I had one of these before I received my Galaxy Gear S3 Frontier. It is slightly larger than the S3 and, in a strange design decision, does not seem to be able to sync time through the attached phone. So in order to change time zones you either have to sync via GPS or do it manually. Since I travel a lot, I returned the watch for the S3. Battery life is far superior on the Fenix 3 HR and I do miss that.
Ya, which is kind of a kick in the dick for folks who backed it, since it was supposed to be shipped to them this month, I believe. They had to have known for months that there was no way they were going to meet that deadline.
The initial promise was November but Pebble always missed those dates so no one really expected them until this month at the earliest. The real dick kick is that as recently as their late October update they were talking about final revisions to test units and sending the Time 2 off for mass production. Like you said… by then they knew.
I feel better about getting a refund after they updated their last communication, at least:
[quote]3PM PST Update on refund timing:
Kickstarter will process refunds for all eligible pledges within one week. Please note that it may take ten business days for the refund to appear on a backer’s credit or debit card statement. In the event that the initial refund attempt is unsuccessful, steps will be taken to ensure all refunds are successfully processed. Once a refund is successfully processed, backers will receive an email from Kickstarter notifying them of the amount of the refund and the payment source refunded.[/quote]
If that’s the case I have no idea why they initially said March.
Yea the Garmins have some ideosyncracies that will drive you crazy if you’re not used to them. The Altimeter runs off barametric pressure unless you manually turn on the GPS, so as time passes it becomes more and more inaccurate. Planes are hilarious here - although I did get it to work on a plane. I guess the flying cigars aren’t as thick as you’d expect.
Essentially the Barometric pressure is altitutide dependent but the altimeter runs off barometric pressure unless you turn the GPS on, so it creates a weird feedback loop that will drive the AB increasingly inaccurate.
OTOH it only take a minute to sync the GPS in a new time zone, so nbd for time changes. Just set the altimeter to GPS out of the airport. Which you’ll need to do anyway because the altimeter will be whacked coming off the plane.
The Garmin you mentioned does look nice, but it’s a bit too bulky for me I think, and my tiny software engineer wrists. I am a delicate flower.
Also, it’s like $600, isn’t it? Kind of pricey.
Yea, it’s huge on me too. But that’s sort of the look now - and women seem to implicitly think that guys can wear these awkward metal slabs in a way they can’t, so it looks nice to them.
The main appeal to me was that it lasted like a weekwith HR on so you can wear it all day long and in bed. And is waterproof. And has sapphire face. And can do all sorts of crazy additional things with widgets like tide information. Along with the the workout stuff. The HR monitor was within a couple of beats compared to the ER monitor when I broke my arm this summer.
But not cheap, no.
Yea, I really liked the watch. It appears to use some sort of droid OS hybrid. The battery life is fantastic and better than I expected (not as good as my Pebble Time, but not far off). It’s very rugged. Amazon had them on sale for $499 and I purchased one since the Gear S3 were sold out. It is just a tad too large to fit under the sleeves of my dress shirts and the time sync issue took me hours to figure out. I just want the watch to sit on my arm and tell me stuff, hehe.
You lose a lot of the nice Garmin data analyzing tools for workouts, etc. with the Gear S3 and you are closed within the Samsung Gear Health world. So no MyFitnessPal or Fitbit meaningful integration is built in. Fortunately there is an app that will import data from my Fitbit scale into S Health. Garmin is well integrated with MyFitnessPal, etc.
Yeah, I know what you mean, but it’s not my style. I’ve always worn Seikos for this particular reason, as they are generally much smaller than most other mens’ watches.
It’s one reason why I have the Zenwatch currently, because it was one of the slimmest smartwatches at the time.
The Garmin’s nice though. I don’t think I really need crap like an altimeter, but meh.
Really though, the Time 2 seemed like the ideal watch for me.
I’m currently eyeing the Ticwatch 2, the major compromises appear to be battery life and physical buttons. Need to do some more research but I’m in love with that design. My biggest concern is that it’s another custom OS.
Got my $179 refund email from Kickstarter – credit going back to my card.
Now, whether to keep my Pebble Time Steel or not…
Why wouldn’t you keep the Steel?
Been trying out the Apple Watch S2 Nike edition. Mixed feelings about it, and was debating going back to the Pebble Time Steel because it’s always on and I like the notifications better, plus battery life.
But I like playing 2048 on my wrist, too. :) So if I decide to stay with the Apple watch, might as well sell the Time Steel to a Pebble user who wants a backup, to move up to the Time Steel, etc.
Oh, cool. No snark intended here, I just didn’t realize you were that on the fence with the Apple Watch.
I mourn for pebble. In January I bought a Pebble Classic for cheap just to find out if there is any use to it. I so got used to it. It is a real watch I don’t have to charge any other day, I control mp3s with it, google maps gives directions on my Pebble via NavMe, all these basic things. I was looking forward to a Pebble Time 2. When I heard of the sellout, I bought a Time Steel. I know that at some point I could regret it (depending on when cloud services stop) but until then I have a good watch with the functions I got used to in a more suitable design.
Here’s an articel about the Pebble founder: https://backchannel.com/the-real-story-behind-pebbles-demise-303802a7afaa#.kuccq2scg
Still have the Apple? Wife is considering it. Any thoughts on the functionality for cycling? From some googling it looks limited but I’ve also seen something about the Strava app working well.
Yep, I still have the Apple watch. Was annoyed to have to bring the charging cable on a 4-day trip to Chicago. I almost reinstalled the Pebble app, as I still have my Time Steel, but I knew I would be walking a ton and I wanted to keep all the exercise stuff aggregated together and consistent. Overall, it’s an okay device. I like the screen quality better than my Pebble, but I hate that you have to tap or move it to see the time. Battery life sucks, but at least gen 2 is waterproof. Despite the wealth of apps, I still use it for 95% for notifications and exercise tracking. About the only thing I find it does better than my Pebble did is responding to texts.
Alas, haven’t ridden a bike since high school so don’t have any experience with the cycling support. :( Sorry!
I’ve been kind of tempted to get a Gear S3, but it still seems like the iteration where smart watches “get real” is just around the corner. The Pebble Time 2 was supposed to be that, but then shruggie.
The Gear S3 is cool, but the battery life is still kind of bad, the thing is still a bit too chunky, and the custom OS it’s running seems like a dumb idea.
One thing that really bugs me about all the watches, is that it’s difficult to really grasp their size from pictures, as all the manufacturers intentionally angle the watch in the images to hide the real thickness.
So my Microsoft Band 2 fell apart, just after the 1-year warranty. Apparently they all did, like mine. Some people online reported 4-5 replacements, after which Microsoft just refunded the original purchase price. Amazon stopped replacing them, also choosing to refund the purchase price.
Did a design flaw in the strap sink Microsoft’s entire smartwatch and health division?
Anyway, my credit card actually approved a replacement at cost as I had extended warranty on it. Any suggestions? Fitbit seems meh these days…
Garmin and Fitbit are the only contenders left.
Get one of the new (smaller) Garmin Felix 5s to be a baller, some kinda Fitbit to be a dad, or a Apple Watch to be one of those kinds.
Seriously Garmin is only excellent on the high end, but it will do way more than you need, while Fitbit has a lock on the 100-200$
For me my main desires - GPS tracking sans phone while running and heart rate monitor - only the Apple Watch 2 and Garmin are contenders, but the Apple Watch 2 doesn’t have near the battery life of the Garmin.