Skip to main content

Razer’s Nabu offers fitness tracking and social connectivity to PC gamers

Razer Nabu | 5 Rules of Zombie Survival
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.

Recommended Videos

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.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

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.

Brad Bourque
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Brad Bourque is a native Portlander, devout nerd, and craft beer enthusiast. He studied creative writing at Willamette…
Razer’s vibrating Project Esther cushion is turning into a real product
The Razer Freyja cushion strapped to a chair.

Razer comes out with wacky concepts every year -- it's hard to forget about the RGB-ridden Project Hazel face mask -- but its recent Project Esther is turning into a real product. It's called Freyja, and Razer says it's the world's first HD haptics gaming cushion. While not exactly a market that's popping off, if there's any company to sail into uncharted waters with haptics, it's Razer.

We've seen attempts from Razer in the past to bring haptics to your back and butt, but Freyja looks much more practical than a full chair like the Enki Pro HyperSense. It's a cushion that fits over most chairs with a tall back, including both Razer and non-Razer options. It needs power, but Razer has built a single-cable solution for Freyja with a quick-release connection so you don't have to worry about pulling down your setup if you roll over the cable in the wrong way.

Read more
Razer just opened the floodgates for its ‘cheating’ Snap Tap feature
Razer Blade 14 sitting on a coffee table.

Razer is expanding support for its Snap Tap feature, which rolled out a few months ago alongside the Huntsman V3 Pro keyboard. It allows much quicker inputs between two keys, particularly when it comes to strafing in games like Valorant, Apex Legends, and Rainbow Six: Siege. Now, the vast majority of Razer's gaming keyboards are getting support, along with Razer Blade laptops -- some of which are among the best gaming laptops you can buy.

Originally, Snap Tap was billed as a feature enabled by the Hall Effect (magnetic) switches, but this latest update proves that's not the case. Snap Tap allows you to switch between two keys without fully lifting your finger when switching between them. In the case of strafing, for example, you're able to bounce back and forth between your A and D keys, and Snap Tap will prioritize your most recent input. That's true even if your finger continues pressing down on the previous key, allowing for very fast, precise strafing.

Read more
AMD just launched a free tool all serious PC gamers should have
A screenshot of Frame Latency Meter running on top of a game render.

AMD has just unveiled Frame Latency Meter (FLM), an open-source Windows utility designed to measure the response time of games based on mouse movements. FLM measures the time it takes for a mouse movement to translate into a new frame on the screen, providing insights into system performance.

This tool is particularly aimed at advanced gamers, power users, and game developers who are keen on optimizing whole-system latency or reducing input lag. If you're new to frame latency measurements, they are commonly used online to approximate input lag by measuring button-to-pixel latency.

Read more