WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:04.360 Every generation or so, someone reinvents the computer. 00:00:04.360 --> 00:00:06.140 In the late 70s and early 80s, 00:00:06.140 --> 00:00:08.480 they got small enough to fit on a desk. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:11.720 By the 90s, we could fit them in our laps. 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:13.360 And for the last 11 years, 00:00:13.360 --> 00:00:15.700 the dominant personal computers have been the ones 00:00:15.700 --> 00:00:18.720 that we all carry around in our pockets, 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:21.440 which I guess means we're kind of overdue for a change, 00:00:21.440 --> 00:00:22.280 yeah? 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.000 Introducing the Nubia Alpha, 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:29.880 the wrist phone with a giant, flexible OLED display 00:00:29.880 --> 00:00:33.060 that wraps around your wrist. 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.140 This might be the worst product 00:00:35.140 --> 00:00:37.780 that I have ever fallen in love with. 00:00:37.780 --> 00:00:39.580 And let me tell you why. 00:00:39.580 --> 00:00:44.360 Voting on the builds.gg stock cooling showdown is open. 00:00:44.360 --> 00:00:46.620 So head over to the two contest pages, 00:00:46.620 --> 00:00:48.460 vote for your favorite entered builds, 00:00:48.460 --> 00:00:50.800 and earn ballots towards a random draw 00:00:50.800 --> 00:00:52.320 for awesome hardware prizes. 00:00:52.320 --> 00:01:02.090 We're gonna have that linked below. 00:01:02.090 --> 00:01:04.490 Let's begin with the promotional materials, shall we? 00:01:04.490 --> 00:01:07.750 What does Nubia imagine that the Alpha is? 00:01:07.750 --> 00:01:11.850 Okay, we got a clock theme going on here. 00:01:11.850 --> 00:01:14.670 This guy's talking on the phone. 00:01:14.670 --> 00:01:16.950 Ooh, so many functions. 00:01:16.950 --> 00:01:20.310 Thanks to the larger screen and wow, video chat. 00:01:20.310 --> 00:01:21.650 Ho ho! 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:23.770 So that looks pretty good. 00:01:23.770 --> 00:01:25.590 And you know what? 00:01:25.590 --> 00:01:28.420 I don't even think they're that far off. 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:31.840 Flexible displays have been a long time coming. 00:01:31.840 --> 00:01:33.580 And now that they're finally reaching 00:01:33.580 --> 00:01:35.320 the point of commercialization, 00:01:35.320 --> 00:01:38.120 I really think that they're one of the best hopes 00:01:38.120 --> 00:01:39.400 for wearable technology 00:01:39.400 --> 00:01:42.480 to really take off, because if you think about it, 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:46.420 up until now, the vast majority of smart wearables 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:50.740 have been limited to the same sizes and configurations 00:01:50.740 --> 00:01:54.160 of the previous dumb wearables, like watches and glasses, 00:01:54.160 --> 00:01:55.580 because they're made of fundamentally 00:01:55.580 --> 00:01:58.720 the same metal and glass materials. 00:01:58.720 --> 00:02:00.820 So that puts restrictions on their designs 00:02:00.820 --> 00:02:03.580 that can affect everything from their battery life 00:02:03.580 --> 00:02:06.040 to their screen size, and even the ways 00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:08.120 that we can interface with them. 00:02:08.120 --> 00:02:11.180 So it's this last one that I'm gonna address first 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:12.020 on the Alpha. 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:13.860 So right now, I'm enabling a feature 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:16.400 that they call Alpha Gesture. 00:02:16.400 --> 00:02:19.140 What it essentially does is allow you to navigate 00:02:19.140 --> 00:02:20.940 through the functions and menus 00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:23.620 without actually touching the screen. 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:27.380 So it's similar to some of the hand wavy controls 00:02:27.380 --> 00:02:30.210 that are present on some cars, 00:02:30.210 --> 00:02:32.830 except that it's implemented on a device 00:02:32.830 --> 00:02:35.810 that by its very definition is always close enough 00:02:35.810 --> 00:02:37.730 that you could easily reach out 00:02:37.730 --> 00:02:38.350 and touch it. 00:02:38.350 --> 00:02:40.730 So I'm gonna go ahead and turn that off. 00:02:40.730 --> 00:02:43.170 And also, it didn't work consistently at all. 00:02:43.170 --> 00:02:45.070 With it enabled, sometimes I'd touch it, 00:02:45.070 --> 00:02:46.930 and then it would actually activate twice, 00:02:46.930 --> 00:02:50.870 once for the touch and once for the Alpha Gesture. 