HMD Rubber Smart Bands Leaked
For a long time, I’ve been asking folks at HMD to bring us a Nokia smartwatch—something simple that covers the basics: heart rate tracking, step counting, maybe even SpO2 readings, and a good notification system. But instead of that, the Nokia brand was gradually phased out of the market.
Now, it seems HMD may have been quietly working on something close to what I hoped for. According to a leak from @smashx_60, HMD might be preparing to launch a smart band or smartwatch. I was genuinely excited—until I spotted a camera on the leaked spec list.
That’s when it clicked: HMD recently partnered with Xplora, a company known for making some of the best kids’ smartwatches. So, my hopes of a minimalist adult smartwatch were dashed again.
Here are the leaked specs for the upcoming devices, reportedly called HMD Rubber:
HMD RUBBER 1
- 1.85″ OLED display
- 5ATM water resistance
- Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, NFC
- Accelerometer, heart rate, SpO₂ sensors
- 2 MP camera
- Wear OS
- 400 mAh battery
- USB-C charging, Qi wireless charging
HMD RUBBER 1S
- 1.07″ OLED display
- 5ATM water resistance
- Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi
- Accelerometer, heart rate, SpO₂ sensors
- Wear OS
- 290 mAh battery
- USB-C charging, Qi wireless charging
All in all, there’s definitely a market for wearables like these—especially with HMD’s Better Phone Project, which encourages kids to engage more with the real world, like their parents did. Still, it’s hard not to see these as expensive toys for helicopter parents who want to keep constant tabs on their kids’ location.
On top of that, the use of Wear OS almost guarantees mediocre battery life, which has been a longstanding issue with most devices running that platform.
We’ll see how well the Rubber series does—there’s potential, but also a risk of repeating old mistakes.
