Michal Ždanský Pebble, thanks to the great hype that was already created on Kickstarter, where after all the watch itself "was created", became a kind of promise of another revolution in the form of devices that we wear on our bodies. At the same time, they are also the new mecca of independent hardware manufacturers. Thanks to the Kickstarter campaign, the creators managed to collect over ten million dollars in a month from more than 85 applicants, and Pebble became one of the most successful projects of this server.
A computer in a watch is nothing new, we could already see various attempts to fit a phone into a watch in the past. However, Pebble and several other smartwatches approach the issue quite differently. Instead of being independent devices, they act as an extended arm of other devices, specifically smartphones. As this year's CES showed, consumer technology is starting to move in this direction, after all, even Google is preparing its smart glasses. With Pebble, however, we can try out what this new "revolution" looks like in practice.
Video review
[su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARRIgvV6d2w” width=”640″]
Processing and design
Pebble's design is very modest, almost austere. When you wear the watch on your wrist, you probably won't notice that it's any different from other cheaper digital watches. The creators chose an all-plastic construction. The front part has shiny plastic, the rest of the watch is matte. However, the glossy plastic was not the best choice in my opinion, on the one hand, it is a magnet for fingerprints, which you cannot avoid, even if you only control the watch with buttons, on the other hand, the device feels cheap. Pebbles have a rounded shape at first glance, but the back is straight, which is not the most ergonomic due to the length of the body of the watch, but you won't feel it in particular when wearing it. The thickness of the device is quite friendly, it is comparable to iPod nano 6th generation.
On the left side there is one back button and contacts with magnets for attaching the charging cable. There are three more buttons on the opposite side. All the buttons are relatively large and stand out significantly from the body, so it will not be a problem to feel them even blindly, although you will rarely do this. Thanks to their perhaps too great stiffness, there will be no unwanted pressure. The watch is waterproof to five atmospheres, the buttons are therefore sealed inside, which causes even a slight creak when pressed.
I mentioned the magnetic attachment of the cable, because the proprietary charging cable attaches to the watch in the same way as MagSafe MacBook, but the magnet could be a bit stronger, it detaches when handling. That magnetic connector is probably the most elegant way to keep the watch waterproof without using rubber covers. I even showered with the watch and I can confirm that it is indeed waterproof, at least it didn't leave any marks on it.
However, the most important part of the watch is its display. The creators refer to it as e-Paper, which could lead to the mistaken belief that it is the same technology used by electronic book readers. In fact, the Pebble uses a trans-reflective LCD display. It is also easy to read in the sun and consumes a minimal amount of energy. However, it also allows for animations thanks to fast refresh, in addition, there are no "ghosts" that require the entire display to be refreshed. Of course, Pebbles also have backlighting, which turns the black color that blends with the frame into blue-violet. The watch also has an accelerometer, thanks to which you can activate the backlight by shaking your hand or tapping the watch harder.
The display is not nearly as fine as we are used to from retina devices, there are 1,26 × 116 pixels on the 168″ surface. Although it doesn't seem like much these days, all the elements are easy to read, and the system also allows you to choose a larger font. Since the whole device revolves around the display, I would probably expect it to be a bit better. Looking at incoming notifications or glancing at the time, you can't help but feel that it looks kind of… cheap. This feeling stuck with me throughout my week-long testing of the watch.
The black polyurethane strap generally blends in with the duller design of the watch. However, it is a standard 22mm size, so it can be replaced with any strap you buy. Apart from the watch and the charging USB cable, you won't find anything in the box. All documentation is available online, which together with the recycled cardboard box is a very eco-friendly solution.
Pebble is produced in five different color versions. In addition to the basic black, there are also red, orange, gray and white, which are the only ones with a white strap.
