Nice review. I gave my Pebble Time to my father after learning that Fitbit was going to pull support for it. My father still uses it and it has outlasted 2 replacement smartwatches (Amazfit with similar screen tech and LG G Watch Style). I'm looking to buy a Pebble Time Steel and switch to the Rebble OS.
After searching for numerous solutions I eventually realized my best course of action would be to buy a 4-year-old gently used watch from a now-defunct company rather than buy any of the lackluster mediocre products on the market now or try to make my own watch. Btw I looked around for which pebble is best and it seems that it would be a time-steel. I believe the time-round isn't waterproof so that wouldn't be a very good option and I wanted something with a little bit more features than the classic or original time.
@@pompshuffle562 I eventually bought a hybrid smart watch: the Zetime from MyKronoz. I bought it used. Now the sensors hardly work. The Bluetooth connection is wonky. But it looks good. I probably should have gone with the Pebble Time Steel
@@mortimerlivan557 That's unfortunate, it is kinda sad how little advancement in the smartwatch race that 4 year old pebbles are the best option for people. At one point I saw that one of the goals of rebble was to allow for brand new watches designed like the pebble and running rebble os. That would interesting but I'm not sure it will actually happen or if it would be able to compete with the mainstream smartwatches. Who knows? Maybe someday they will take the world be storm again and force high-end and budget smart watches to innovate.
Great review. Nice thinking. I had the moto 360 and bought the original Pebble for my young daughter. However, once I understood the Pebble, I ended up keeping it for myself. Then, before two weeks were up I ordered the time steel. As you pointed out, Pebble is a focussed product, designed to function and serve. Pebble seem to have nailed it, but people don't buy good things, but prefer shiny shiny bling. So I fear for Pebble.
Great review. I love my Pebble Time. I have ordered a Pebble time round to try out and I am selling my Moto 360. Simplicity, battery life and screen always on are what sets it apart for me.
+Light Bulb I use pebble health on my Pebble Time Round everyday to track my steps at work and I can easily get 2 days of battery out of it. That is including me using the health tracking watch faces as well.
For me the watch is a real saver when I am at work. When I get a text message a simple glance at the wrist. Since I wear bt headset, if I do get a call I can see who is calling and answer it without pulling my phone out of my pocket. I love my Pebble.!!!
For Android phone users, go ahead to grab a PT or PTS or PTR. For iOS users, actually due to the some API limitation from Apple, the newly added Mic is almost useless. The old Pebble Steel is a wise choice (both on price and outlook).
Just found out that there is a new web service (Rebble web service) that is bringing the pebble online services back since the official ones were shut down in June 2018.
Very interesting review, expecially to understand how this product aged. I have a pebble classic and some android wear devices and a thing I love about AW is the ability to send whatsapp messages (not replies) talking to the smartwatch. I am trying to understand if newest pebble time firmware (3.9) would allow me to do the same
+Paolo Ranzanici Pebble just added a feature with 3.9 where you can send SMS messages (not replies) talking to your smartwatch, but I haven't seen that working with whatsapp yet. I guess either whatsapp would have to develop a pebble app themselves, or someone would have to create a third party app. Dunno if whatsapp has released APIs for their service though. I checked the pebble store, but I haven't found any app like that yet, so I suppose it's not possible yet
That bezel, though. Ugh. Tiny screen like that original Asus netbook (Asus Eee PC from 2007 ;). Didn't Fitbit buy them out? I'm guessing this is the last we'll see of them. Pity, because they were innovative, and inexpensive.
So bad that it is no more in the market. It is the perfect watch for daily life. Fun, beautiful, accurate and cheap. A lost dream. Fitbit got out with is ionic using pebble technology but it’s the usual crap: expensive, short-standing battery, ugly, boring.. whatever. I bought a Honor band 3 finally.
I would get it as a no brainer, but Apple has to put restrictions to disable voice reply. (That's really why I want it) I only have the Apple Watch as my choice right now..
Please read if you're thinking of buying one: I was really disappointed with my Pebble Time Steel. The battery life was good, but not as good as I expected. I had difficulty downloading apps and watchfaces, and sometimes it simply wouldn't connect with my phone. Finally it wouldn't open Twitter notifications (ever) on my phone. Technical support is tedious to deal with, with the only way to contact them being through email and the responses I got were not very helpful. I returned mine and am more than happy with my 2nd Gen Moto 360 now.
+BananaBread TwentyFive That's weird. Not discrediting your experience, but I never had any of those issues myself. I haven't had to contact support yet other than for a delayed watchband, but they were quite helpful with shipping me a new one. At least you have found what you were looking for then :)
I'm not really up to date with what happened with Pebble, but from what I understand they ceased production on all product and dropped support on all their current products. Is this true? Or am I'm I just wrongly informed? If this is really what happened, would you still recommend buying the Pebble Time Steel? I'm just so in love with the animations 😅
They aren't making watches anymore, the company is gone. However, they released an app update that unlocks the ecosystem, and the development environment is open and out there. People will be able to continue development of apps and watchfaces. I'm buying up a few more Pebbles while they're still available (and cheap!)
