Do You Need LTE Support on Your Smartwatch?

As smartwatches gain more capabilities and we use them for more activities, being able to leave their companion phone behind becomes far more helpful. That's possible thanks to some smartwatches coming with an embedded LTE radio.

The two major players in LTE-connected smartwatch platforms are Apple, with the Apple Watch running watchOS, and a broader vendor ecosystem reliant on the Wear OS (formerly Android Wear).

LTE Smartwatch Technology

When in range of its paired smartphone, a smartwatch can take calls handed off from the phone. But an LTE-equipped smartwatch doesn't need the smartphone to be anywhere need it in order to work as a phone. Along with calls, the smartwatch can handle text messages and other data from the internet (weather, stocks, sports scores, etc.).

Of course, the size of the smartwatch has some drawbacks such as not having as big of a battery, so calls use up more battery power on the watch than the same call on a smartphone.

Carriers generally provision LTE-capable smartwatches with a separate data plan and a dedicated phone number, which subordinates to the primary phone number for your account. When someone calls your smartphone, your smartwatch will also ring, and you can place or accept voice calls through its onboard microphone and speakers.

Are LTE Smartwatches Worth It?

For whatever reason, if bringing along your smartphone is a problem then, yes, you might very well find having LTE on your smartwatch to be worth it.

If you rarely leave your smartphone behind, the extra features of the LTE-enabled smartwatch likely won't be worth the extra cost for the device and the monthly carrier fees.

Choices for LTE Smartwatches

You can choose a smartwatch from two major ecosystems—the Apple Watch and a smartwatch running Google Wear.

Devices With watchOS

All currently shipping versions of the Apple Watch offer a variant with LTE as an option. Because of its deep vertical integration, the Apple Watch series of devices pairs perfectly with other Apple hardware, and the platform has nearly 38% of the smartwatch market in North America. Typically Apple charges $100 on top of the price of the Apple Watch to add LTE.

Apple releases both LTE and non-LTE versions of the Apple Watch, with a $100 price difference.

Devices With Wear

The Google-developed Wear is a multi-platform smartwatch operating environment optimized for voice commands and swiping. Wear devices ship in several models by a variety of manufacturers, and they work with both Android phones and tablets (many also work with iPhones as well).