Review: Pebble Smartwatch (Video)

There are plenty of naysayers that prefer a touchscreen interface or a color display or more apps from Pebble.  Then again, there are plenty of consumers out there who love them just the way they are – sans their huge Kickstarter following.

So who exactly is the Pebble smartwatch for?  We break it down and provide the answer for you below.

The company decided not to go for a super-extravagant look w/ a bunch of bells + whistles.  Instead they went for the clean and subtle look to it.  Pebble made sure to coat the watch w/ a scratch-resistant face that’s 5 ATM water-resistant which means it will be fine up to 50 meters (165 feet), uses a MagSafe-like cable for charging, and has a total of 4 buttons.   It ships w/ a rubber 22mm band but if you want something a bit more to your liking, you swap it for any band that fit that measurement.  All together giving the Pebble a minimal yet everyday-wear approach to a smartwatch.

Handling the screen side of things, they decided to go w/ a 1.26inch LCD (E-Paper-like) display w/ 114 x 168 resolution. Which sounds a little mediocre on paper but after spending a few hours wearing it, you can better appreciate it.  If you’re thinking the e-ink experience from Kindles + Nooks – this isn’t the same.  Being a smaller scale, it works a hell of lot better without that E-Ink-silly-flash-before-changing-screens experience.  In sunlight, everything is visible.  Not completely but more than enough. I would love to see the next-gen Pebble utilize Qualcomm’s Mirasol display used on the Toq.  Just wishful thinking.

Suggested battery life says around 5 to 7 days before needing a charge.  I get a lot of notifications on a daily basis – between Hangout chats/video chats, texts, emails, and phone calls.  I got about over 3 days of usage before I got the 20% low battery alert.  Interestingly enough, there is no battery status that stays on your screen just an low-battery alert or you can visit Settings for battery life stats.  So you can go on about your life not worrying about it – until it lets you know about it.

Pebble uses its own proprietary OS as you navigate through watchfaces,  notifications, alarms, music player, and settings to cycle from.  Like I said previously, the Pebble is NOT a touchscreen smartwatch.  So you have to use the buttons for everything.  You have 3 buttons on the right-hand side and the one button on the left-hand side is like the Home/Power button.  If you haven’t demoed it yet, stop the sighing.  It works great.  I am curious to see what would a touchscreen Pebble would look like though.

Having recently announced the Pebble Appstore for both Android and iOS, managing apps + watchfaces got a whole lot easier.  While their appstore isn’t as robust as the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store yet having over 1,000 apps, there are still some compelling apps within.  You have apps for tracking packages, note-taking, ESPN sports scores, mapping/GPS apps, Foursquare + Yelp support, control your Nest thermostat, pay for your drinks at Starbucks, and play games like Asteroids, Tetris, Connect Four, and more.  Its a great way to expand on Pebble’s functionality.

 

The Pebble, at its pure form displays your notifications, control your music, and phone’s alarm.  The Pebble is truly an extension of your smartphone.  As basic as that sounds, it works very well.  Being out a year later and having already demoed the Galaxy Gear, I honestly wasn’t too thrilled to give it a try after hearing several opinions about it.  But after the 1st few hours of wearing it, I got it.  I works and works well.  I won’t lie, I’d love for it to do more.  But I will miss wearing it when it goes back as nothing beats screening your calls from your wrist.

If you are interested in jumping into the smartwatch market, I would easily suggest the Pebble over its competitors.  The others are just too expensive and have too many negatives against them.  Now you have to choose between the Pebble or the Pebble Steel.