This New Wearable Is A 4-Inch Flexible Handset On Your Wrist

There is been a lot of discussions in the past year about the various form factors of machines (tablets, laptops, and smartphones) steadily converging in due course. We have seen Apple and Google attempt to make the tablet a practical replacement for laptop with the Pixel Slate and iPad Pro, and now Huawei and Samsung are combining the tablet and smartphone with their foldable handsets, the Mate X and Galaxy Fold, respectively.

Less common is the concept of employing flexible screens to bring together the form factors of the smartphone and the smartwatch. But that is exactly what Nubia has conducted with the Nubia Alpha, a wearable with tons of the features of a regular handset. We saw it showcased at IFA last year in a non-touchable capacity, and now at MWC 2019 we have lastly had an opportunity to strap it on our hands and test it properly.

At the core of ambitious efforts by Nubia to redefine the wearable is its flexible OLED screen. Even though the display is only 4 Inches in size, it seems a lot bigger due to its ultra-wide aspect ratio. The screen has a 960 x 192 resolution, which by our measurements leads to an aspect ratio of 45:9 or 5:1.

On a related note, earlier the worldwide shipments wearables increased 21.7% in last quarter, as per a report by IDC (industry research firm). But that development took place in areas outside the U.S. since the country’s expansion dropped 0.4%. This indicated a split in consumer appetites as different markets turned out to be saturated, the report claimed. And that has resulted in an upset in the rankings. Apple held the top position in number of wearables exported all over the world in last quarter. But in quarter three, Xiaomi overtook Apple by more than 2 Million gadgets.