Wearables are all the rage these days. Both smartwatches and true wireless earbuds can be found on people’s wrists and ears wherever you go. But what if you could combine the two into one seamless device? That’s what Wristbuds aims to accomplish with its Kickstarter campaign. Wristbuds was created in Shenzhen, China because of a need to make “active life on the go easier than ever.” By making the smartwatch house the wireless earbuds, you’ll not only have tighter integration between the two, but also ensure that your buds are always within reach.
Why Choose One When You Could Have Both?
The trickiest part to making this product come to life was figuring out how to cram earbuds inside a portable smartwatch. To solve this, Wristbuds’ creators came up with a 90-degree rotating design for the earbuds that make them more portable. The wings of the earbuds can rotate so they’re either ready to be placed in your ears or stored within the smartwatch. The manufacturer assures that they’ll fit perfectly at any angle despite the use of extra parts for the transformation. To everyone’s delight, the earbuds can charge while inside the smartwatch. When you want to listen to your music or podcasts, you simply have to open the watch’s face and remove the earbuds. Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity handles all the necessary pairing. The Wristbuds own 4GB of storage, so you can upload tracks onto it. This keeps you from having to carry your smartphone with you during jogs and other outdoor activities. However, the company notes that you must pay an additional $30 to upgrade to Wristbuds “Pro” for the MP3 functionality to work. Wrisbuds’ makers promise “uncompromising audio quality” on their earbuds with the help of graphene-backed drivers and integrated cVc noise cancelation. You can also control your playlists using taps on the side of either earbud.
But How Smart is the Smartwatch?
Although the earbuds seem promising on paper, the question remains: How much can the smartwatch do? The Kickstarter page doesn’t mention the wearable’s operating system; instead, it only says that it’s compatible with Android and iOS devices. This leads to speculation that the interface is basic for modern smartwatch standards. It’ll offer metrics for blood pressure, heart rate, calories burned, step count, and the like, but won’t allow you to install any more apps. Its screen is 1.14 inches in size and has a TFT color panel. It’ll only come in black for now, and provide a battery life of four days with constant use. One hour is all it takes to bring it back to a hundred percent. There are two early bird prices to choose from — $59 and $79 — but the former is already sold out as of writing. If you can’t nab the latter, the standard price of $99 is always available. Shipping is planned for April 2020 if everything pans out. While Kickstarter campaigns are always a risky investment for backers, this particular product is doing exceedingly well. In only one day, Wristbuds already surpassed its goal of $5,000.
