A gaming PC company has just entered the wearables market, offering a smartband called Nabu that's designed to bridge the gap between smartwatches and sports bands.
The first eye-catching feature of the Nabu is its look: colourful, curvy, and decked with two separate screens. Beyond looking cool, the Nabu pairs to a smartphone. It then receives notifications for phone calls, emails, text messages and apps.
The top-mounted screen displays icons and notifications, while the bottom-mounted offers further details such as the first few lines of a private email. The Nabu also boasts "advanced sensors" for tracking and analysing data, including location information, bio data feedback (steps walked, stairs climbed) and sleep habits.
A complementary app gathers this data and can share it, if desired. It also acts as a one-stop destination for band settings, profile ID, notifications received, opt-in data, and more. In fact, Nabu’s band-to-band communication abilities allow for social discovery based on user-defined settings, such as finding a friend nearby.
“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,” said Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. “The Razer Nabu provides a revolutionary new platform that bridges the divide between so-called smart watches and fitness bands."
READ: Razer introduces Blade and Blade Pro, ultra-thin gaming notebooks with Haswell and LED displays
Overall, the Nabu delivers information, collects data, deepens social interactions, and it allows developers to deliver "incredible experiences" via mobile or desktop apps. The Nabu will cost $49 (£30) when it releases for developers sometimes in early 2014, though a final price for consumers has not been revealed.