Nubia Alpha wearable smartphone review
What you're looking at isn't a watch.
It isn't a phone.
It's the Nubia Alpha Wearable Smartphone.
[MUSIC]
Yeah, basically, it's a watch that makes phone calls.
The first thing you'll notice about it are the looks.
Okay, you're gonna fall into one of two camps, when it comes to the looks.
You either think this looks like a house arrest bracelet Or you think it looks like Batman's watch.
I prefer to think it looks like Batman's watch because I'm the one wearing it.
No, I'm not gonna do this.
It would be so easy for me just to make jokes and dismiss this as out-there tech.
But, honestly, I think the Nubia Alpha has some pretty good design and feature ideas.
Even if they miss on the execution.
For example, there's a four inch flexible OLED display, imagine stacking four Apple Watches vertically in a row, and I should display one myth about the [UNKNOWN] this is not a [UNKNOWN] bracelet.
It's fantastic having this much screen real estate, it's great for reading long text messages or threads Or even Twitter comments.
The message literally wraps around your wrist.
That said, I don't think you need the display that wraps a 180 degrees around your wrist or at least one positioned the way it currently is.
See, there's always a quarter of display that you can't see without impossibly twisting your wrist.
But without changing the size of the display.
If you could just position and rotate it, so more of it was on the inside of my wrist, I could see the whole display, and I also have a little privacy, too.
[MUSIC]
Then there's the camera.
Yes, there's a camera, and it sits on top of your wrist.
But because of the angle, you get the worst selfies.
And the quality of the photos is like iPhone 3DS good.
And you can record video, but just ten seconds at a time.
Where's that tick tock integration when you need it?
But if you move the camera from the top to the side of your wrist, you have a much better angle for selfies.
Now I realize moving camera and moving the display like that would mean you need a left-handed version and a right-handed version of this watch or wearable smart phone.
But you know what?
Let's talk about the phone this it's not a phone.
This is not in the US, in China you can get an esim for it but Even with that, where are the apps?
Where's Instagram and Google Maps and YouTube and Uber Lyft where's the internet browser?
They're all still on my actual phone.
And I have no way of accessing them on the new via.
And that brings me to software.
There are a lot of tiny apps from weather and fitness.
To one called high Marquis, where you could actually have the new via show words and phrases on the display.
I can navigate the app successfully with my fingers or filled with some hope using these air motions that don't really work.
The software, it's clunky, I'm not gonna lie, it's confounding to use.
Try to get a song from your phone onto the watch.
I dare you.
I was able to connect bluetooth headphones but I can't listen to Spotify or Google Play Music or anything.
And that's the least the problems I get double notifications.
And then the system dialog boxes.
Yeah.
They don't say OK and cancel and said it says I know I know.
Really.
And then if that's not enough.
If someone messages you from an iPhone using iMessage it doesn't show the message.
It says you've received a multimedia message.
Check your phone.
And sometimes I'm sitting at my desk and it says I've walked 32,000 steps.
Other times I'm working out and it says I have negative 17,000 steps.
Did I walk backward?
So this It's a default.
Well at least a way we take our phones but honestly, I think it could be a phone.
But Nubia has lot of things to fix to get us there.
[MUSIC].
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