The two Android Wear smartwatches, the LG G Watch and the Samsung Gear Live, are finally shipping to early adopters, and the iFixit crew has done its customary teardown, pulling off both watch cases and faces to sneak a peek at the electronics underneath.
The biggest surprise? Both of these tiny devices are actually pretty repairable: they are both assembled with Torx screws and a minimal amount of glue, which is good news for anyone hoping to tinker with their smartwatch. The fact that both smartwatches are easy to assemble and dissemble is also particularly appropriate given their status as first-generation devices. Also of note: the Samsung Gear Live’s more complex circuit board has an installed Wi-Fi antenna unused by Android Wear, which was first tipped in FCC filings.
Both devices are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 SoC, which was first designed for phones. So perhaps when there are smartwatch-specific SoCs we could see improved battery life.
The Samsung Gear Live has a 300mAh battery, which is smaller than the 400mAh battery the G Watch sports. Regardless of capacity differences, the volume of both smartwatches is largely comprised of battery and that will continue to be the limiting factor to making these devices even smaller and thinner in the future.
Last week, Anandtech published a separate Android Wear teardown done by chip designer ARM.
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