Most smart watches we have seen so far depend on your smartphone to supply all the main computing power. Neptune Duo, from Canadian inventor Simon Tian, reverses the roles, making the smartphone subordinate to the smart watch. It’s an interesting inversion that you can now pre-order at Neptune’s official site.
Neptune Duo is the sequel product to last year’s Neptune Pine smart watch, which was the result of Simon Tian's Kickstarter project that amassed over $800,000. The Pine got rid of the smartphone completely, but the Duo, true to its name, uses a larger smartphone-like screen in tandem with a smart watch that houses all the processing power.
The watch portion, or the Hub, sports a quad-core processor, support for 3G and 4G, Bluetooth and NFC. It runs Android Lollipop on its 2.4-inch screen, so you can carry your Angry Birds and Candy Crush obsessions with you on your wrist. The Hub tethers to the Pocket, or the “dumb phone” in this case. It features a 5-inch screen with a 720p display and a 2800mAh battery. All it does is act as an interface for the Hub.
“It’s not very smart,” the official website states. “It doesn’t need to be.”
Together, the devices can make calls, send messages, track fitness stats including heart rate and keep you updated on the goings-on of your social networks.
Neptune Duo also emphasizes security, assuming the Pocket is the one that gets stolen or misplaced, and not the Hub bracelet. Pocket screens are interchangeable, so you can borrow one or just get a new one if you forget or lose it, and all apps and files are stored on the Hub. The Pocket can also act as an emergency battery pack for the Hub. Neptune promises “a few days of normal usage on a single charge” according to the official site.
Neptune expects to start shipping Duo by the end of 2015, but you can reserve it now with a variety of payment options available. You can choose to pre-order with no money down and pay $798 at the time of shipping, or put $49 down so the price at shipping drops to $649, saving you $100. Furthermore, you can save $200 if you pay $199 upfront and then $399 when it ships. Finally, you can put down $498 now and pay nothing more, saving yourself $300.
