LG's round G Watch R is about to launch in a matter of days and according to retail listings in Korea, it should cost 352,000 won, or about $330.
We managed to find a few fresh G Watch R listings in Europe, along with a listing for the Asus ZenWatch. These are arguably two of the hottest Android Wear smartwatched due to launch this year and both could give the Moto 360 a run for its money.
LG G Watch R priced at €299?
Listings for the G Watch R W110 range from €285 in Austria to upwards of €330 in Germany. Judging by the listings, the MSRP should end up at €299 (or close). This makes LG's round watch about €50 more expensive than the Moto 360 and substantially more expensive than the original G Watch W100, which is now available for €129 (although it originally launched at €199/$229).
Two of the listings have a shipping date. One says the watch will be available on 24th of October, while another one states it will ship in five to 14 days.
In terms of specs, the G Watch R features an attention grabbing 1.3-inch OLED display, but under the bonnet it closely resembles its predecessor, with a quad-core Snapdragon 400 SoC, 512MB of RAM and 4GB of onboard storage. The watch features a 410mAh battery, substantially bigger than most smartwatches out there today.
Asus ZenWatch WI500Q goes cheap
Asus is an unlikely contender in the smartwatch space, since the company is not exactly a huge player in the smartphone market. However, Asus smartphones tend to feature competitive pricing and relatively good industrial design.
The ZenWatch WI500Q is more of the same. It is a rectangular watch, but it does not look very geeky (like the original G Watch for example). It features a sleek stainless steel body with a brushed finish, along with a standard 22mm leather strap.
It has a 1.63-inch 320x320 AMOLED display covered by Gorilla Glass 3, a quad-core Snapdragon 400 clocked at 1.2GHz, 512MB of RAM and of course 4GB of storage. The 369mAh battery should keep the show running for more than a day and the watch is IP55 certified. At 50.6x39.8x7.9-9.4mm, it is not the smallest watch around, but it is relatively thin and the gently sloping design makes it look a bit more compact.
A German e-tailer is now listing it at €199, which sounds competitive. Although you don't get a round screen, the ZenWatch features a good spec on a par with pricier watches like the Moto 360 and G Watch R. Plus, Android Wear still works a bit better on rectangular screens and on the ZenWatch it just has more pixels to play around with than on round watches like the Moto 360.