Razer may be known for making gaming equipment, but the company is also getting ready to launch a product designed to get you up off the couch. The Razer Nabu is a wearable device that’s part smartwatch, part activity tracker, and potentially much more.

razer nabu

The Razer Nabu is designed to fit around your wrist like a watch or bracelet. You can use it to view notifications such as incoming phone calls or text messages and it also works as an activity tracker by counting steps, floors climbed, distance traveled, hours slept, places visited, and more. You can set personal goals, and basically treat activities as games you’re trying to win (which is where Razer’s gaming DNA comes into play, I guess).

It has two screens a publicly viewable screen that hangs out on the back of your wrist, and a private screen that’s on bottom. It’ll stay dark unless you turn your wrist to activate the private screen to see additional details about incoming messages.

You can program the device to recognize gestures, such as shaking to dismiss a notification or snapping your fingers to switch to sleep mode.

There’s also a social element to the Nabu. It supports band-to-band communication using something Razer calls Pulse. This lets it detect when other users who you’re connected to via social networks are nearby. Users could even do things like sharing contact details by shaking hands.

Like other smartwatches and activity trackers, the Nabu is designed to pair with an Android or iOS phone and sync your data via Bluetooth. And it’s designed to run for a week or longer before you have to recharge the battery.

Razer also plans to allow third party developers to access data collected by a Nabu (with your permission, of course). So while Fitbit users typically need to use a Fitbit app to get the most out of their devices, Nabu users could theoretically choose from a range of third party apps to sync with… assuming developers make use of Razer’s APIs.

Razer plans to start offering units to developers in the coming months. A consumer version could launch later this year.

via The Verge

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3 replies on “Razer introduces Nabu smartwatch and activity tracker”

  1. Since this does most of the stuff a fit band does, and most of the main stuff a smart watch does, I will watch this more closely.

    The ideal wrist product for me would:
    -Analyze your sleep
    -Vibration alarm when you’re in a stage of light sleep before your wake up time
    -Activity/calorie tracking
    -Long battery life and water resistant
    -Other lifelogging functions beyond fitness
    -Speakerphone and voice memo like galaxy gear

    And most importantly:

    -Be well integrated with Google Now via voice commands so it does basically everything Google Glass would do.

  2. I won’t buy a Smartwatch. The screen is too small. I can barely read the 4.8 inch screen on my Galaxy S3 without magnification.

    1. A good smart watch may not, and probably should not, be all about the screen. The FitBit Flex has no screen and it is still very useful. If somebody comes out with something with great Google Now integration that is run primarily via voice, then you will have a very useful device without looking at the screen often.

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