Pebble and other smartwatches: Info at a glance!

I don’t mind the v1 bezel. I wish they’d make one that is more solid/protective/antishock/stylish like the Casio Baby-G/G-Shock line. $150 or less to tinker with early adopter tech is worth it for me. Not any higher like that massive ripoff $400 Galaxy Gear though.

Anyone have experience with the Martian smartwatches? I was looking for a smartwatch in the next few months but I need a professional looking watch I can wear to formal client meetings and so forth. It looks like Martian and Pebble have the only two realistic options for me so I was trying to figure out pros and cons.

So after ordering the watch last night, I woke up this morning with some second thoughts. Mainly, what kind of a battery drain is having bluetooth on all day on your phone? I’m currently running a Galaxy Note and like most Android phones, the battery performance is pretty shit. I’m barely making it through the day as it is. Is bluetooth going to kill my phone by 2 oclock in the afternoon?

Nope. It’s hard for me to say how much difference Bluetooth makes as I wear my watch every day. But Pebble supports Bluetooth 4.0 which is meant to be very energy efficient. I have a Nexus 5, not a Galaxy Note. So I can’t compare directly. But I have no trouble getting through the day at all. Bluetooth doesn’t appear in the list of my battery usage stats (wi-fi is in at 4%). But I don’t know whether that’s because it’s a very low consumption entry or because it’s hidden behind system.

As for the Pebble, it happily goes through its 5-7 days announced battery life (I tend to charge it every 5-6 days, when I remember).

Wendelius

Just switched from my HTC EVO OG…er, 4G to an iPhone 5s. I’m happy to see that the Pebble works much better than previous reports now that they’ve tied it into Notification Center (a little too well, I have to turn all notification but badges off to keep them from being sent to the watch). But I really miss the Augmented Smartwatch Pro app, especially its ability to send canned response texts directly from the Pebble to the last person who called. Anybody know of an iOS app that does something similar?

If you Jailbreak, the Cydia version of SmartWatch+ can reply.

The Verge has reviewed the Pebble Steel and likes it.

Video review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP9q8Ws6e2o

Article: http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/28/5354016/pebble-steel-review

If my original Pebble ever dies, it’s likely I’ll replace it with a Steel. The notifications on my watch have just become a part of my everyday life and something I don’t want to give up anymore.

Wendelius

Got my black Steel yesterday and am liking it. Very nice looking watch. It looks like Smartwatch+ can add some cool features, but is hampered by iOS killing it as a background task after awhile. Even without that, the built in functionality/watchfaces are pretty cool.

Silicone wristband is eating my flesh.

New Pebble Time. 20% slimmer. New OS/GUI paradigm. Color e-ink. 1 week battery life.

Will sell at $199, but you can get in at $179 + $10 S&H, because they’re launching it on Kickstarter. Already blew past its goal in the first hour.

I got in at the early bird special of $159 + $10 S&H, but it will probably sell out by the time you read this.

Jesus, it is as ugly as ever.

Early bird special is gone.

When I first logged on, it was at about 5,000 left. They sold out about 20 minutes later.

My RMAed Pebble has developed the same horizontal line problem after a couple of months: http://forums.getpebble.com/discussion/2134/display-issues-contact-support-from-the-pebble-app

I thought they figured out the aesthetics issue already with Steel. The Pebble Steel is reasonably attractive, though I’d rather it was round like my LG R or the Moto 360. The Time isn’t as ugly as the original Pebble, but the big plastic bezel is definitely a step back.

I’m still thinking about it. I love the display of my LG-R, but don’t like that it’s nearly impossible to read in sunlight. One reason I kept telling myself that I didn’t want a Pebble Steel was that color faces add a surprising amount to the attractiveness of the watch.

New Pebble Time:
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Steel:

Oh, and an unrelated note: this is the first watch I’ve seen from anyone that makes it easy to change the band. I’ve changed my LG-R band twice recently, twice because the first band I purchased turned out to be too big even with all the removable links deleted. Spring bars are a PITA. How is it that watches haven’t had a built-in pin to depress the springbar before now?

I actually like the new look.

Missed the discount. Put in an order in case I decide to go ahead so I can get in the queue, as I love everything about my Pebble except the Fitness tracking apps. But still trying to decide between Pebble Time, MS Band, and Apple Watch. Honestly, if the Pebble had better apps, I wouldn’t even consider the Apple Watch.

I’m more tempted by this than I expected, but not quite enough to Kickstart it. Also, looks like the Kickstarter is capped, every reward tier is limited and at this rate it will basically sell out of the single Pebble rewards by the end of the day. I wonder if they’ll open up more, or if that’s limited by what they can produce.

If I recall correctly, they had some issues with the original Pebble kickstarter because of the sheer volume. I expect that they’re limiting it both for production reasons, and also to put a cap on how much money they need to fork over to Kickstarter. I notice they seem to be doing credit cards only, no Amazon Payments, unless I missed something.

I love my Pebble Steel, especially the look of it. Trading it in for one of these would be a downgrade in my opinion. A color screen isn’t worth wearing what looks like a children’s watch.