At PAX Prime 2015 you may recall my excitement over the Nabu X and Nabu by Razer. I do have to say I retain my excitement for the Nabu X!
Unfortunately I can't say the same for the 2015 Nabu. When I received it, I was so excited. Even though it was not officially compatible with the iPhone 4s it ran beautifully, with only an occasional app crash, and missed bluetooth communication. It was easily forgivable in those rare moments and was invaluable for those short stints when I needed to get up from my desk. Not to mention the alarm on it made waking up a little easier and less disturbing for my husband. Despite my love of the device's features, my elation wouldn't last long.
I received my original Nabu mid October of 2015. I should mention I'm very gentle on my devices, but 3 months later, in January, the one moving piece came out, the button used to turn off the alarm, go through notifications, confirm pairings, etc. I tried to reseat it, but it was still loose and eventually stopped responding, and then fell out, never to be seen again.
I contacted Razer for an exchange, and while some of the policy seemed like a bit of overkill, they were very efficient and the exchange was completed with a new Nabu just when January was over. Kudos to Razer customer service for that.
I paired up the new Nabu, and with each update it became less and less compatible with the 4s, Recently though, my 4s had an unfortunate encounter with a washing machine (in the 4 years I've had it I had no idea what an amazing sponge it could be). With that, I was forced to update my phone and after an ordeal with a cartoonist long winded salesperson, I came home with a new iPhone 6s.
I downloaded the Nabu app onto the new phone and was immediately soothed by its stability. Unfortunately once I had the Nabu paired in bluetooth and was attempting to pair it to communicate with the app, the Nabu (which was fully charged) went black and unresponsive. No matter what I did the result was the same. No response, nothing. Time of Death 3:47PM 2/14/2016. Maybe it was just griefstricken by the 4s, I don't know (and no this thing has never touched water, not even a drizzle outside).
What I do know is that if I have gone through 2 of the same device in less than 3 months it is time to give up. While I keep my enthusiasm for the Nabu X, for now I can only praise the idea of the Nabu. I'm hoping for a more durable future incarnation.
