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Razer added to its wearable collection at CES not with a smartwatch but with "a watch that's smart." That's how the company bills its new
Nabu Watch
, a
G-Shock
-esque device that doesn't have any bling but is big enough to catch everyone's eyes. It's a full chronograph timepiece with a digital display in addition to a secondary ticker screen for smartphone notifications. On top of that, it tracks daily activity as well.
The Nabu Watch is Razer's way of getting into the smartwatch world while still staying true to its customer base by making devices that are "by gamers, for gamers." The watch certainly embraces the same aesthetic of Razer's other products—jet black with bright lime green detailing. At $149, though, the Nabu Watch might be best suited for the Razer-obsessed. It's lackluster for everyone else.
Design: An acquired taste
Razer channels Casio's ostentatious yet iconic G-Shock line of watches with its Nabu Watch. I like big watches in general, but this one looks hilarious on my small wrist. It's bulky with a number of raised, oblong accents that make it look like something a post-apocalyptic video game character would wear.
In the center of its honking face is a digital display that shows the date, time, and mode by default. Right underneath the main display is a 128×16-pixel OLED ticker-like screen that only shows your smartphone notifications and activity stats. Compared to other smartwatches and fitness trackers that just have one do-it-all display, I like that Razer separated the information you'd always want to see when you look down at your watch and the information that has a short shelf life, like smartphone notifications.
Razer's Nabu Watch is a full chronograph timepiece, and it has a secondary display for smartphone notifications.
The four side buttons control the watch mode, the setting and adjusting of the timer and stopwatch, and the screen's backlight.
It has a thick case and is overall a huge watch, so it's better suited for larger wrists.
The band is just a larger version of a traditional watch band. It's pretty comfortable and easy to adjust.
The back has the proprietary charging nodes; the watch will last a year thanks to its coin cell battery, but the ticker display only lasts a week on a single charge.
Two different displays mean two different battery lives—the timepiece display will last at least a year thanks to its coin-cell battery, but the "smart" display will last about a week before it needs charging. The charging node is on the back of the watch. The Nabu Watch comes with a proprietary cable, so don't lose it if you want to keep the ticker alive.
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Along the side of the round watchface are four physical buttons encircled in Razer's signature lime green color. The Mode button lets you scroll through the six modes on the watch (world clock, settings, local clock, stopwatch, alarms, and timer) and the Light button turns on the screen's backlight. The Set and Adjust buttons are mainly used in stopwatch and timer mode, so you likely won't be using them as frequently as the other two buttons. The only other button on the device is right underneath the display. It controls the ticker display, letting you dismiss notifications and scroll through activity data.
The Nabu Watch is both shock-resistant and water-resistant up to 50 meters, so at least its ruggedized appearance has some practical benefits. I'm not sure into which extreme situations you'd be taking this otherwise basic fitness tracker, but that protection should give users peace of mind that it won't be damaged by an unexpected fall.
Basic activity tracking and notifications, peculiar social features
Razer has two other wristbands, the
$99 Nabu
with an OLED display and the
$49 Nabu X
with three small LED lights. Both have essentially the same features: activity tracking, smartphone notifications, social information exchange, and gaming potential. The Nabu Watch is the watch version of these other bands because, aside from the different modes that the chronograph timepiece provides, its features are nearly identical to the wristbands.
The accelerometer in the Nabu Watch lets it monitor steps, distance, calories, active time, and sleep. You can connect your MapMyRun account to the Nabu mobile app so the band can see your running data, although it doesn't have a run tracking mode itself. Sleep tracking is automatic after the watch realizes you've been "resting" for over 15 minutes during the daytime hours and eight minutes at night. Even when I sat at a desk for a few hours, the watch never saw me as asleep, but that might be because my hands were moving from typing or stretching.
Unfortunately, the Nabu Watch is proof that size doesn't always matter. Despite its big frame, the watch doesn't have a heart rate monitor or built-in GPS, making it more basic than even the HRM-equipped, $149
Garmin Vivosmart HR
. In terms of activity tracking, it's on the same level as the regular $129 Fitbit Charge and even cheaper devices like the $69 Misfit Shine. However, I don't think the lack of features was an oversight. Razer did not set out to make the best fitness watch for the money, rather it wanted to make a fitness watch that its fans would enjoy.
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Three alarms come standard on the Nabu Watch, but you need to turn them on from the mobile app. You can set more alarms as well, and the active alarms will show up on the main screen on the watch under the alarm section. The watch also has the option to "chime every hour," which was super useful for me when I wanted to manage my time better at work. (It's just another type of timer, of course. The watch has this anyway, so you could use the timer mode to keep track of how long you work on a specific project, too.)
Similar to the Nabu and Nabu X bands, the Nabu Watch has a handshake gesture that can be used to exchange social information, like Twitter and Facebook accounts, with another person. If you come across another person sporting a Nabu wearable, you can shake his or her hand to quickly obtain their Facebook or Twitter information. This could come in handy at big events provided that others are wearing the same kind of device you are. But this feature doesn't work with any other wearable line for now, so for most people it won't be a regularly used gesture. The one gesture I inadvertently used a lot was the wrist-twist to wake up the ticker display. Every time I lifted my wrist to check the time, the secondary screen would light up and show me either how many unread notifications I had or my total step count thus far.
