I didn’t like the leather strap, so I also bought the official Pebble Steel Smartwatch strap which makes the watch feel more robust. To me the bulkier strap is more visually appealing against the thickness of the brushed steel watch unit itself compared to the leather strap.
Pebble Steel Smartwatch Review
I have had my Pebble Steel for a month and I’m very happy with it indeed.
I use mine mainly for Endomondo (GPS sports tracking), To-do list notifications, the gentle alarm for waking in the morning (unlike some other reviewers I have no problem with the vibration being too soft, but I am a light sleeper), and reviewing text message notifications from a variety of apps.
Pros:
- You really do get battery life of 4+ days, even with a fair bit of use. Disabling the backlight seems to give a few more days.
- The new Android Wear integration means you can now reply to text messages directly from the watch with some stock answers or using emoticons.
- Using AutoPebble in conjunction with Tasker I can create my own menus and launch actions. That pretty much allows you to do anything you want on the phone, depending on your Tasker skills of course.
- With the standard function I can reject calls without taking my phone out of a pocket. But when running it’s ideal as I also use a bluetooth headset for music, and with the watch I can see who’s phoning and then answer calls too. Without interrupting my run and stopping.
- I can see the screen clearly in most light conditions.
- I can control music even when my phone is elsewhere at home.
- When running I can now hide the phone in a waterproof pocket and still see progress on the watch. No more twisting my arm round at awkward angles to see the phone screen!
- Connects seamlessly to my Samsung S4 and maintains bluetooth connection all around the house.
Cons:
Struggling to find anything worth mentioning really.
- The screen resolution is low (and monochrome) compared to the more expensive smartwatches and that does give it a retro look, but it’s fine for my needs. I don’t need to display images or videos or play games, I can use my phone for that.
- With the Apple watch coming out this year, I have read that Pebble may lose ground in the market but the Android Wear integration could now mitigate that.
Anyway I would definitely recommend getting one
