Opinion: OEMs aren’t going to save Android Wear by putting LTE in everything

We’re about two months into Android Wear 2.0 and while we have seen some great smartwatches on paper, none of them have actually stuck the landing. With revised software and improved capabilities, the second generation of Android Wear devices should be awesome, but they just aren’t. And I think I know why…

First, let’s take a quick look back at what we’ve seen released so far this year. The LG Watch Sport, Google’s “flagship” Android Wear 2.0 device. Again, on paper, it looks great, but when you strap on the uncomfortable band and feel how thick the body is, it doesn’t deliver a great experience.

Then, there’s the 3G ZTE Quartz, a smartwatch which was just unveiled this morning. For $199, this watch looks pretty decent, but it’s also inherently flawed in the same way these other watches are.

The source of the flaw is actually quite simple: LTE. All three of these devices take advantage of Android Wear’s new support for working independently of a phone with an internet connection. That sounds great, but in practice, this is more of a hindrance than a benefit. How so? There are at least three downsides to adding LTE to a watch.

The first, obviously, is hardware size. LTE watches have several more components than a standard Android Wear device and thus, require more room to fit those components. That leads to bigger overall designs, especially when it comes to thickness. The Huawei Watch 2 and ZTE Quartz both house antennas in the body, where LG puts them in the band. In either case, it just makes for a form factor that isn’t very good.