Gadgets

LG Watch Urbane Teardown

Like clockwork, we’ve been tearing apart the world’s most-wanted wearables. Hot on the heels of Apple Watch armageddon, we cracked open the latest Android Wear offering—the LG Urbane. A peek at what what makes this timepiece tick shows the same hardware as its predecessor, the G Watch R, but in a slightly more sophisticated package.

With a swish-and-flick of our opening pick, we were able to extract the battery in record time (no wingardium leviosa needed here!). Unfortunately, the glass and fused OLED display sit on opposite sides of the case—meaning they’ll need to be separated to replace either one. While screen replacement will be wristy risky business for fixers at home, the Urbane makes up for it with an otherwise repair-friendly design, earning a fair 7 out of 10 on the repairability scale.

LG Watch Urbane teardown

Teardown Highlights

• The last time we tore down an LG smartwatch, we were pleased to find screws securing an o-ring sealed rear door. Today, we heated our iOpener and felt a little sad. However, thanks to a handy pry notch, things weren’t too bad.

• As devices shrink, manufacturers are turning to adhesive instead of screws or clips. On the whole, this has been bad news for repairs—but in this case, LG seems to have found the secret recipe that balances construction strength with pry-ability.

• On the inside, the Urbane is largely the same as the G Watch R—with the same processor, 410 mAh battery, and LG-made P-OLED display.

  • Urbane’s Hardware:
    • SK Hynix H9TU32A4GDMC 512 MB mobile DDR2 RAM
    • Qualcomm Snapdragon 400
    • Qualcomm PM8226 PMIC
    • Broadcom BCM4343 integrated communications module
    • Synaptics S3526B touch controller
    • Invensense M651 6-axis accelerometer and gyro
    • Asahi Kasei AK8963 3-axis compass IC
    • Qualcomm WCD9302 audio codec