LG G Watch Powered by Android Wear

I realize this review is pretty long, but I personally would love to see more in depth reviews on things before I buy them so hopefully someone else finds this as useful as I would! Thanks for reading... If you're looking for a simple, low priced and straight forward introduction into the world of smart watches, this is a great starting point. Set up of the watch was very easy; download the Android Wear app, have it and your phone charged and follow along. It is pretty user friendly in that respect. The only thing I've noticed people not understanding is that there is no power button; to turn the watch on, simply place it on the charger! As far as style is concerned, I have zero complaint. I've read a lot about round vs square face but honestly it comes down to personal preference. The watch band is extremely comfortable and it sits nicely on the wrist. My wrists are average to small sized, and it looks and feels perfectly fine. Another big plus for me personally is the ip67 rating, meaning it's dust and water "proof". The watch can be fully submerged in up to 3ft of water for a 30 minute period without causing any harm; which means things like showering or washing your hands are no issue at all. This is great for me as I work with my hands, often in water, dirt, mud, paint etc. The touch screen functionality even seems to stay intact when wet, as I discovered while listening to music in the shower! As far as the software and functionality for the LG G Watch, it really only has shortcomings to the most discerning of users. Android Wear is the same across all smartwatches that use it, so the differences are fairly slight, in my opinion. The touch capacity is as responsive as I would expect, if not more; keep in mind it's a less than two inch screen to begin with, so there are obviously repeat taps and swipes from time to time. Overall though it gets a thumbs up for me. Voice recognition has been near flawless in my experience. There are times when it has trouble recognizing less common words, or choosing the correct word (such as too vs two), but these are things that generally get worked out as time goes on. I receive and reply to texts almost exclusively on my watch now, except when discretion is necessary or it's too loud for my voice to be picked up. Notifications come through a half second later than they do on my phone, which isn't really an issue but it's noticeable. The only complaint in this department would be that phone call notifications seem to lag; so hopefully that is something that's been taken note of. There are alot of apps that work directly your phone and the watch (Facebook, Instagram, maps, most google apps), and plenty more that are designed specifically to download for the watch. All the apps I've used so far work pretty much seamlessly, and if there isn't a watch functionality for something there is always the option to "open on phone" just a couple swipes away. One thing I really like is that as far as I've read and understand, any watch with Android Wear should continue to recieve updates, as the operating system is not specifically tuned to each brand, unlike the Android system for smartphones. I have received two large updates since unboxing my watch, and virtually all the bugs and shortcomings addressed in older reviews have been fixed. The only instance where updates might stop coming in is of course if certain things begin to exceed the watches processing capabilities. Time will surely tell, but the future of smart watches looks pretty fun and exciting! In closing I think this is a really great watch, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to give this new world of wearable technology a shot. There are plenty of styles and brands out there and surely much more to come, but at this point in the game and for the prices available now, I don't think the LG G Watch can be beat. By the way, I purchased a refurbished unit for just under $65, and I'm having no issues whatsoever. Thank you for reading if you made it this far, and again I hope it's helpful!