Razer Nabu Watch first look: A retro watch with added smarts

CES 2016: Razer is back with another *unique* wearable
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Razer's Nabu Watch is a bit of an odd device. It's a hugely chunky, really, retro G Shock-style digital watch with a main display which lasts for twelve months. Razer has also essentially squeezed its experimental Nabu X in there for good measure via activity tracking, a second, tiny 128 x 16 OLED screen and a few social features.

The smartwatch features actually feel quite secondary to the whole experience of viewing the time and date, setting stopwatches and skipping between world clocks on an old school dot matrix. It's kind of like a Martian or Guess Connect for fans of chunky 90s digital watches.

Read this: First look at Fitbit Blaze smartwatch

Razer Nabu Watch first look: A retro watch with added smarts

The rubbery case has five big buttons, four around the outside (Mode, Set, Light and Adjust) and a main 'home' button, just below the display. This is to cycle through your steps, activity and notifications.

The styling is very Razer - all black with green details and is decidedly masculine in case you hadn't guessed.

It's big - we're not sure in what setting the Nabu Watch would really look appropriate but it's a lot lighter than we expected. It's beefy and it's practical too - water resistant to 5ATM and shockproof up to 5m.

Razer Nabu Watch first look: A retro watch with added smarts

That said, the demo unit of the cheaper $150 polycarbonate Nabu Watch was pretty scratched up and attracted dust like no-one's business. There's also a more expensive $199 Forged Edition, which comes with stainless steel buttons, but this wasn't out on Razer's CES stand.

We'll be interested to see how big a release Razer gives this, and how much - like the Nabu band - it relies on its gaming community for sales. Until then, we've got to respect Razer's efforts here on the Nabu Watch even if we are a bit perplexed by them.

Casio's own CES efforts, with its WSD-F10 Android Wear watch, seem to make a lot more sense in terms of mainstream appeal.

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Sophie was Wareable's associate editor. She joined the team from Stuff magazine where she was an in-house reviewer. For three and a half years, she tested every smartphone, tablet, and robot vacuum that mattered. 

A fan of thoughtful design, innovative apps, and that Spike Jonze film, she is currently wondering how many fitness tracker reviews it will take to get her fit. Current bet: 19.

Sophie has also written for a host of sites, including Metro, the Evening Standard, the Times, the Telegraph, Little White Lies, the Press Association and the Debrief.

She now works for Wired.


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