Android Wear Release Date, Reviews: The Samsung Gear Live, LG G Watch Specs Incl. 512 MB RAM, 4 GB memory, 1.2GHz Processors; Open To All Mobile With 4.3 Jelly Bean

Android Wear release date, reviews: The Samsung Gear Live and the LG G Watch are now available as the first two Android Wears in the market. Both sport a 512 MB RAM and 4 GB internal storage, powered by 1.2GHz processors. Both units are now available in the U.S. 

Amidst the release of other smartwatches this year, the two Android Wears aim to provide its users access to Google’s vision of Android at the comforts of their wrist. With the ability to work with any Android smartphone running on 4.3 OS or higher, are the two smartwatches ready to compete in the market?

Here is a quick look at the specs and features of the two Android Wears.

Like most smartwatches in the market (except the Motorola Moto 360 and the Sony Pebble Steel), the Android Wears are designed as square black LCD touch-screen interfaces (with or without buttons) strapped on a polyurethane watch band.

In one look and minus all the buttons, it would be hard to distinguish the two from other smartwatches. The LG G Watch looks much like the Sony’d smartwatch, while the Samsung Gear Live is almost the spitting image of the Gear 2. To make the two unique, you can customize their wrist straps.

The G Watch sports a 1.65-inch IPS LCD, while the Gear Live offering a 1.63-inch Super AMOLED screen. With only less than an inch of difference, the two have almost identical screen sizes. However, the Samsung watch has a denser pixel display with a 320 x 320 resolution, compared to G Watch’s 240 x 240 resolution.

Ironically speaking, the two Android Wears are not much efficient as continuous watches. When unused, you need to do a gesture or tap the screen in order to view the display. You do have an option to keep the screens open all time, however, prepare for you battery life to be quickly drained.

When it comes to function and features, the two include an accelerometer, digital compass and gyroscope. The Gear Live has an additional heart rate monitor to boot.

In terms of battery life, the most that the Android Wears can last is a day. The Gear Live has a 300 mAh battery, while the G Watch has a 400 mAh one.

A definite plus with the two smartwatches is the nifty voice recognition software. You can also set reminders and alarms, and check text messages and calls. Overall, they still fulfil their purpose: to serve as an extension for Android smartphones.

So are they ready to be released in the market?

Christina Warren of mashable.com says that “Android Wear and the first two Wear smartwatches are the very definition of a 1.0 product … Neither the LG G Watch nor the Samsung Gear Live is particularly attractive, and battery life is poor. When it comes to the software, there's a lot of potential in Android Wear, but the execution is limited.”