00:02:50.870 --> 00:02:53.070 For now, the thing that I like about it 00:02:53.070 --> 00:02:55.410 is that it's a preview of what's to come 00:02:55.410 --> 00:02:58.930 with like holographic displays that you can wear 00:02:58.930 --> 00:03:02.610 on your wrist and interact with in 3D space. 00:03:02.610 --> 00:03:04.460 That's gonna be pretty cool. 00:03:04.460 --> 00:03:06.620 Now I wanna talk about the size. 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:07.600 So, yeah. 00:03:08.380 --> 00:03:10.200 It still goes on your wrist 00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:12.440 like a regular watch or a smartwatch, 00:03:12.440 --> 00:03:14.240 but there were a handful of things 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:16.520 that immediately stood out to me, 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:20.600 starting with how much information 00:03:20.600 --> 00:03:22.920 could be present on the screen at one time. 00:03:22.920 --> 00:03:26.900 Now, at four inches and quite narrow, 00:03:26.900 --> 00:03:30.640 the screen is not exactly panoramic, 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:34.140 but it's way bigger than any other smartwatch 00:03:34.140 --> 00:03:35.480 that I've ever used. 00:03:35.480 --> 00:03:37.760 And unlike a desktop monitor 00:03:37.760 --> 00:03:40.520 where I've yet to find a super wide display 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:41.640 that I don't like, 00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:44.600 this is an application where more height 00:03:44.600 --> 00:03:47.080 actually kind of makes more sense to me. 00:03:47.080 --> 00:03:50.080 So, if a text or an email were to come in, 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:53.800 I don't necessarily need a bunch of extraneous space 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:54.760 on the side. 00:03:54.760 --> 00:03:57.720 I wanna have as much of the content as possible 00:03:57.720 --> 00:03:59.740 right in my field of view, 00:03:59.740 --> 00:04:02.860 and a longer display lets me read the average text 00:04:02.860 --> 00:04:06.280 or even a short email without any scrolling required. 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:07.680 Or, I mean, at least it would have, 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:09.740 if this thing managed to stay paired to my phone 00:04:09.740 --> 00:04:12.200 for longer than a couple of hours at a time. 00:04:12.200 --> 00:04:15.620 But that shortfall actually reminds me 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:18.200 of another thing I like about the interface. 00:04:18.200 --> 00:04:19.580 When I first put it on, 00:04:19.580 --> 00:04:22.720 I was trying to see something at the top of the display, 00:04:22.720 --> 00:04:24.840 and I found myself thinking, 00:04:24.840 --> 00:04:29.640 oh, gee, this is really not very comfortable. 00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:34.280 But you can actually adjust certain UI elements up or down 00:04:34.280 --> 00:04:37.360 depending on what's most ergonomic for you. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.080 I can kind of imagine a future then 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:44.380 where my wraparound display is like positionally aware, 00:04:44.380 --> 00:04:46.160 and if I'm, you know, sitting at a desk, 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:56.240 it could throw a discreet little notification up 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:58.360 where only I can see it. 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:01.500 I mean, that would be perfect for checking your text 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:04.420 during a bad date or something like that. 00:05:04.420 --> 00:05:05.940 Now, in its current form, 00:05:05.940 --> 00:05:11.550 the, oh, shut up, Brandon. 00:05:11.550 --> 00:05:12.850 Now, in its current form, 00:05:12.850 --> 00:05:15.570 the Alpha falls well short of this mark, 00:05:15.570 --> 00:05:17.110 having no awareness of its position, 00:05:17.110 --> 00:05:21.010 and space other than detecting usually 00:05:21.010 --> 00:05:23.230 my check the time gesture 00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:25.730 and mostly forgetting where I left things 00:05:25.730 --> 00:05:28.570 and not even allowing some key UI elements 00:05:28.570 --> 00:05:31.670 to be moved around like entering Wi-Fi passwords. 00:05:31.670 --> 00:05:35.120 So this is again, something that I can kind of see 00:05:35.120 --> 00:05:36.360 where they're going with, 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:38.500 even if the experience isn't there now. 