I think it would be excellent for GPS nav so you don't need your watch out, but you can see distance to the next turn and is the turn to right or left. Could you recommend the app for that function. I would use it on my motorcycle with my phone tucked safely away from rain or possible crash.
Since you're now rocking a Windows phone, have you checked out the Vector watch? They have two models (Luna & Meridian). The Vector Watch doesn't provide every function that the Pebble does (e.g. no mic) but it offers 30(!) days of battery life and oficial Windows support with a W10m app. :)
hi, i bought new Iphone XR and since then my Pebble Time steel dont have faces to download. No technical support to call or customer service. Please help.
+Jack Rhodes it's not just calendar appointments thankfully. A lot of apps also push things to the timeline, like Health pushes your steps and sleep for the past days there, weather gives you forecasts and sunrise/sunset times, and you can dictate notes that appear in your timeline too. I think it would still need more apps to take advantage of it, but I do like it quite a lot when it works
Great video! Just got mines 3 weeks ago and using it on my Blackberry Passport and loving it. Had to download a few apps to make it work. Had to choose which app I wanted to use on a daily basis but it doesn't allow me to send a voice reply. No problem there for me. I will be purchasing an android phone to get the full benefits of the watch. Also I purchased a milanese band for it and it looks great. The band that comes with the watch is nice but gets dirty so fast.
Awesome review man. I love my pebble time steel. The battery life is amazing and being in an environment where it's a must to wear gloves, the pebble out performs every other smartwatch.
Enjoyed your video. I bought a Zenwatch 2 for myself and my channel so I could try Android Wear again. As an experiment I'm back to Pebble Time Steel for this month. I'm enjoying using it again but for me the voice dictation is laughably bad compared to Wear. I know some folks find it the opposite! Love your intro and outro by the way.
+Richard Harkness I don't actually use dictation all that much as I'm in China where everyone uses wechat, which isn't compatible with dictation sadly :( Thanks, my girlfriend actually got me the logo, haha
Agree on all counts. Also, I love this 'return to the item after some significant use' idea for review videos. Good call! I DID wind up getting a replacement watch band for my Time Steel because, like yourself, I didn't want to wear a leather band in the shower etc. Works great. My only objection/complaint is that I have a number of scratches on the bezel which show that the 'black' (dark grey) is only a layer of paint. That sees like poor construction to me. Still, for the same reasons you mention in the video, I love this watch, and would be frustrated with any of its competitors.
+Matt Lichtenwalner yeah, it seems strange to me that they didn't spend a bit more time on making sure that it won't scratch this easily, but I guess each product has to compromise on something :P
lookslikeitisme Given the lower cost, I can live with it, but I agree. It seems annoying. Thanks again for creating a video review that isn't "I've had it for five minutes and here's what I think..."
Hi TechAltar, great review man. The Bluetooth function of the watch is always on ? Or it has a feature that you can on/off the Bluetooth function ? Thank you
Excelent, thanks. I still keep my first edition pebble from kickstarter, for all the same reasons. I think the reason other makers don't try to match this is because they only make their money from getting it to wear out fast or be so crappy that people will keep buying a newer one just to make it useable!
+abdul-wahab hawsawi Yeah, support for special characters seems to be a general issue with the Pebble. Good thing you found out before you made your purchase. I would imagine that they will add support for it later though, maybe with the next generation
lookslikeitisme yeah, because pebble is one of the best at the market. There's an app called YaNc notifications which claims to support Arabic and some other languages, but I'm not sure about it. I'll wait for the next gen of pebble watches.
Is this product still worth it? It is on Amazon for about $80 and that is all i would be willing to spend on a smartwatch. Are there better options within the price range or is this still my best bet?
IMO it's still a good watch. I have a Pebble and just ordered a Time steel. The things that always made the Pebble good, focus and battery life, are still true and no other watch matches those even today.
+MagicGamer28 Thanks! I haven't actually seen the Round in real life yet, so I can only guess. It's much thinner and many people say it looks better(though I personally prefer the looks of the steel), and on video it also seems that the display has better contrast, which is one of the weak points of the steel for sure. You get the trade-off of only having 2 days of battery life, and no waterproofing though, so it's hard to declare a winner here :)
+TechAltar Appreciate your reply man, the screen on them was always my biggest concern. I'll let you know how it holds up when I get on. I'm totally sold in getting a time device by this video tho. Have a good one :)!
Great review, I am a user from china, I am using classic pebble steel, and just upgrade to the newest software framework which can support the wonderful timeline feature, but unfortunately can not support Chinese characters for now, I saw a picture in your review that your pebble can support Chinese, can you tell me how can I set that? thanks a lot.
