While smartwatches appear to be moving away from being mere wrist-worn smartphones, ZTE spinoff Nubia goes in the opposite direction with the Nubia-a, a flexible screen device the company describes as a "wearable smartphone."

The Nubia-a looks like one of those delightful oddities the darker corners of IFA tend to house, even if it is the brainchild of a proven smartphone maker. Directly inspired by science fiction movie props, it claims to put all smartphone functions on the wrist, thanks to a proprietary Flex display wrapped halfway around a chunky wristband.

Nubia does not detail the size or resolution of the Nubia-a, nor does it tell much about hardware in general. What we know is that it runs on a modified version of Android, features 4G connectivity and does most things both smartphones and smartwatches can, including fitness tracking, contact-free payments and even video calls, thanks to a bulbous camera module found one side of the device.

The company did not let the press touch the prototype on display at IFA, even if it insists the Nubia-a will hit the market on Q4 2018. As such, we will know soon enough whether it is an actual product or yet another case of unrealised trade show vaporware.

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