For anyone who wants to go smartphone free, and can't afford an Apple or Samsung smartwatch, the Nubia Watch is the best looking and most-futuristic eye-candy for the wrist ever made. If you can get over its many weaknesses, it's a well-constructed, attention-grabbing work of art. But for anyone interested in fitness tracking, there are far better and more accurate smartwatches on the market.

Specifications
  • Heart Rate Monitor: Yes, PPG
  • Color Screen: AMOLED, 960x192
  • Notification Support: Partial
  • Battery Life: Two days
  • Operating System: Custom Android
  • Onboard GPS: Yes
  • Offline Media Storage: Yes
  • Customizable Strap: Yes
  • SIM Support: Yes, eSIM
Pros
  • Affordable
  • Excellent construction quality
  • Futuristic and eye-catching screen
  • Fast user interface
  • Integrated cellular modem
  • Direct Bluetooth pairing
Cons
  • Weak dust and water resistance
  • Obsolete internal components
  • Limited notifications support
  • Weak health tracking features
  • No app ecosystem
  • Unreliable Bluetooth connection
Buy This Product
Nubia Watch

The futuristic, ultra-slick ZTE Nubia Watch comes filled with contradictions. While it combines a cutting-edge flexible display with equally bendy glass, its internal components are a generation behind. So, should you buy a Nubia Watch? At $219, it's the cheapest flexible-display smartwatch and the least expensive cellular-enabled watch for Android and iOS. But its limited app selection means it's not for everyone.

Who Is the Nubia Watch for?

Think of the Nubia Watch as similar to a candy-bar phone but with a few health and fitness features tacked on. At its price point, the Nubia Watch offers excellent value, if you can get around its severe limitations.

  • If you work out at the gym and want to go smartphone free
  • If you want a dazzling display to impress your friends and family

But there's one big problem: there aren't any third-party apps. That includes messaging apps other than SMS (text messaging). So if you're reliant on Tinder, Facebook, WhatsApp, or any other communications platform, this isn't the device for you.

Hardware Specifications, Features, and Build Quality

  • Cost: $219 from the AliExpress Nubia Store
  • Display: 4.01-inch AMOLED 960x19 (244PPI) resolution display with Schott flexible glass
  • Dimensions: 0.27 x 0.57 x 4.92 inches (7 x 14.4 x 125mm)
  • Storage: 8GB with 4.2 available to the user (approximately 1,000 tracks)
  • Weight: 3.45oz (98g)
  • Available colors: Black or Green
  • Wristband type: Silicone
  • Button: 1 steel power button
  • Battery: 425mAh Li-ion
  • Battery life: 7-days standby; 36-hour active use; charges in 85 minutes
  • Processor: QUALCOMM 8909W (WEAR 2100)
  • Wireless: Bluetooth V4.1 and Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n)
  • Sensors: Accelerometer & Gyroscope, Barometric Sensor, Heart-rate Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor
  • Water resistance: IP54 (splash resistant and large dust particle resistant)
  • Positioning systems: GPS, GLONASS, BEIDOU
  • Operating system: undisclosed, but either Android version 6.0 or 7.0

A Gesture-Controlled, Foldable, Flexible-Display Smartwatch

The Nubia Watch is a gesture-controlled, foldable, flexible-display smartwatch, with very few smart features. It's remarkable for its excellent build-quality, eSIM compatibility, and direct Bluetooth pairing, which allows for you to ditch your cellphone, provided you don't need third-party apps.

Construction Quality

nubia watch indestructible construction quality

But is the Nubia Watch rugged enough to take hiking? Compared to folding smartphones, it's nigh-indestructible. Other than a single plastic covering its sensor suite, the watch uses copious amount of steel and aluminum.

Shockingly, Nubia somehow managed to implement a glass screen as opposed to a plastic one, on a flexible display. The secret to its mind-boggling flexibility is Schott flexible glass. Schott glass is a specially constructed flexible glass, so thin that it bends like a piece of paper, yet retains the rigidity of glass.

It's Heavy and Chunky

The tradeoff, unfortunately, is weight. While the watch doesn't feel heavy, its metal construction, and large display don't make it a lightweight either. Compared to the Apple Watch, or even the Fossil Gen 5, the Nubia Watch is more like a lead weight in its heft and cumber. I always felt the subtle, although noticeable, pull on my wrist at all times. And forget wearing a heavy jacket alongside the Nubia Watch. It'll uncomfortably press into the sides of your wrists, even with the slightly movement of your arm.

And one more thing: Imperial and metric rulers are inscribed along the sides of the Nubia Watch. As someone who constantly measures lengths, these were a surprisingly useful addition.