+jason liu Hey Jason, it's good to see a fellow Pebble user from China! :) The Pebble Time Steel supports Chinese characters by default, and I didn't have to set anything up, I only had to update the software. My girlfriend is using a classic Pebble Steel and she also can't get Chinese characters to show on it, so I think it's not possible for now
Hi TechAltar, thanks for your reply, it seems I have to wait for the official update, if the pebble time steel already support Chinese characters, I think the Pebble steel will support very soon. thanks again.
It's Sharp's ePaper. I think you're thinking of eInk. This is not eInk. It is ePaper. It's much much MUCH lower power draw than conventional LCD. It is a form of LCD, the one that Sharp called ePaper.
Awesome review! I own a Pebble Time for about 4 months now and think that everything you said is right on spot. To me, Pebble is the only viable smartwatch out there. A friend of mine owned an Apple Watch and what he said is the essence of everything wrong with Pebble's competition: "I sold it, because for having to charge it every day, it simply doesn't do enough." As you said, everything more complex than checking time and notifications is better done on a smartphone anyway.
I absolutely love my pebble too. Also you mentioned that maybe the vibration was a bit much. There's an option for a little "nudge" vibration. I've switched my watch to that. It's easy to ignore when you want to, but enough vibration to feel it when you don't want to ignore it. It's also a pleasant vibrating nudge. So for somebody like me that gets hundreds of notifications a day, I much prefer running the watch in this mode.
Some of us are happy with the simplicity of this watch... I don't need my watch to be my phone, or my laptop... Just basic stuff like notifications, health tracking and time would be sufficient... wish the pebble round had more than two day battery. Overall it's what a "smart watch" should be.
RIP Pebble, was actually just planning on getting one. But now that I've heard about them closing down the company and moving to FitBit, I've changed my mind.
I had a Pebble a year before they shut down. I bought a fancy smartwatch, but now I'm back using the Pebble, and I have a Pebble Time Steel coming today, and I think I'll be ordering a Round and maybe a black Time Steel too. It's still as good as ever, and they released a firmware and app update that unlocks the whole ecosystem from their servers so people can continue developing watchfaces and apps for years to come.
+Ben Wilcox Does it help that I've had mine for almost a year and Its still really nice :D I do have quite a few scratches, but other than that it is just like it was out of a box.
Does the battery really last 10 days? Pebble Time (not Steel) lasted only 3 days for me and they advertise it at 7. As a comparison, my previous and current Pebble Steel lasts 5-6 days also with 7 advertised (Close enough for me). If I had some degree of confidence that Time Steel would also last at least 5 -6 days, I would buy it.
+Vladut-Adrian-Cornel Borină it all depends on your use case I guess. I basically just use mine as a watch and to receive select notifications. Also, checking the weather and my activity once a day. With this use it lasts me around 8-9 days on average. I'm sure if you use it all the time, then the battery life could go under 5 days, but I don't think it should with normal use
TechAltar I also use it as a watch mostly. But I also use it as a morning alarm. I think that might be the biggest drain as I snooze it few times. "Classic" Steel can take it. "Simple" Time can't. I am mostly wandering how Time Steel's battery is compared with "Classic" Steel.
+Vladut-Adrian-Cornel Borină oh, I snooze it at least 3-4 times a day, haha. My girlfriend has a classic steel and my time steel certainly lasts longer than her classic steel!
+piggy Sorry, I don't have whatsapp, so I can't say. If you are on Android, then one issue might be that you have to install the Android wear app on your phone separately to reply to most of the messages from your Pebble. You don't actually have to activate it, just have it on your phone and it will help with that. I can't guarantee that it will work, but try it out :)
Great review. I got my wife the Round in rose gold for Christmas and she loves it. I have ordered the steel for myself as a result. I have a gear 2 but the battery kills me. The price is also a kicker for me. Cheers.
I think it's a Pebble Time Steel, but improved in all the areas that matter. Much larger screen (we have yet to see if the contrast level is better or not, but it looks better), finally a heart rate monitor that will make it a pretty competitive fitness tracker, same good build quality apparently, decent price, etc. I love what I'm seeing!
If you mean the metal bezel around the glass, then kinda. I have a few tiny scratches on it. Nothing too terrible, but I wish it was made of a harder material. If you mean the black bezel around the screen, than that's covered by the same piece of glass as the screen, so it scratches just like any other Gorilla Glass 3 surface
+TechAltar yeah the metal bezel. I'm getting the Time 2, but I wasn't sure if I should get silver or black cause I know black is more scratch prone, (at least more apparent to be).
+white11rhinoo The pebble website says yes however with all texts I believe on both Android and iOS, they wont show up on your phone's message history. Because it send straight from your carrier.
