LG Watch Phone GD910

Design

Forget everything you expect from the GD910 at first sight. The LG watch phone will pass off as a watch at first glance. But a peek at the right side of the watch gives its identity away: Here reside the Send, End and Back buttons.

The front of the watch is covered with glass and a stainless steel border. The rear is fully decked out in "solid stainless steel", according to LG. This is also where you find the round SIM cover, which will require the included special tool to remove. The charging pins as well as the mic are located on the back as well, though we find that to be the oddest side of the phone for a mic to live.

The leather strap is slightly stiff but easy enough to adjust to fit our wrist, although it took some trial and error with the clasp mechanism to get the fit right. The build quality overall is very solid.

The rest of the phone's body is decked out in matte-black plastic which, as we found out, was good for shrugging off the daily scruffs and bumps without scratching. The amount of stainless steel present weighs down the LG to 92g, which is a tad heavy for a watch but still lighter than most smartphones in the market today. With the main body of the watch measuring 49 x 39 x 13.8mm, it is not exactly svelte, but nor is it too big.

Features

The biggest feature of the G910 would be its 1.43-inch capacitive touchscreen. From the main screen itself, you can switch between eight clock displays by flicking your finger up or down. Flicking left or right will call up four different screens — the status display, main menu, calendar and quick dial.

If you're used to smartphones with built-in internet browsers and more-than-1-megapixel cameras, don't hold your breath. The GD910 doesn't have any of those features. Still, it packs a built-in 80MB memory, Bluetooth connectivity, MP3 playback, voice commands and a VGA camera.

Scrolling on the menus is fluid, although we noticed occasional jerkiness. Don't expect multitouch capabilities or an onscreen keyboard. That said the watch phone relies heavily on the T9 predictive text input on the onscreen keypad. Punching the correct buttons on the panel would be a challenge for those with large digits, and typing out a SMS can prove to be quite frustrating. Smart dialing is available, too, so you can get to your most-dialed contacts quickly to make a call. There's also a history log which shows the calls you've received or sent.

The MP3 player is very basic and the camera is just limited to VGA resolutions and can take only stills. The phonebook is equally barren, offering simple contact grouping over the standard set of features. The organiser, although a good feature to have on a phone, is quite a hassle to update given the tiny size of the device and onscreen keyboard. A nice accessory included to take advantage of the Bluetooth capabilities of this watch phone is the LG HBM-900 headset. The Bluetooth headset comes with two ear loops and four differently-sized eargels. However, this phone is compatible only with the HSP profile and not A2DP stereo.

An idea of how limited the VGA camera is.(Credit: CNET Asia)

The phone's 105mAh battery is built-in, and to charge it, you will have to clamp the phone in the included cradle which then plugs into the included AC charger. The user has the option of using the included dual charging cable which will charge the phone and the headset simultaneously. You can also hook the phone up with the included USB cable to enable PC connectivity, where the LG PC Suite software will enable syncing of contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists and memo data. With the USB cable, however, dual charging the phone and headset is not possible. Charging time was kept to under 2 hours on average, with the USB method taking 15-20 minutes more than on AC power.

Performance

The real-life performance of this quad-band, 3G phone is good. Switching between the various menus is snappy via the touchscreen interface, although punching in buttons is quite a challenge since the phone is worn on the wrist and moves a bit when pressed. Increasing the snugness of the wristband only means the metal clasp would jut further into the wrist area, which is highly uncomfortable. Even the use of the included watch cushion didn't help much to keep the watch in place while in use.

Call audio quality is acceptable throughout, but with the mic placed at the back of the phone and pressed onto the wrist, having a conversation without using the Bluetooth headset is as close as it gets to looking silly. You'll be constantly bringing the phone close to the mouth and back to the ear to hear the replies. 3G video calls are also smooth and we didn't experience any noticeable lag.

The onboard speaker is moderately loud, but again, don't expect a 3.5mm audio jack. The only way to use this phone while retaining most of your dignity and coolness would be to pair it with the supplied HBM-900 headset.

The rest of the phone's features are comparable with a "dumb phone". With the limited 80MB memory onboard, you probably won't be stuffing this phone full with your favourite tunes. The lithium-polymer battery is rated for up to 4 hours of talktime and approximately 150 hours on standby. We managed to squeeze about two days of normal usage before clamping the phone back into the cradle--which is pretty respectable for something that fits on your wrist.

For those concerned about water resistance, this will handle the splashes from washing your hands. However, LG cautions against using the phone with wet hands. Of course, we didn't have the guts to bring such an expensive electronic device near water.

Conclusion

Though we marvel at the amazing technology that went into miniaturising a phone to fit into a watch form factor, reality is a cruel mistress. At the heart-stopping price of S$1,688 (US$1,198.52) without an operator plan (which is why we took it off before washing our hands), it costs much more than a phone with similar functions--or as much as a high-end smartphone with a lot more features.

As a phone, its functions are basic at most. As a watch, it does what any watch does. As a watch phone though, it's an excellent technological showcase to show us how far miniaturisation has gone. That said, we feel the GD910 is a wonderful gadget for the tech-driven. But for the general public, the traditional phone will probably suit best. It's like comparing an exotic supercar with a family car — while one is a superb showcase of technology and goes really fast, the other will happily ferry five people, with boot space to spare. In that respect, the LG GD910 is a great phone if you're in the market for a watch phone.

If you want to see more photos of the GD910 make sure you check out our hands-on photo gallery.