Photo by Yarina Yao
Photo by Yarina Yao
Photo by Yarina Yao
The Nex Band
Wearable technology is now almost taking over the fashion world. Just a regular piece of jewelry does not satisfy people anymore. We need something more creative and “smart”! Recently I found a new wearable tech might blow your mind. It’s a brand new concept of customizable light patterns can notify you about almost everything that is including social media messages, weather report, sports news or friends nearby! The Nex Band made it happened!
A little history of the Nex Band:
Nex is a fictional product. Well, at least it used to be. The original concept for Nex came years back when the multiple Emmy-Award winning co-founders were developing a fictitious fantasy story world called The Mighty Maru. The story is set in a world of dwindling resources and a swelling disparity in income. Out of rebellion, a group of kids band together and form a secret society with the goal of making positive change in the world.
In the end, the society members become vigilantes and are forced into hiding. And the only way they are able to identify, communicate, or disrupt the world with magic is through an enchanted bracelet. Many felt passionate about the story, more so for the bracelet- “can you create that real magical bracelet and have it do all of those things it does in the story?”.
It was then that they decided to make this imaginary prop a reality. Since 2012, Nex has been awarded a patent, built partnerships ranging from IoT to jewelry, and has received numerous awards including Engadget’s Reader’s Choice Award and the CES Innovation Award. They have an offbeat story and now, they have a very creative wearable.
It’s certainly a very good idea that a band on your wrists that can notify you things and control your other smart devices. It’s super fun but is it useful in reality? Let’s test it now.
Review-Style
Photo by Yarina Yao
Photo by Yarina Yao
As a fashion blogger and Youtuber, I, of course, care about the style very much. Sometimes it’s the main reason that let me decide if I want to purchase the products or not. Meanwhile as a wearable tech lover, I, of course, own an Apple Watch and a Fitbit wristband. They are like in the middle zone in between stylish and nerdy(no offensive, I think nerds are sexy sometimes).
But the real reason that the Nex Band caught my eyes are the five sensitive touching “mods” which Apple Watch and Fitbit don’t have. Each mod reflects different LED light colors when you touch them, and you can set up the colors up to 50ish options. The interesting point I am trying to say is it’s like you are playing a mini piano keyboard on your wrist. It’s just kind of cool to style it in any of your outfits. I have an All-in-black one just because personally I like black all the time. Also black is the safe color you can match it with everything.
Review-Function
All about that lights
If you pay attention to what I mentioned in the last paragraph, you should already get a sense of what I am talking about. Well yes, the LED lights are not just for good looking but actually are different patterns for different notifications. Download the Nex app first and connect it with your band via Bluetooth. Then you are good to go to explore. Open the app and find the little bell setting icon on the top left, click it and you will see a page of notification options. There are some basic apps default setting are already on for example Phone, Messages, Mail, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Let’s say when you get a comment on Instagram, and the band will play a certain pattern that you can customize it and vibrate for about 3 seconds to inform you that you get a comment. But if you click the little plus icon on the top right, you will see you can add any apps you have on your phone to get notifications. Such as Vogue news(I am a fashion people yes), NBA news(I am a big fan of Stephen Curry! GO, WARRIORS!), weather alerts(Always forget to bring an umbrella), airline alerts(Always late my bad) or Spotify new songs updating(Big fan of Armin)! Of course, you can all set up the light in your way.
Photo by Yarina Yao
Photo by Yarina Yao
Photo by Yarina Yao
Photo by Yarina Yao
Because of tons of notification options I get from the band, it definitely helps me manage my life on the track. Plus playing with the different colors is also fun to bring to the concerts or festivals. If you click the Light Patterns icon in the app, you will see Party patterns which has Smooth, Trance and Flash 3 options. When you click each of them, the pattern will light up on your band up to 3 minutes! No need to buy extra LED bracelets on Amazon now. Save the money for good.
The Party Patterns feature.
Hack your life
Besides of notifications, the Nex Band can also do a lot of interesting things that can simplify your life. As a social media lover, the selfie is everything! Right? That’s like my whole life! But sometimes I need some good videos with full frame, or the whole body looks to shoot my #ootd, even with a tripod, I still need to click the shoot button since taking videos doesn’t have a 3 or 10 seconds delay on the cell phone. Thank God The Nex band just did a big favor for me! In the app when you click the icon next to the home icon, you will see the hacks page. Here is where all the magic happens. By clicking Create a new hack, you can add a hack to one segment of your band which means you will tap the particular mod you choose to control the hack you are going to create. After that, you will see a page says When + Do. That’s how you create hacks. You can choose either double tap or long press to activate your hack. Then when you click Do, you will see 14 different icons on the left bar. They are all different hacks that you can mix and match. Just play around. By scrolling down the bar, you will find a camera icon. This one is the hack you can add it to your band for camera control. When you successfully add the hack, now you can officially shoot hands-free videos! Meanwhile, you can also zoom in and out by just tapping different mods. How amazing it is! Same thing you can also add a hack to control music as well as a hack to track your steps. Workout time! Or party time! You said so.
Photo by Yarina
Another fun hack you can add is the IFTTT trigger. Yes, the Nex is currently partnering with IFTTT. Not only does Nex offer users unique functions and inherent experiences, but with the IFTTT platform, Nex use cases are extended to include the hundreds of different recipes that the IFTTT platform already makes available. One hack I have in my band now is the Fake Phone Call. It’s the perfect one to save you from any awkward situation. By just connecting with your IFTTT account and then easily turn on the applet. You will get a fake phone call with personally customized messages. Boom! Save you from a bad date right?!
This opens up a whole world of possibilities. You can use your Nex band to control your smart home, create notes in Office and Evernote, keep track of hashtags on Twitter, post things on Facebook and a host of other things.
Review-Price
There are two colors available now in black and white. Black one has the black metal frame, and the white one has the gold metal frame. You can get one for $79.99. So far for the Nex community, some hacks like Light up, Giphy or Poke Me only limited to people who have the Nex Bands. Let’s say if you have one, but none of your friends has, then some hacks are just useless for now. Also for the fitness lovers, it doesn’t have a heart rate monitor which probably isn’t the perfect choice. One more thing it’s not a watch. But I have to say compared with a $300 Apple Watch or a $140 Fitbit wristband, the Nex Band is a lot cheaper as a wearable. A lot but can also do a lot of things! As The Nex Band are constantly updating and adding new features, the band will be more and more worth to buy.
Photo by Yarina Yao
The Nex Band
Part of reviews are curated from Wareable