The Nubia Alpha is a wearable phone that can also take selfies
A Huge 4-inch Display That Adapts to Your Wrist
Called the Nubia Alpha, the wearable sports a pretty unique design that is carved out of anodized stainless steel and centers around the large OLED display. So large, in fact, that its diagonal measures in at 4-inches, making it 230% larger than standard wearable displays, according to Nubia.
Make Phone Calls, Send Texts, or Even Take a Selfie
As mentioned above, Nubia is marketing this device as a phone you can wear and one that could potentially replace your existing smartphone. This means that, rather unsurprisingly, it supports all the latest eSIM technologies which allow you to make 4G calls and send texts directly from it. The Nubia Alpha also supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, as is the norm nowadays.
Obviously, a phone wouldn’t be a phone without a camera, or at least a selfie one anyway. So, Nubia has equipped the wearable with a decent 5-megapixel camera which sits to the right of the display. Taking a picture is as easy as tapping on the screen. Alternatively, if video is more your style a long press on the display will activate recording.
As to where all of this will be stored, Nubia was kind enough to include 8GB of onboard storage. According to the brand, this should be sufficient for over 6,000 pictures, 2,000 short videos, or 1,000 songs.
The Nubia Alpha Includes a Bunch of Fitness Features too
In addition to being a wearable phone, the Nubia Alpha also tries to compete against more traditional smartwatches with a range of fitness and health-focused features.
The usual device supports a range of exercise modes and automatically tracks any physical activity if detected – don’t worry about taking it swimming because the wearable is water-resistant. It also allows you to log your heart rate through the built-in heart rate monitor and it can provide you with information about your quality of sleep.
In regards to media, the ability to stream music via Bluetooth is available thanks to the built-in apps. Speaking of which, the Nubia Alpha doesn’t run Wear OS, Tizen or Watch OS. Instead, Nubia has built a custom OS designed to take advantage of the large display.
The OS allows users to interact with the Nubia Alpha via multi-touch controls, voice commands, or even a variety of air gestures.
An Outdated Processor Paired With a Big Battery
As to what can be expected from the device internally, Nubia’s wearable is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100. This is a bit disappointing considering the newer and more efficient Snapdragon Wear 3100 already exists but nonetheless should still provide decent performance when paired with the 1GB of RAM that’s also included.
Release Date, Pricing, and Availability
Nubia is yet to announce when the Nubia Alpha will be released or how much it’ll cost. But when it does launch later this year, consumers will be able to purchase two models: Black and Gold.
To match the central area of the wearable, the Black variant comes equipped with a black band carved out of stainless steel. The Gold model, however, scraps this in favor of a band plated in real 18K gold, thus increasing its price significantly.