Razer is joining the smartwatch segment with a watch that’s smart, but not a smartwatch. Confused yet? Razer is hoping consumers won’t be after they hear about the Razer Nabu Watch.
You may remember the Razer Nabu Band that was announced a few years ago and reintroduced in August. The Nabu Band is a wearable that connects to your phone and displays information about calendar alerts and calls among other things. Razer is now taking that strategy and putting it into a watch. The Nabu Watch is less a smartwatch and more a watch that happens to have some smart features.
The Nabu watch is a digital chronograph that displays discreet notifications, fitness tracking information and social functions. The main display of the watch is an illuminated backlit display that can do normal watch functions like tell the time, start and stop timers, and run a stopwatch. The second OLED screen underneath the main display will deliver smart information like alerts from your social media accounts and fitness info.
[blockquote author=”Razer CEO and co-founder, Min-Liang Tan”]We’re bringing together the reliability and incredible functionality of a digital timepiece, with added smart features to empower the tech enthusiasts of today. We’re also just really excited to create a digital watch that we’re proud to call our own – a natural intersection between our popular work in apparel and wearables. This was something our fans have asked for, and we’re happy to deliver.[/blockquote]
You’ll never have to worry about setting the time on your watch because the Nabu Watch syncs the time to your smartwatch. This is especially helpful to travelers. As soon as your phone adjusts to your new time zone, your watch will too with no hassle.
The Razer Nabu Watch is aiming to be a different kind of wearable. A watch first, and a smart device second. One of the biggest areas where it differs from the rest is battery life. The digital chronograph part of the watch will run for up to a year on its coin cell replaceable battery, and the secondary OLED display will run for a week on a single charge.
Some won’t see the point of this watch, and that’s fine. I personally think this is a great intersection of a workable timepiece with enough smart functions to get you through the day. I generally only use my smartwatch to tell me when I have a call or text coming in now and it seems like the Razer Nabu Watch can do that more efficiently than Android Wear currently can, while providing better battery life. Whether or not you should get one depends on how you use your wearables but this is a strong option.
The Razer Nabu was announced at CES 2016 in two versions. The Nabu Watch standard edition will be available in late January for $150. It has tough polycarbonate materials with green highlights like most Razer devices. The Nabu Watch Forged Edition has stainless steel buttons and a premium black finish for more durability and a sleeker look. It’ll run you $50 more for a purchase price of $199.99 and is available now on Razer’s website.
Product Features
Watch Hardware:
- 12 months battery life using replaceable coin cell battery (CR2032)
- Hourly time signal
- 1/100 second stopwatch
Measuring capacity: 23:59’59.99″
Measuring modes: Elapsed time, split time - Countdown Timer
Measuring unit: 1 second - Full Auto Calendar
- 12/24 hour formats
- 3 multi-function alarms (Daily or weekly repeats)
- World Time
- Time, World Time and Alarms auto synced to phone time or manually adjusted via Nabu app
Nabu Hardware:
- OLED 128×16 single color
- 3-axis accelerometer
- Cylindrical vibration motor
- Single Button for OLED Screen
- Lithium polymer battery with up to 7 days battery life
- 5ATM water resistance rating
- Shock Resistant up to 5m
- Charging via magnetic proprietary USB cable
- Wireless syncing with mobile device via BLE
System requirements:
- iPhone 5/5S/6/6 Plus/6S/6S Plus with iOS 8 (or higher)
- Android 4.3 (or higher) device with Bluetooth Low Energy (BT 4.0 or higher) capability
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