Lenovo NBD new glass C100, the latest project of Lenovo’s New Business Development Platform, is arguably one of the most anticipated device yet in the fast-growing wearable computing market in China. Lenovo NBD has sent out the test hardware to only a limited number of testers, and the one unit for me just arrived.
If you haven’t heard of Lenovo NBD before, well, it stands for New Bench in Chinese, and specified as New Business Development(NBD) in English. It is a new internet-centric business platform in China aimed at startups, providing a vehicle where partner startups can leverage Lenovo’s resources such as software, hardware, sales channels and services utilizing their own innovative technologies and leading-edge concepts in product development. This collaboration is an example of a win-win outcome from sharing resources and can drive the development of more powerful smart devices for customers. The first wave of three innovative smart devices under NBD has already been launched last October, namely the new glass smart glasses, the new air smart air cleaner and the newifi smart router.
Unboxing
The unit we have received has very fascinating packaging. It ships in an expensive wooden box which, according to Lenovo, costs more than RMB100 ($16) to make. The reason that Lenovo invested so much in the packaging is that our unit is a collector’s edition, the retail version’s packaging will certainly differ.
You could easily find the Lenovo NBD logo on the wooden box. There is no sign of the all familiar Lenovo logo on anywhere of the packaging, so it’s clear that the products from the NBD Platform are marketed separately from Lenovo’s well-known PC and smartphone lines.
Opening the new glass packaging feels like opening a drawer, as there are two slide guides on the two side of the box, we simply need to push the cap away.
Everything inside the packaging has been well arranged and carefully fixed into the openings in a black foam.
Here are everything contained in the beautiful packaging, including a charger (5V-1A), a data/charging cable (Micro USB plug), a headphone with a single earbud, three clamps which help you fix the new glass onto your own glasses or sunglasses, a plastic frame, and the main body of the new glass itself.
The 5V-1A charger included by Lenovo NBD can easily be replaced by most of the smartphone chargers, which is good considering that you don’t always have to carry a separate charger for the glass and that any mobile charger can come in handy when the device runs short of juice.
Instead of a cylindrical cord, the USB cord ships with the new glass is wide and flat, making it really easy to wind up and less likely to get tangled. I’d really like to see more of these with other products such as smartphones and tablets.
A red headphone with a single earbud is also included. The good news is that it looks fashionable and aligned with the design language of the new glass, the bad news is that you might never want to use it because of its lack of quality and stereo effects. Fortunately it can easily be replaced by any pair of headphones, both my Monster Inspiration on-ear headphone and my Astrotec IEMs work like a charm with the new glass.
The plastic frame is designed mainly for non-shortsighted users, with two rubber nosepads affixed to attach to the bridge of your nose. Here I do feel the need to lament Lenovo’s choice of material, a more durable titanium frame would have made much more sense for a cutting-edge product like the new glass.
However, if you are short-sighted and don’t like using contact lenses, you can easily fix the main body of the new glass onto the frame of your own pair of glasses with one or two of these clamps.
Now let’s take a look at the main body of new glass. It consists of two major parts: a large battery pack that is designed to sit around the back of the wearer’s neck, and a main unit which is supposed to sit on the right-hand arm of the users’ glasses. With a small acrylic prism on the front, the main unit houses 1GB RAM, a 1.2GHz OMAP4460 dual-core processor, WiFi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth, GPS, 16GB of total flash, and more. The two major parts are connected with a red fixed cable.
On the front of the unit is an angled reflector which receives the projected light, and bends it towards the users’ right eye, allowing them to view the new glass display in all its glory. Lenovo NBD likened the display to viewing a 25-inch HD television from 2 meters away and it’s a claim I wouldn’t refute. The new glass display has a resolution of 800*480, and with all things considered, it looks phenomenal.
An 8 megapixel camera also sits on the front of the unit, next to a small light sensor. The camera could take pictures up to the resolution of 2592*1944, and record 1080P videos. Although it might not match the snappers on those high-end smartphones in terms of the quality of the photos, it is decent enough and certainly gives the 5MP camera on the Google Glass a run for its money.
Taking a photo is accomplished by single pressing the camera button on the top side of the unit. Pressing and holding that button, the new glass will start recording videos. The side facing the human face plays host to an earpiece for phone calls and voice assistant, and a proximity sensor.
On the back of the unit is a very well-designed touch panel, which makes it easy for you to use all the features of the new glass. Swiping sideways you can switch to the left or right page, swiping down then you will go back to the last screen. You can use voice commands as well, but they won’t be as easy or as accurate as the touch operations.
The battery pack design, now patented by Lenovo, is one of the major differences from the Google Glass. It may look like a blind fold, but it is constructed to sit around the back of your neck.
The bottom side of the pack hosts a Micro USB port for charging and data transmission, the opening is protected by a rubber lid which keeps the battery pack from dust and steam.
On the top side you will find a 3.5mm audio jack and the pinhole from which the fixed cable that connects the pack to the unit comes through.
The Power/Standby Key sits on the tip of the left arm of the battery pack. I personally hate the design as the button is too small and not always easy to press, besides, it is also not as clicky as we would have liked.
The battery pack is made of environmentally friendly material that is harmless to the human skin. And the area where the pack makes direct contact to the skin is made from thermal insulation material and curved in a way to keep your skin from the heat produced by the battery.
The clamps can help you easily fix the unit of the new glass onto your own pair of glasses.
Both my GUNNAR computer eyeglasses and my Bally sunglasses can conveniently host the new glass with the help of those clamps.
You can also use the standard frame from the packaging if you are not short-sighted or prefer going out with contact lenses.
First impressions
This is what the new glass looks like when you wear it with the standard frame around your head. There is no denying that the device is striking and head-turning, and easily gets you a lot of attention if you wear it in the street. Some may love how it looks, others may hate it, but either way it is undeniably striking.
I remember posting this selfie on my Wechat Moments (similar to Instagram) and got hundreds of comments below in only a couple of hours, asking me what the new glass is and what I can do with it. So there’s no doubt that the new glass will attract lots of attentions for the wearers.
As a first generation product, the new glass doesn’t have an equally rich software ecosystem as the Google Glass, nor does it have as many features. The functions of the new glass are still pretty limited, we only have 5 preinstalled applications: Still Camera, Video Camera, Messaging, Navigation and Voice Assistant. I went out and took some photos with the 8 mega-pixel camera and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by its performance, auto-focus was fast, image production was fast. There were sometimes over or under-exposed pictures, but the overall performance was really really good. Let’s take a look at some of the snaps:
The functions of the voice assistant are very amateur, definitely no match for what Google Now or Siri is capable of. It only supports Chinese language at the moment, and may support other languages in the near future. Navigation worked as designed, useful, but far from perfect. As the new glass is currently running the earliest firmware, we assume that most of the functions will soon be improved by OTA upgrade.
A more detailed review of the Lenovo NBD new glass C100 will be posted here in a few days, please tell us what you think about the device and what you want to know.
