“Smart watches in their current form are too bulky and fitness trackers are easily forgotten after the initial novelty wears off - we have fixed all of that,” - these are the words from Min-Liang Tan, CEO of Razer following their CES 2014 Vegas announcement of some new wearable tech, the Razer Nabu Smartband.
Like a smartwatch, wearers of the Razer Nabu will receive notifications from their smartphone directly to their wrist. The Smartband features two OLED displays - one on the top for notifications such as letting you have a text message or an incoming call. The second private display which sits on the underneath of the wrist gives you more details of the alert such as text or email content.
The second big feature is body monitoring - the Nabu contains sensors and links to your phones GPS for personal info tracking, including location information, how many steps you’ve walked, distance travelled, stairs climbed and sleep data. You can choose what the band tracks and use the supporting iOS or Android app downloadable utility app to manage your Nabu.
What will be interesting though is what other uses third-parties can come up with for the Smartband as it sits on an open platform meaning other developers and companies will be able to provide new services and novel uses for it using the tracking and data monitoring tech contained inside. Surely theres some game developers out there who will be coming up with some interesting Nabu uses for interactive gaming.
All this is packed into the Nabu Smartband that claims to deliver a 7 day battery life too.
The Razer Nabu should launch globally by the end of March 2014 but price is still to be confirmed. Developers wanting to start playing with kit though can sign-up now and get the band for $49.
We’ll hopefully have a full user review of the Nabu Smartband in the coming months.
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