Sick of smart watches that are round, sleek, or good looking? You’ll want the Neptune Pine then, which is absolutely massive, and blessed with a face only a mother could love. The Pine started life as a Kickstarter campaign, which was successfully funded, and the device has just started shipping to backers. This coincides with pre-orders going live for those who missed out on the crowd-funding opportunity.
While we mock its size, the Neptune Pine is actually a bit of a tech marvel. It’s a complete smartphone on your wrist, and can do everything from make and receive calls, or take photos with a front and rear camera, to run regular apps downloaded from the Google Play store. What’s more, to make life easier when using the on-screen QWERTY keyboard, the entire face panel can be removed from the strap.
Related: We tried out the Neptune Pine at CES, read about it here
It’s a crazy device, then, and you’ll have to be prepared to pay a considerable amount if you want to own one. The 16GB version is $350, and if you want to double the internal storage space to 32GB, then you’ll have to pay $450. Just to put those prices into perspective, HTC’s Desire 816 – a 5.5-inch, quad-core smartphone which was also announced this week – costs $300 without a contract.
What about the Neptune Pine’s specs? The screen measures 2.6-inches and has a 320 x 480 pixel resolution, while a Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor runs the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. The main camera has 5 megapixels, while the secondary camera has a VGA resolution, and there’s a host of connectivity options including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS.
If you decide a watch phone is the way to go, pre-ordering the Pine now should see you receive it before the end of the year. Standalone smart watches have been capturing headlines recently, thanks to Timex’s fitness-focused Ironman One GPS+, and the rumors we could see a watch phone from Samsung, known as the Gear Solo, at the IFA tech show in Berlin next month.
