Wear OS LTE smartwatches
An important smartwatch usability factor is whether the smartwatch has LTE. In 2019, the leading Wear OS watch with LTE in North America is the Ticwatch Pro LTE. Watches that are locked to Verizon Wireless LTE bands are less interesting to many users because they may want to use a different prepaid LTE provider or use the watch internationally.
Google Fi and Ting work with Wear OS smartwatches having LTE via the T-Mobile 2G / 3G / 4G cellular network. AT&T also works with Wear OS LTE smartwatches. The overlapping T-Mobile / AT&T LTE bands with Wear OS include bands 2, 4, 5, 12 and 17.
Wear OS LTE smartwatch comparison
| Model | CPU | LTE Bands | Google Fi/Ting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ticwatch Pro LTE | SD2100 | 2,4,5,12,13,17 | eSIM (TBD) |
| LG Watch Sport LG-W280A | SD2100 MSM8909W | 2,4,5,13 | Yes |
| LG Urbane 2nd Ed. LTE LG-W200A | SD 400 | 2, 5 | Yes |
| LG Urbane 2nd Ed. LTE LG-W200V | SD400 | 13 | No (wrong bands) |
| Verizon Wear24 | SD2100 | 13 | No (wrong bands) |
| Huawei Watch 2 | SD2100 | 1,3,7,8,39,41 | No (wrong bands) |
Why are LTE bands important for smartwatches?
The LTE bands are important for knowing if the watch would work on a particular carrier. Sometimes a watch has LTE bands the carrier doesn’t and vice versa. As long as one or more LTE bands overlap, your watch might work–always double check before making a purchase! Carriers don’t use all their authorized LTE bands throughout their entire network. Some LTE bands are used only in urban areas.