As wearable technology becomes smaller and more advanced, it’s finding its way out of the fitness market and permeating other realms as well. The Razer Nabu is the perfect example, targeting gamers not just with fitness tracking, but with social interaction and app integration aimed squarely at connecting members of the PC gaming community.
The more advanced version of the Nabu X, the Nabu was actually available briefly in late 2014 as a developer preview. A few design changes have been made since then, as changes were made to the consumer version of the release to meet the suggestions and criticisms those beta testers expressed. Now, the Nabu is ready to go, and Razer is celebrating the launch with a short video explaining how the Nabu will save you in a zombie apocalypse.
It does so with the help of its complex fitness and health tracking functionality, measuring steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, minutes spent active, and hours slept. However, Nabu’s most defining feature is the discreet OLED screen that sits on the underside of your wrist. Rather than focusing on building a wrist-based UI, Razer simply uses the screen to display notifications, emails, text messages, and fitness info, with a single button to flip through the different screens. That small screen, and Bluetooth LE, means the Nabu can run for up to six days on a single charge.
The social aspect of the Nabu X is built into the Nabu too, with tools to enable you to swap info with other Nabu owners simply by shaking hands. If you choose to integrate one of a number of apps to the Nabu, you can enable features that indicate when other Steam users wearing Nabu are around, have it deliver your daily schedule and weather to you, and keep track of your fitness through your preferred system. In addition to the new features the Nabu introduces, the Nabu X will also be receiving a software update that will improve the functionality of the app, and by extension the band.
While the Razer Nabu X retails for just $49.99, the new Nabu will sell for $99.99 when it launches in October. Pre-orders open on September 15th via the Nabu page on Razer Zone.
