Forget Apple Watch6 - This looks like the future of Smart Watches

Forget Apple Watch6 - This looks like the future of Smart Watches

I like the Apple Watch Series 5, but am not necessarily impressed with its design (or any other smartwatch). So a new challenger has emerged with a flexible, foldable design and a larger screen. [The Nubia Watch wraps around your wrist with a 4.01-inch flexible AMOLED display and sports and fitness tracking features (including sleep tracking).

The big advantage of this extra-long screen is that you can see more data at once, which means less scrolling. The only time this is a problem on my Apple Watch is when I want to see all of my current activity data at once (and on a larger scale than the home screen complication), but if you're the type who checks email on a smartwatch, this would be a huge bonus.

Of course, you can also expect standard fitness tracking features such as pedometer, running, walking, and freestyle workout tracking. It will also track calories burned and heart rate, and will encourage you to stand up so you don't have to sit around all day.

It also supports Facebook, Whatsapp, and the Korean social network Line; the Nubia Watch also supports music, which can be transferred from the Nubia Wear app to the Watch, though Spotify support is not mentioned.

Nubia also takes advantage of the watch's large screen with animated wallpapers, all of which look like they could have stepped out of "Tron: Legacy" or "Blade Runner 2049." See for yourself.

Nubia claims up to seven days of battery life in "power-saving mode," but since you'll probably want to use all of the Nubia Watch's features, expect something closer to Nubia's claimed "36 hours of daily use between charges." I can only assume that estimate will drop the more you use that animated screen.

A silicone band is included for the wrist, but Nubia sells a nappa leather strap for a more polished look.

As noted by Sam Byford of The Verge (who already has the Chinese model wrapped around his wrist), we already know of a few annoyances. First of all, he notes that its screen "can be a little hard to see outside, and there's no automatic brightness adjustment." Second, the Nubia is a chunky 14.2mm. The Apple Watch 5, now wrapped around my left wrist, is 10.7mm thick, 25% slimmer.

As for internal specs, the Nubia Watch is powered by the not-new Qualcomm Wear 2100 processor, which is four years old, having been introduced in 2016; there appears to be no LTE version, but Byford says it can work with eSIM

Nubub.

Nubia has been around since 2012, but beyond the RedMagic gaming phone sold online, is still a Shenzen-based brand to make any splash in the US.

In our hands-on review of the Nubia Watch, we were impressed with the watch's flexible AMOLED screen and reliable GPS. However, we found it to be a bit bulky and its software needed a little more time in the oven before it hit store shelves.

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