Wearable tech is the hot new “cool thing” for trendy folk and there’s a wide variety of smartwatches available for people to choose from. Obviously there’s the big two – Android Wear and Apple Watch – each with their own positives and negatives. The next biggest player is a small start up company called Pebble.
Pebble started off with the goal of solving the main issues with smartwatches – that modern smartwatches aren’t all that smart, aren’t all that affordable, and have poor battery life. The first Pebble did an admiral job at solving both problems by having an open development platform and by using an e-ink display, similar to the displays used for Amazon’s Kindle e-readers, to help get the battery life last up to a week, all of which at a reasonable entry price. Pebble’s 2nd smartwatch, the Pebble Time, added a color e-ink display at a slightly higher price.
Pebble’s latest product is the Pebble Time Round, a unique smartwatch in that it is the only smartwatch on the market to actually look and feel like a watch. Many of the current smartwatch offerings feel bulky on the wrist and in some cases very uncomfortable due to the screen size of the watch. The Pebble Time Round has a light feel and the round watch face is aesthetically pleasing, making it one of the more comfortable smartwatches. Like the Pebble Time, the Pebble Time Round has a nice color e-ink display, which is circular rather than rectangular.
The aesthetics of the Pebble Time Round are the selling point of the product. During my week of testing, the smartwatch didn’t function as advertised and was more of a hassle than a companion to my iPhone. Notifications would not work for me, except if I was receiving a phone call (from what I could find on Google, this issue is due to Apple changing the Bluetooth stack). A minor issue is that the battery life of the Pebble Time Round is only a couple days, down from the week long battery life of the Pebble Time. Though this should be expected, as the Pebble Time Round is very thin and light.
The biggest issue is the lack of apps in the Pebble App Store. Apps made for standard rectangular Pebbles do not work on the Pebble Time Round. At the time of my testing, the Pebble Time Round was out on the market for 2 months and still only had a handful of apps compared to the rectangular Pebble App Store. Devices like these live and breathe on the diversity and activity of their app stores.
I really like the idea and the aesthetics of the Pebble Time Round, but the smartwatch has to function too. At a $249 MSRP the Pebble Time Round is a definite don’t buy. If you want a Pebble device, you’re better off buying the cheaper Pebble Time. If you’re willing to spend more, I’d stick to Android Wear or the Apple Watch (depending on your phone’s OS). Needless to say, I took full advantage of the holiday season’s return policy and got my money back.
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