Technical parameters:
- Display: 1,26″ transreflective LCD, 116×168 px
- Material: plastic, polyurethane
- Bluetooth: 4.0
- Durability: 5-7 days
- Accelerometer
- Waterproof up to 5 atmospheres
Software and first pairing
In order for the watch to work with an iPhone (or Android phone), it must first be paired like any other Bluetooth device. Pebbles include a Bluetooth module in version 4.0, which is backward compatible with older versions. However, according to the manufacturer, the 4.0 mode is still disabled by software. To communicate with the phone, you still need to download the Pebble Smartwatch application from the App Store. After launching it, you'll be prompted to turn off and on the display of messages on the lock screen so that the Pebble can display received SMS and iMessages.
You can also upload a few new watch faces from the app and test the connection with a test message, but that's about it for now. There should be more widgets in the future once the developers release the SDK, which represents major potential for Pebble. Currently, however, the watch only displays notifications, messages, e-mails, calls and allows you to control music. Support for the IFTTT service is also promised, which could bring other interesting connections with Internet services and applications.
The user interface of the Pebble is quite simple, the main menu contains several items, most of which are watch faces. The firmware treats each watch face as a separate widget, which is a bit odd. After each activity, such as switching songs or setting the alarm, you have to go back to the watch face by selecting it in the menu. I would rather expect to select one watch face in the settings and always go back to it from the menu with the back button.
In addition to watch faces, the Pebble on the iPhone has an independent alarm clock that will alert you with a vibration, since the watch has no speaker. However, I am a bit missing two other basic functions of the watch - a stopwatch and a timer. You'll have to reach for your phone in your pocket for them. The music control app displays the track, artist and album name, while the controls (next/previous track, play/pause) are handled by three buttons on the right. Then only the settings are in the menu.
& by iOS via Bluetooth protocols. When there is an incoming call, the watch will start to vibrate and display the name (or number) of the caller with the option to accept the call, cancel it, or let it ring with the ringer and vibrations turned off. When you receive an SMS or iMessage, the entire message is displayed on the display, so you can read it without having to hunt for your phone in your pocket.
As for other notifications, such as emails or notifications from third-party apps, that's a bit of a different story. To activate them, you first need to do a little dance in Settings – open the Notifications menu, find a specific application in it and turn off/on notifications on the locked screen. The joke is that every time the watch loses connection with the phone, you have to go through this dance again, which quickly becomes boring. Native services such as Mail, Twitter or Facebook should remain active for the Pebble as well as SMS, but due to a bug in the application, this is not the case. The developers promised to fix the bug in the near future. As for the other notifications, unfortunately they can't do anything about it, because the problem is in iOS itself, so we can only hope that in the next version of the operating system we will see better integration with similar devices or at least a fix for this problem.
Another problem I ran into is receiving multiple notifications. Pebble only displays the last one and all the others disappear. Something like a notification center is missing here. This is apparently in development, so we can expect to see it along with other features in future updates. Another problem concerns Czech users directly. The watch has difficulties displaying Czech diacritics and displays half of the characters with accents as a rectangle. Just for the coding, I would expect it to work correctly from day one.
With Pebble in the field
Although the above could be written after a few hours of testing, it is only after a few days of testing that one gets to know what life with a smartwatch looks like. I wore the Pebble for more than a week and practically only took it off overnight, and sometimes not even then, because I wanted to test the wake-up function as well; I will tell you right away that the vibration of the watch wakes up more reliably than a loud alarm clock.
I'll admit, I haven't worn a watch in almost fifteen years, and on the first day I was just getting used to the feeling of having something wrapped around my hand. So the question was - will the Pebble make it worth wearing a piece of technology on my body after fifteen years? During the first configuration, I selected all the application notifications that I wanted to see on the Pebble display - Whatsapp, Twitter, 2Do, Calendar... and everything worked as it should. Notifications are directly linked to notifications on the lock screen, so if you're using your phone, the watch doesn't vibrate with an incoming notification, which I appreciate.