Cellular Compatibility: What's an eSIM?

eSIM technology is a card-free standard for connecting a modem-equipped device to mobile networks. Because the standard doesn't need a bulky SIM card, it's ideal for tiny devices, like smartwatches.

Unfortunately, my cellular provider isn't compatible with eSIM technology, so I couldn't test this feature. Be sure to check your own network before purchasing if this is a

Setting Up and Using the Nubia Watch

setting up the nubia watch

The Nubia Watch's setup and configuration are easy compared to Wear OS.

Setting Up the Nubia Watch

Before doing anything, first fully charge the watch. The Nubia Watch uses a standard Micro-USB, pogo-pin charging cradle. To Nubia's credit, the charging cradle uses a modular port, meaning you can swap out cables in case one breaks.

nubia watch connected to charging cradle

Setup and configuration are easy. Install the Nubia Wear app, also available on iOS. (Please note that despite its name, the Nubia Watch doesn't use Google's wearable operating, Wear OS.)

After installing the app, a guided setup process launches. You'll use your phone camera to pair via QR code to the watch. Then the Nubia Wear app requests a variety of permissions. After you've completed the setup process, the watch is ready for use.

Using the Nubia Watch's Gesture Controls

The Nubia Watch, like all smart watches, can turn its display on all-day long. It also includes gesture control for toggling the screen off and on. To turn the screen on, you bring your arm up while twisting, as if to check the time. Switching the screen off just requires making a pinching motion on the screen. The screen-off gesture is unique among smartwatches, and makes excellent use of the gigantic, flexible OLED display.

Unfortunately, the Nubia Watch lacks screen-off gesture control. Which means you have to turn the screen on in order to skip audio tracks or raise the volume. However, because the screen can automatically turn on in response to gestures, you won't have to hit the power button to operate it.

What Does the Nubia Watch Do? And What Doesn't It Do?

nubia watch in profile

The Nubia Watch does everything a dumb-phone can do, such as make and receive calls and text messages. You can also listen to downloaded music if you've paired the watch to Bluetooth earbuds. But here's the kicker: you can also run basic fitness apps, which can track workouts, from weight lifting to jogging. It's not generating the level of data or detail found in a FitBit or Apple Watch. But it's not worthless, either.

No App Store of Any Kind

The biggest problem with the Nubia Watch is it doesn't include any app store. That means there's no WhatsApp, Telegram, or Facebook. And that makes it useless for 90% of the people out there. Had it used an operating system like Android or KaiOS, it would have had access to a large app ecosystem. As it stands, it's little more than a nice-looking burner phone.

Mediocre Water and Dust Resistance

Don't take the Nubia Watch to the beach. Its flexible screen and moving parts guarantee weak protection against environmental hazards.

Another weak point is its Ingress Protection (IP) rating of IP54. A 5-4 rating means it's not fully dust sealed and it's only water resistant against splashes but not complete submersion in water. In other words, this isn't the smartwatch to take with you to the beach or swimming pool. Compared to the Apple Watch or even most Wear OS Android smartwatches, it's significantly less resistant to moisture and particulate matter. Don't wear it to construction sites, either. That bad dust rating means it can get damaged if it's dropped in something like sand.

You Won't Take It Hiking, Either

I also enjoy hiking and having a smart device on your wrist is incredibly convenient. While Wear OS (formerly known as Android Wear) offers a smattering of decent navigation utilities, there's nothing remotely similar on the Nubia Watch.

Aside from a simple compass app, there are no ways to get directions, even with a paired smartphone. Also, turning on GPS in an area with flaky wireless signals is likely to cause tremendous amounts of battery drain. While on a hike in the mountains, the Nubia Watch's GPS reduced battery life to an hour.

Battery Life Analysis

Left idle, the watch loses about a quarter of its battery life overnight, with all features turned on. While in active use, it loses about half its battery life in a 24-hour period. However, the battery life varied throughout the test period. In one instance, it lost a full charge overnight.

I rate the battery endurance at around two days. That's about twice as long compared to a Wear OS smartwatch, if all the features are turned on.

I imagine that with all features turned off, and the device left idle, it would get Nubia's estimated seven days of battery life. But who leaves their smartwatch idle for seven days? Overall, by Wear OS standards, it's great. But the high bar set by FitBit (three to four days) and the Apple Watch (18 hours), it's average. Even so, it'll probably last longer than your phone.

