The Pebble Time vs. Pebble Watch

[em_te]

The Pebble Time vs. Pebble Watch

 

The Pebble Time is an evolutionary improvement to the Pebble Watch. It addition to the unchanged 1.25 inch e-paper display, 7 days of battery life, 3 axis gyroscope and magnetometer, it now includes a new chassis, a 64 color display, and a microphone.

 

 
The Chassis
 
The old Pebble Watch's chassis looked like a children's toy that was designed to look futuristic- in a cartoonish way. I would wear it at home and on weekends, but anything work related I would hide it from sight.
 
The Pebble Time is a completely different song. It now sports a chic stainless steel bezel surrounding the front of the watch with a convex surface and rounded corners. The sides of the stainless steel bezel have a shine like the chamfered edges of the iPhone 5. Below the bezel is the (black, white or red) polycarbonate body which is rounded at every edge and corner and the back is curved inwards to match the curvature of your wrist.

 

 
It

[HawkMan]

The original didn't actually use an e-paper display, even though it was sort of called that an offered about the same battery time. just ftr. 

[em_te]

The original didn't actually use an e-paper display, even though it was sort of called that an offered about the same battery time. just ftr. 

 

But according to iFixIt it uses an e-paper display?

 

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Pebble+Teardown/13319#s45410

[Brandon H Supervisor]

very nice little review

 

I can't wait to get my Kickstarter Time Steal in the mail next month

[tsupersonic]

You got yours already? I should have mine hopefully soon.

[akctechdoc]

The Verge didn't have a very positive review about the Pebble Time. They did like the battery life, though

[HawkMan]

But according to iFixIt it uses an e-paper display?

 

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Pebble+Teardown/13319#s45410

 

*shrug*  they may call it that but, it's actually some kind of regular LCD. 

 

in fact it's specifically this kind of LCD http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/1-26-inch-memory-lcd.html

 

Also they're using confusion by calling it e-paper which doesn't reference any kind of display technology, but most would assume "oh, it's got E-ink display". it's a good display but it's not e-ink and doesn't have quite all the advantages of e-ink. 

[HawkMan]

The Verge didn't have a very positive review about the Pebble Time. They did like the battery life, though

 

The Verge wasn't overjoyed by something without an i in front... I'm shocked, I really am...

[tsupersonic]

I've had mine for a week now. I got the shipment notification last Friday, saying it was going to arrive that day, so that was a surprise. This is my first true smart watch, so it's an interesting device. I've had the Basis B1 as my past device, but that was more of a fitness device than a smart watch. Here are my pros/cons of the Pebble Time: 

 

Pros:

• Notifications on your wrist. Probably the best purpose of a smart watch. You never have to listen to notifications/ring tones again. 
• Battery life. I'm getting 3.5-4 days on a full charge. Also, great magnetic charging mechanism.
• Apps/support - the community is filled with nice watchfaces & apps, more than I imagined it would be
• Voice dictation works well for responding to text messages. 

Cons:

• Music player only works for GPM, not the stock music player/app. 
• Pebble Time app on Android is very slow.
• Watchfaces: Some of the watchfaces are configurable, but there is no standard options screen...
• Price and functionality.

While I enjoy getting new gadgets, my initial conclusion of owning a smart watch is correct, for me. There is still no good use case for a smart watch, and no company has made a compelling reason for owning one (not even Apple). The best feature is having the ability to receive notifications/calls on your wrist. It's nice not having to look at your phone for notifications, and I also noticed I would have about 5-10% more battery life left on my phone at the end of the day. There are some nice apps available, but again, nothing that really excites/"gotta have."

 

Bottom line, if you love gadgets, get this device. Otherwise, I would save your money and stick w/ your smartphone. 

[thefonz]

My kickstarter backed black time should arrive TOMORROW so very excited!!