After a month of use, is the pebble smart watch really that great?
Back in April 2012, I caught wind of a kickstarter project called the “Pebble.” When I read through the description, I immediately called my wife and asked her if I could plunk down the $99 for the early bird black Pebble. She took a look at the project and told me on the phone to buy her one too. We both believed that the Pebble was the first in an upcoming device craze, the smartwatch revolution. So after almost a year of waiting, we finally got our Pebbles, so how do I feel about the Pebble now after the honeymoon is over (you know what I mean, that feeling of getting a new device and you realize you’re stuck with it, warts and all)? Read on past the break to find out.
The thing I love most about the Pebble is the battery life. Seriously, this guy lasts about 6 days on average. That means I really only charge up my Pebble on weekends when I don’t have to worry so much about getting up early to catch a bus to work. The thing I feel strongly about smartwatches is that they’re supposed to replace functionality of my smartphone, charging up a watch every day seems like a waste of time (no pun intended… ok that’s a lie). I’m really interested to see how the battery life improves as soon as the watch uses Bluetooth 4.0 LE (low Energy), which is promised to happen in a future firmware update to the device. If my watch can crank out past a full week (as opposed to the 6 days I’ve been experiencing) then I’d never worry about a dead watch again.
If I really only cared about battery life, I should have gotten a Timex like my dad. But a Pebble isn’t your dad’s watch, it the watch you will want to wear. The Pebble does something beyond any normal watch (or an iPod nano parading around as a watch), it is an extension to your being. Woah. Okay, now this is crazy talk, but think about it. If you already own an Android or iPhone, would you consider your device as an extension of yourself. You use it beyond just playing games starring Upset Fowl, you use it as a way to communicate, to stay in touch with friends and loved ones, to store your most personal information, and to make your every day life just a little better. Smartphones made a big impact in people’s lives and I believe smartwatches are another impact. I consider the Pebble as an extension to my arm, when it’s off my wrist I feel naked. I find myself glancing at my bare forearm trying to check the time or see who just texted me, and I find myself instantly disappointed. When my pebble has been replaced on my arm, it’s like everything is right again in the world. This isn’t a replacement gadget like a tablet, this is a complimentary gadget, one that will fit in your life no matter how many other screens you have.
So what’s the deal anyways? What do I love so much about this thing (besides the battery life)? The screen itself is a really nice E-Paper screen, think similar to a Kindle, that’s visible in a lot of different lights. It’s blatantly visible outside, even on a typical Seattle overcast day, and even under the flourescent lights of my day job, I can still read a text sent to my Pebble pretty clearly. Oh yeah, if you didn’t know, the Pebble gets the notifications that your phone gets (especially if you use an Android). I’m able to read texts (even my Google Voice messages), emails, and pretty much any other type of notification while my phone is in my pocket. And that’s the thing, my phone stays in my pocket. No more flipping out the phone and pressing the power button just to check the time or a text message. Now all I do is glance at my wrist. But notifications aren’t all it does, it also controls the music on my smartphone. So when I went to play Frisbee with my friends in the park a few weeks ago, I kept my phone in my pocket and my Bluetooth Speakers on a nearby bench and in between Frisbee tosses I’d change the track to a song I liked. To say the least, I felt pretty awesome.
But what about the watch itself, a lot of the previous functionality was about how it played nice with my Android? What can the Pebble do? Well for one… play Snake, Pong, and Tetris. Back in the day, these were the masures of a new platform… now it seems like everything (including smart TVs) want to play Angry Birds. If you were paying attention when smartphones first entered the market– apps blew up. What I mean is that before the iPhone was the iPhone, it was really meant to be a phone that could go to mobile-friendly web pages, it was meant to be a phone with a “magical” web browsing experience. In fact, native applications (what we know as apps) were an after thought and were brought to iPhones with the App Store in a later update. Now apps are all the rage and there’s like 86 bajillion of them now. So when the pebble opens up it’s SDK to be a little more official, I expect to see tons of apps and plugins for phone apps. Think Google Maps directions showing up on your bus so you know which stop to get off at, or unlocking your door from your wrist. I feel like apps, custom watchfaces, and an open SDK is what will really get the Pebble popular for being more than the #1 most funded Kickstarter project.
tl;dr
So if you want to know what I think of the Pebble. I love it. It is basically an extension to my arm, the long battery life doesn’t hurt either. The screen is nice and clear to read in any light, and the notifications are something I never even knew I wanted. The future possibilities of this and those who follow in its wake have a lot of potential, and I’m excited to see where smartwatches go next.
