14 DAY TRIAL // Smartwatches shouldn't get all the spotlight in the wearable industry, and to prevent this from happening, we bring you news of an interesting upcoming product from the smart band category.
After Xiaomi introduced its super cheap, budget fitness bracelet which will sell for a ridiculous $13 / €10, Razer is giving us some insight into its upcoming Nabu smartband, Re/Code informs.
As expected, the new band will bring a lot of the standard smartwatch functionalities to the table, which means you’ll be able to receive notifications from your smartphone, plus all the fitness and health tracking feats are there.
But the new Nabu will be integrating something else and this is the most interesting part. The band will be the first wearable to fully integrate WeChat, a free messaging and calling app which allows users to connect with family and friends across continents.
The service has become super popular in China, almost to the point of dethroning the social media guru, Facebook, and is now starting the grab the attention of users located in other territories too.
The wearable will be first launched in China, but Razer promises the new Nabu will make it to other markets such as the US. What’s more, it will sell for a super affordable price. Well, not as affordable as the Xiaomi Mi Band, but at least it will have an under $100 / €73 price tag.
The company is also exploring some atypical options for their upcoming band, such as being able to exchange contact details by virtue of giving the other person a high-five or shaking hands with them.
The two people engaged in such an action will have to be owning a Nabu and both use WeChat of course, but it still sounds pretty futuristic.
Nabu goes on to mention they are looking to construct their own platform, so we can expect other services and apps like WeChat to be added onboard as time goes by.
Razer hopes to address issues some users reportedly face with bulky smartwatches and fitness bands that come with limited functionality with the Nabu.
And ahead of the official launch, the Razer Nabu app (the Android version anyway) has been making an entrance in the Google Play Store, so we can speculate the worldwide launch is not far from us. In China, the Nabu is expected to be shipped out in the fourth quarter of the year.