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:40.120 On the top of the experience, 00:05:40.120 --> 00:05:41.980 the experience of wearing the Alpha 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:44.800 is really something that's gonna depend heavily on the user. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:46.580 So it can be easily resized 00:05:46.580 --> 00:05:50.340 by removing links from either both or one side. 00:05:50.340 --> 00:05:53.140 It was a touch big on me even at its smallest size though. 00:05:53.140 --> 00:05:54.700 So that's something to be aware of. 00:05:54.700 --> 00:05:57.000 And it's a little on the bulky side, 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.500 but still lower profile than other multifunction smartwatches 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:02.180 that I've worn daily in the past, 00:06:02.180 --> 00:06:03.680 like the Casio ProTrek. 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:05.240 And I didn't have any trouble getting sleeves 00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:06.620 on and off around it. 00:06:06.620 --> 00:06:08.580 Now the always on display functionality, 00:06:08.580 --> 00:06:12.340 I'm always harping on smartwatches that don't have it. 00:06:12.340 --> 00:06:14.500 Well, it's not enabled at this time, 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:16.500 but while it is still useful, 00:06:16.500 --> 00:06:19.620 using an older Snapdragon 2100 processor, 00:06:19.620 --> 00:06:20.900 not very power efficient, 00:06:20.900 --> 00:06:22.340 I do actually believe them 00:06:22.340 --> 00:06:25.020 when they say they will turn that back on in the future. 00:06:25.020 --> 00:06:27.280 Since after one really buggy day, 00:06:27.280 --> 00:06:29.260 when it died in like four hours, 00:06:29.260 --> 00:06:30.900 I've actually regularly gotten 00:06:30.900 --> 00:06:34.400 more than a day's worth of battery out of the Alpha. 00:06:34.400 --> 00:06:36.380 The standout thing for me about wearing it 00:06:36.380 --> 00:06:39.280 is definitely its value as a conversation starter. 00:06:39.280 --> 00:06:41.540 Thanks to its large wraparound screen, 00:06:41.540 --> 00:06:42.840 it's an attention grabber 00:06:42.840 --> 00:06:46.460 that looks more like a cool prop out of a sci-fi movie 00:06:46.460 --> 00:06:49.060 than something that you can actually go to a store 00:06:49.060 --> 00:06:50.640 and buy today. 00:06:50.640 --> 00:06:53.230 Personally, I love it. 00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:55.070 I think it looks super cool, 00:06:55.070 --> 00:06:58.130 but I've had others, even here on staff, 00:06:58.130 --> 00:07:00.370 where we're all admittedly a bunch of nerds, 00:07:00.370 --> 00:07:03.090 suggest that giving these to high school kids 00:07:03.090 --> 00:07:06.010 would cause teen pregnancy rates to plummet. 00:07:06.010 --> 00:07:08.470 I'm pretty sure that if 30% of high schoolers 00:07:08.470 --> 00:07:10.230 were wearing that, 00:07:10.230 --> 00:07:13.430 you would have teen pregnancy just plummet. 00:07:13.430 --> 00:07:14.610 Haters gonna hate, I guess, 00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:16.490 but I think the future really is, 00:07:16.870 --> 00:07:19.190 the Alpha has a lot of potential 00:07:19.190 --> 00:07:23.370 in terms of having these large wearable screens like this one, 00:07:23.370 --> 00:07:27.150 and the key word here is future. 00:07:27.150 --> 00:07:29.310 The Alpha does not do a great job 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:32.610 of using its large screen real estate overall. 00:07:32.610 --> 00:07:35.610 The default watch face dedicates a shocking amount of space 00:07:35.610 --> 00:07:39.390 to function toggles with the bottom occupied 00:07:39.390 --> 00:07:41.790 by some recent apps that frankly, 00:07:41.790 --> 00:07:44.190 I think are just as easy to access 00:07:44.190 --> 00:07:46.770 by simply swiping to the side, 00:07:46.770 --> 00:07:51.630 few there are but the thing is that's hardly even the biggest problem with the 00:07:51.630 --> 00:07:56.370 Alpha. You'll find that right in the name. I can only guess they called it the 00:07:56.370 --> 00:08:00.090 Alpha because it hadn't got to the point where they were comfortable calling it 00:08:00.090 --> 00:08:05.030 Beta yet. The vibration motor is among the worst I've encountered this decade 00:08:05.030 --> 00:08:08.850 making it feel more like it's trying to escape from your wrist than Apple's 00:08:08.850 --> 00:08:13.550 tight purposeful haptic feedback. Multiple notifications from a single app 00:08:13.550 --> 00:08:18.110 aside from just piling on and making that noise you heard earlier will in 00:08:18.110 --> 00:08:22.530 some cases actually remove the first notification. So if someone sends you a 00:08:22.530 --> 00:08:26.830 joke in Hangouts followed by lol or an emoji or something you'll actually have 00:08:26.830 --> 00:08:30.710 to pull out your phone to find out what was so darn funny. There's no way at this 00:08:30.710 --> 00:08:35.570 time to handle media control for third-party apps so you can copy music 00:08:35.570 --> 00:08:39.930 files over to your watch and listen to them directly from there over like 00:08:39.930 --> 00:08:43.450 Bluetooth headphones but that's it. 00:08:43.450 --> 00:08:43.510 you 00:08:43.550 --> 00:08:48.670 the ringtone cannot be adjusted a feature that's been a given for a couple 00:08:48.670 --> 00:08:53.150 of decades now it's got this whole entire part of the interface that's 00:08:53.150 --> 00:08:58.570 dedicated to all these exercises that can track free workout and heart rate 00:08:58.570 --> 00:09:04.290 and outdoor running and all that stuff but with this glitch that registered my 00:09:04.290 --> 00:09:08.750 daily steps that negative 60,000 I don't know how seriously I'm gonna be taking 00:09:08.750 --> 00:09:13.450 any of that and finally while I'm nitpicking the camera kind of sucks 00:09:13.450 --> 00:09:13.510 you 00:09:13.550 --> 00:09:18.920 but newbie is justification for it existing at all is video chat there's 00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:27.320 only one small problem how is this more ergonomic than this I mean if they're 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:32.560 pitching this with eSIM support in China currently as a full-on replacement for a 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:38.340 phone I think the point is there is clearly a lot of work to do but I do see 00:09:38.340 --> 00:09:44.600 the vision with WeChat Alipay and a few other key apps someone with full support 00:09:44.600 --> 00:09:50.300 in China could take calls pay for their groceries and navigate around town 00:09:50.300 --> 00:09:55.460 without ever needing to take a phone out it's just that the experiences far too 00:09:55.460 --> 00:09:59.800 buggy to be ready for primetime in fact if I had a dollar for every time I saw 00:09:59.800 --> 00:10:04.200 this crash message over the last couple of weeks I could probably just buy 00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:09.510 myself a cheap phone but I guess that's the nature of the beast with these first 00:10:09.510 --> 00:10:13.830 concept that somehow made its way to a store shelf type products and even if I'm 00:10:13.830 --> 00:10:14.690 not gonna be daily driving to the store in this case I'm gonna be driving in a 00:10:14.690 --> 00:10:16.310 driving this thing anytime soon, 00:10:16.310 --> 00:10:18.670 I'm really glad that Nubia sent it over to me 00:10:18.670 --> 00:10:21.910 because it was certainly worth having the experience. 00:10:21.910 --> 00:10:24.610 The Massdrop Koss Porta Pro X headphones 00:10:24.610 --> 00:10:28.890 are actually based on the original 1984 Koss design. 00:10:28.890 --> 00:10:31.630 They've been updated to make them more modern and durable, 00:10:31.630 --> 00:10:33.890 but they're portable, they're on-ear, 00:10:33.890 --> 00:10:36.170 and they can be folded up in different configurations 00:10:36.170 --> 00:10:37.430 for easy storage. 00:10:37.430 --> 00:10:39.730 They feature oxygen-free copper voice coils 00:10:39.730 --> 00:10:41.890 that provide a wide frequency response 00:10:41.890 --> 00:10:43.670 and warm and smooth sound. 00:10:43.670 --> 00:10:45.630 The single-button control lets you skip tracks, 00:10:45.630 --> 00:10:47.850 make calls, and activate voice commands, 00:10:47.850 --> 00:10:49.470 and they've got a noise-canceling mic 00:10:49.470 --> 00:10:51.130 with Koss's lifetime warranty. 00:10:51.130 --> 00:10:52.490 So why don't you join the drop today 00:10:52.490 --> 00:10:54.860 at the link in the video description? 00:10:54.860 --> 00:10:56.340 So thanks for watching, guys. 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:58.500 If this video sucked, you know what to do, 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:00.540 but if it was awesome, get subscribed, 00:11:00.540 --> 00:11:02.440 hit that like button, or check out the link 00:11:02.440 --> 00:11:03.860 to where to buy the stuff we featured 00:11:03.860 --> 00:11:05.320 in the video description. 00:11:05.320 --> 00:11:06.560 Also down there is our merch store, 00:11:06.560 --> 00:11:09.900 which has cool shirts like, aw, Rip T-Bow. 00:11:09.900 --> 00:11:12.580 It's got cool shirts and our community forum, 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:13.780 which you should totally join. 00:11:13.800 --> 00:11:14.640 We'll see you next time.