbane 2 for a limited time. G5 and V10 buyers will have to activate the Watch Urbane 2 on a new two-year agreement in order to get the $100 price cut, which brings the smartwatch down to $350.
Verizon anticipates shipping its first batch of Watch Urbane 2 smartwatches on April 1. Many LG watchers and smartwatch enthusiasts expected the call-capable smartwatch to ship at some point last year, but it was shelved just before it shipped due to faults with a "new advanced component."
The Watch Urbane 2, announced in 2015, intrigued the industry because it was one of the few smartwatches to support 2G, 3G, and 4G LTE for both sending and receiving phone calls.
When activated, the smartwatch is given its own phone number. But that number is connected to the user's smartphone, so the wearer's primary calls will be routed to their wrists as well as their pockets.
"A 4G LTE smartwatch means that even when away from your smartphone you'll still get notifications and can reply to friends, call family, search for food, listen to music and more. You can feel confident that you're getting your notifications on time," says Verizon. "A connected smartwatch without a reliable network, though, is just a watch."
Beyond sending and receiving phone calls and text messages, the Android Wear smartwatch boasts a 1.3-inch circular P-OLED display at a resolution of 320 x 320. It's stocked with a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor, half a gig of RAM and 4 GB of storage space.
The watch is dust- and water-resistant, able to endure submersion down to a meter or a little more than 3 feet for up to 30 minutes straight. LG says the watch has "extended battery life," but hasn't specified how long the Watch Urbane 2 can go between trips to the charging cradle.