The problems started when the phone disconnected from the watch, which happens very quickly if you put it down at home and leave the room. Bluetooth has a range of about 10 meters, which is a distance you can easily overcome. When this happens, the watch pairs itself again, but all the notifications set up for third-party apps are suddenly gone, and I have to set everything up again. However, for the third time, I resigned and finally settled for only the basic functions, i.e. display of incoming calls, messages and music control.
I probably appreciated the switching of songs the most. These days, when the music control function is worth it, it is priceless. The only complaint I have is the untuned control, where you must first go to the main menu, select the appropriate application and stop or switch the song. In my case, seven button presses. I would rather imagine some shortcut, for example double-pressing the middle button.
Reading SMS messages and information about incoming calls was also useful, especially in public transport, when I don't like to show off my phone. If you want to pick up the phone and your headphones don't have a built-in microphone, you still have to pull out the iPhone, but with one turn of the wrist, you'll find out if it's even worth taking the call. Other notifications, when turned on, appeared without problems. I could read a @mention on Twitter or an entire message from Whatsapp, at least until the connection between the iPhone and the Pebble was lost.
The manufacturer states that the watch should last a full week. From my own experience, they lasted less than five days from a full charge. Other users say it only lasts 3-4 days. However, it seems that this is a software bug and the reduced consumption will be fixed by an update. Always on Bluetooth also had an impact on the phone, in my case more than the claimed 5-10%, an estimated 4-15% reduction in iPhone (20) battery life. However, the older battery of my 2,5 year old phone could also have had an effect on it. However, even with reduced stamina, it was not a problem to last one working day.
Despite the limitations of some functions, I quickly got used to the Pebble. Not in the way that I couldn't imagine my day without them, but it is a bit more pleasant with them and, paradoxically, less intrusive. The fact that for every sound that comes out of the iPhone, you don't have to pull the phone out of your pocket or bag to see if it's something important is very liberating. Just one look at the watch and you're in the picture right away.
It's a shame that despite the six-month delay in deliveries, the developers were unable to add some of the features mentioned earlier. But the potential here is huge – running apps, cycling apps or weather watch faces from Pebble can make a very capable device that will make you pull out your phone less and less. The creator still has a lot of work to do on the software, and customers have to wait patiently. The Pebble smartwatch isn't 100 percent, but it's a decent result for a small team of indie makers with a promising future.
Evaluation
The Pebble watch was preceded by great expectations, and perhaps because of this, it does not seem as perfect as we imagined. In terms of design, it feels cheap in some places, whether it is the display or the front part made of shiny plastic. However, there is huge potential under the hood. However, interested parties will have to wait for that one. The current state of the firmware seems a bit like a beta version - stable, but unfinished.
Despite its shortcomings, however, it is a very capable device that will continue to acquire new functions over time, which will be taken care of not only by watch authors, but also by third-party developers. In the previous section, I asked myself whether Pebble made me willing to start wearing a watch again after fifteen years. The device clearly convinced me that accessories worn on the body in the form of watches definitely make sense. Pebble still has a long way to go. Even so, among their competitors, they are the best that can be purchased at the moment (they are also promising I'm Watch, but they have a dismal 24 hour shelf life). If the developers live up to their promises, then they can claim to have created the first commercially successful smartwatch.
Now, thanks to Pebble, I know I want such a device. For the price 3 790 Kč, for which the Czech distributor will sell them Kabelmania.cz, they are not exactly cheap, the game also has the possibility that Apple will release its own solution this year. Still, it's an interesting investment to get a taste of the future of mobile devices if your watch is closer to Google's futuristic glasses.
I would probably be ashamed to have this on my hands
How did they arrive? I have them ordered from the very beginning, paid for over half a year and they still haven't arrived.
They are coming gradually, they are said to be in the middle of production. Otherwise, we only had them on loan.
And I'm still sorry that the video can't be played from Germany.... Apparently it contains some music that is protected here. Damage. Well, I'll blink and I'll be in CR.