The Nubia Watch's Apps

nubia watch demonstrating barrage app

The Nubia Watch suffers from a lack of apps. Nubia claims it'll add notifications support for social media apps, such as WhatsApp and Facebook. At present, though, I received no notifications for any apps. Instead, there's only support for the following:

  • Phone and text messages
  • Workout tracking
  • Health tracking
  • Manual heart-rate tracking
  • "Barrage"
  • A compass
  • A calendar plug-in
  • A phone locator
  • A music playing app
  • Search phone

With the exception of Barrage, all of the apps are self explanatory. Barrage is a visual effect app with four different animated sequences, ranging from a Matrix-themed vertical text ticker to a pulsating music-themed marquee. Clearly, this feature is aimed at a younger, club-going audience. While I'm not a part of this group, the Barrage app offers a level of visual splendor unheard of in the wearables world.

All of the features work as you would expect, with one exception: Search phone. This app either was incompatible with my smartphone or it's broken.

Health and Fitness Tracking

nubia watch exercise tracking information

The workout tracking falls far short of its rivals. More to the point, it lacks automatic exercise detection as well as advanced sleep-tracking metrics.

Mediocre Sleep Tracking

nubia watch sleep tracking comparison to fitbit

Its sleep tracking provides limited, and inaccurate, metrics. On top of that, it only measures two sleep states: REM and light. One interesting point: the Nubia Watch's sleep metrics claim to track deep and light sleep. However, when the watch's metrics are compared to a FitBit for the same period, it appears to not confuse deep sleep and REM sleep.

Aside from the misidentification of sleep states, the watch otherwise seems accurate. However, as deep sleep is one of the two biggest contributors to overall fitness, its omission destroys half its utility.

Phone and SMS

It's also worth mentioning that the Nubia Watch includes full phone functionality. Unfortunately, I could not test this feature as my cellular service provider doesn't offer eSIM compatibility.

Music Playback During Activities

nubia watch playing music

The baked-in music player works with most music formats, although it won't read ALAC-formatted audio files. However, it did work with the other major file-types that I tried, including MP3, AAC, and FLAC formats. While ALAC isn't the most common, or important format out there, it may be that other exotic file-types aren't compatible either.

Storage Drive Analysis

Of the 8GB storage drive onboard the Nubia Watch, 4.2GB are available to the user. That's room for approximately 1,000 songs. The quality of the storage is decent and it likely uses a standard eMMC flash storage module. (What's an eMMC storage drive?)

I transferred exactly 1GB of files to and from the smartwatch. Writing files to the Nubia Watch took 87-seconds or one minute and 27 seconds. That's a speed of roughly 11.5 megabytes per second, which means it's transferring files slightly faster than a generic USB 2.0 flash drive.

Reading files, or transferring exactly 1GB of files to a tethered computer, took approximately 50 seconds, giving it a transfer speed of 20MB per second. Overall, the eMMC storage drive used in the Nubia Watch is of good quality.

Unreliable Connectivity

nubia watch network disconnected

On top of a lack of apps, the Nubia Watch has a few bugs. At the top of the list, it frequently loses connection to your paired smartphone. Additionally, I couldn't transfer files to it over Bluetooth.

No Streaming Anything, But It Plays Transferred Music Files

The Nubia Watch, unfortunately, won't stream podcasts or audiobooks, because of a lack of app integration. But you can manually transfer photos or audio files from a USB-connection. It feels barebones compared to the more luxurious experience of an Apple Watch. But even so, it gets the job done.

Is the Nubia Watch Worth Buying?

Should you buy a limited-function, $219-dollar flexible-display smartwatch with call-and-text capabilities? While the Apple Watch comes loaded with apps, it's also expensive. While most smartwatches can do a lot more than just make calls and look good, they also don't look as gorgeous and futuristic as the Nubia Watch.

For anyone who wants to go smartphone free, and can't afford an Apple or Samsung smartwatch, the Nubia Watch is the best looking and most-futuristic eye-candy for the wrist ever made. If you can get over its many weaknesses, it's a well-constructed, attention-grabbing work of art. But for anyone interested in fitness tracking, there are far better and more accurate smartwatches on the market.

Me as a Reviewer of Fitness Gadgets

I've been a fanatical user of fitness wearables since 2014, having gone hands-on with most major brands at conventions or through review units, including the original Nubia Alpha Watch in Berlin, Germany.

In pre-viral times, like most tech-loving gym rats, I analyzed every jog and weight-lifting session with fitness trackers. In the post-viral era, the gym closures led to me learning how to workout from home. Without exercise machines, I do mostly pilates, resistance-band sessions, and the rare hike. But even given my limited workout routines, the Nubia Watch just didn't meet my needs.