Apple Watch Sport, the cheapest of the three Apple Watches, has the best display of the lot while a watch touted as one of Apple Watches' top rivals, the luxury LG Watch Urbane, is available on Google Store.
Media reports said the Apple Watch Sport, the cheapest at $383, has a better display than the more expensive models: the $600 stainless steel Apple Watch and the $17,000 18-karat Edition gold model.
Leading video diagnostics firm Display Mate said the Sport model has an Ion-X strengthened glass that reflects less light than the sapphire crystal glass used in both higher-end models. Under bright light, the displays in the two other Apple smartwatches aren't quite as clear as the face on the Apple Watch Sport.
"It is a major issue for smartwatch displays because doubling the amount of reflected light will significantly wash out the display's own image light, reducing both contrast and color saturation, and making it harder to see the image," reported DisplayMate.
The sapphire crystal reflects about twice as much ambient light as the Apple Glass Sport's Ion-X strengthened glass. Experts noted the reflectance problem is causing issues in Apple's smartwatches but isn't as much of a problem for most smartwatches as their displays work by reflecting ambient light, said Tech Times.
Nut a more serious complaint about the stainless steel and gold editions was how theie screen handle ambient light. The automatic brightness sensor watches "significantly restrains" the brightness of the displays.
Unfortunately, the only way a user can adjust the brightness is by placing the screen in a shadow, a disadvantage made more prominent by both watches' high price tags.
DisplayMate said despite the flaw in the sapphire glass, the new Apple Watches have displays comparable to the quality on the iPhone 6 with very sharp images on the relatively high pixels-per-inch screen.
Along with news the LG Watch Urbane is spilling out of factories in South Korea is news this luxury watch is now available on Google Store. The watch is being sold for $350, making it the most expensive Android wearable thus far.
LG Watch Urbane is notable for its high-quality and delicately crafted leather strap and a steel body with really good wearable technology inside. It comes with a gold or silver watch face that gives the smartwatch a more sophisticated look.
The fully round display is ultra-clear and enables users to view the watch at any angle, even in bright sunlight. This 320 x 320 pixel Plastic OLED watch face display allows clear imagery despite direct sunlight. Its glass face is coated with scratch-resistant Corning Gorilla Glass.
The watch runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor with 1.2 GHz clock speed. It's got 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of storage.
Power comes from a 410mAh battery. The watch also has a Wi-Fi module and Bluetooth, which were unavailable in the previous Android smartwatch
But a pleasant surprise is the watches' IP67 water resistance that can withstand immersion in three feet of water.