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iFixIt has done their tried and trusted teardown on the new LG Watch Urbane, the latest Android Wear smart watch from the South Korean company. As beautiful as the smart watch is on the outside, we’re always curious about the bits that you won’t often get to see in your day-to-day usage.
The teardown didn’t reveal anything out of the ordinary. LG still knows how to fit square circuitry into a circular chassis. Assembly is very clean and makes us confident the smart watch can stand the test of time.
One thing iFixit notes is that the battery is quite easy to replace if you find it’s on its last legs. This is thanks in part to a motherboard that is held in place with standard Philips-sized screws and a just a few connectors to deal with. Watch band replacement is also going to prove to be quite easy, though this is by design and should be possible even without fully dismantling the watch.
Unfortunately the display is where things get trickier, as LG has a multi-layered design that features a good deal of adhesive. While it’s possible to completely remove the display without breaking anything, it will require you to re-adhere the display and glass. That could become a messy job for someone who isn’t experienced, so the Watch Urbane was awarded a repairability score of 7/10 (10 is easiest to repair). Take a look at the full teardown notes at the source link if you’re curious.
[via iFixIt]
Looks pretty clean but seems there are opportunities to make the watch thinner. The casing parts look pretty thick, hard to tell though. Next gen screens and CPUs designed for smartwatches have been released that should make watches thinner/lower power/faster/cheaper, etc but may not see next gen til late summer/fall. I like the appearance of Urbane but it’s using 2013/14 technology.
Hope to see new Moto360 use 2015 parts and ultimately thinner. Moto360 also has very minimal screen bezel.
Keep in mind heat. It may be like that to aid with dissipating heat.
Sheesh – another thinness dandy. LG, please don’t listen! Your users want functionality and battery life – not thinness.
Pretty soon we’ll be reading “…Wear device doesn’t have a swappable battery. Pass!”.
Gosh! I can’t stand that name “Urbane”! What is up with that name!
So I have a silver Urbane, it’s pretty cool but I mistakenly thought that it had upgraded specs over the g watch R. Now that I know they’re the same inside, I am considering saving $100 and swapping the Urbane for the R. I actually like the looks of the R more, anyway.
Is there any reason why I shouldn’t do this?