Pebble Time (iOS) - Review

Discussion in 'Technology' started by supersonic, Sep 2, 2016.

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  1. 7/10 when paired with iOS

    [​IMG]

    After 2 months of using the Pebble Time, I've decided it's a pretty solid 'smart' watch for iOS. There are much slicker options to pair with Android, IMO. Pebble Time is the best paired with with iOS for two simple reasons:

    1. Great notifications tool since the iPhone lacks a notificaiton light
    2. A 4½ to 5 days of real world battery life

    It also has two key benefits over an Apple Watch:

    1. Battery life (again)
    2. 30m waterproof

    The notifications on the Pebble are excellent. It pushes anything you get on your phone to the watch. You'll probably need to spend time tweaking which one of these actually make it to your wrist as it can sometimes be overwhelming. Also, large chat sessions or groups can keep your watch buzzing frequently.

    I actually found myself silencing the phone altogether and just using the watch notifications.

    Sample notification from Tapatalk (backlight off)
    [​IMG]

    Battery life is a general complaint against smart watches and the 7 day advertised time drew me to the watch. But I found that given the amount of alerts I get, my battery life was half that. Tweaking watchfaces and disabling 24/7 weather on the watch allowed me to reach about 5 days of battery with full notifictions on.

    This was a compromise I was willing to live with since the Notifications was the main reason for seeking out a smartwatch. Coming from Blackberry and Android, I found the lack of a notification light on iPhone bothersome.

    FYI, I've noticed a few points of drain on the phone battery itself due to the constant pairing with the watch. It makes sense but not something I anticipated.

    Battery usage on phone:
    [​IMG]

    As a side bonus Pebble Health does a pretty decent job as a step counter and sleep tracker. I found myself taking more steps due to being reminded to walk more. The sleep tracker is a novelty but interesting to keep an eye on.

    The watch looks like a Fisher Price toy at a pricepoint way in excess of a toy. I feel like this is a good buy at the $60-80 range. I got mine refurbished for $60, but would not feel happy owning this at $150 full retail. In my opinion the prices of these toys are out of whack. I've seen fitness trackers for $250 from Fitbit. The Huawei watch cost $400 new and the Apple Watch was $600 at one point.... I understand the technology may be expensive but the benefit it provides consumers is minimal. The Pebble should be $75 new, with the 'high end' from Huawei/Apple at $150-200 max.

    Overall, if you have an iPhone and see a slickdeal it's worth a dabble.



    Full discussion:
    http://neopvc.com/threads/pebble-time.1390/
     
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