Just after LG announced its first two smartwatches running Android Wear 2.0 in February, Verizon announced its own competing wearable. Now we know Verizon's Android Wear smartwatch, named Wear24, will be available starting May 11. Coming in silver, black, and rose gold, the Wear24 will be sold on Verizon's website and in its stores for $350. Alternatively, customers can choose to activate a new two-year plan and get the device for $300.
The Wear24 smartwatch has LTE capabilities, so Verizon obviously wants users to start a new plan when they buy it. However, you can add it to an existing Verizon plan and pay an additional $5 per month for LTE access. With that data, the smartwatch can receive notifications and information without your paired smartphone nearby, and it can also take calls, send messages, and stream music on its own. The Wear24 will run Android Wear 2.0 out of the box, and it'll have the latest version of Google Assistant as well.
The Wear24 smartwatch is comparable to LG's $350 Watch Sport because it has a 1.39-inch, 290 ppi AMOLED display, a 450 mAh battery, and a water-resistance level that allows it to withstand being submerged in about three feet of water for 30 minutes. Verizon confirmed to Ars that the Wear24 does have an onboard GPS, but no heart rate monitor. It was unclear if the device would have either when Verizon first announced it, but it will at least have one of those features. However, for $350, it's still a somewhat hard sell when compared to LG's Watch Sport that has both of those sensors.
Android Wear 2.0 has only made it to a handful of devices so far: the rollout has been slow, with only three new watches running it at the end of March. Shipping the Wear24 with Android Wear 2.0 might be enough to persuade some who have been itching to get their hands on an updated Google smartwatch. But it's also unclear how well-supported the Wear24 will be in the future when Android Wear 2.0 becomes old news.
reader comments
32