Pebble Time review: A Smart, Simple and Straightforward

Born a few years ago, Pebble was one of the first smart watches in the market which started as a Kickstarter project. The watch back then had a simple, monochrome face with an e-paper display. It had basic functions of a watch and a few notification options and a starting playground for developers to extend your smartphone functions to the wrist. Well, it was the beginning of a new era, which blew the wearables market out of proportion. The Pebble smartwatch has now matured to a higher level, but I can still say that though it has a lot of potential to grow, it is still giving the newcomers a run for its money.

Pebble has now entered into the Indian market and has four variants to wrap itself around the Indian wrist. The Pebble Classic, Pebble Time, Pebble Round and Pebble Steel, which start at prices of Rs 5,999, Rs 9,999, Rs 13,599 and Rs 15,999 respectively. While the Round is the only one with a circular dial, the others are square-faced and all of them do almost the same job—be smart. I received the Pebble Time, and must say that it fulfills my need for a smartwatch—at least for now. Though the product has a few drawbacks that would be ironed out in time, the device is probably a must-have extension to any user’s smartphone.

The Pebble Time is an elegantly designed smart wristwatch with a subtle look that does not boast out to be a fancy wearable on the wrist. It features a proper sized dial that fits all wrists sizes-even if you have one as thin as mine (chuckle). The watch is pretty light, very comfortable—thanks to the slight curvy back which hugs the wrist, and has a smooth and soft silicone strap.

The Time has a square face with a steel outer frame and a scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass-protected dial. The metal frame (or bezel) is powder coated and the stone colour blends well with the black strap. The Time is also available in Red and White colours. Though the glass is scratch-resistant, the outer metal frame is not. It tends to get scratched easily if you manage to carelessly rub it against some hard rough surfaces. Within a week’s time, I did manage to see a bit of scuffs and scratches on it—but the glass is still as flawless as it came out of the box.

There are a total of four buttons on the watch—three on the right and one on the left. The left button is for home or back functions, while the right middle button is for functions/menu. The other two buttons (right-top and bottom) are for selecting your menu items from the dial, and also function as quick buttons when long-pressed. Besides the three buttons on the right, you will also find a mic for voice inputs.

The rear panel has a simple pogo pin connector for charging. The connector is magnetic and works in any direction for charging. However, the magnetic pins and the copper connectors are (probably) not protected and could corrode if left for too long on sweaty hands. The watch is completely waterproof and can be used almost anywhere—bathing, swimming or extreme weather conditions. The straps are made of silicone and are smooth in texture, soft to feel and comfortable to wear. They are very easily interchangeable using the quick-release spring bars, but you may find it a little difficult to procure the proper sized straps to match the watch.

Wearing the watch is very comfortable — no comments here. Since I am not used to wearing watches for quite a long time, I felt it a bit uncomfortable on my hand for the first few hours, but later got used to it—thanks to the light weight body and comfortable straps. Well, but I did have one complain-having a hairy arm, pressing the buttons to operate the watch began to get a little painful every time—hair pulls. Women and those with less hairy arms should not have this problem.

Moving on—below the hood is a decently powerful hardware that takes care of all the smart functions and features of the Time. The Pebble Time is built on an ARM-based processor with a proprietary operating system PebbleOS. Though on paper you will find it underpowered as compared to conventional Android wear, you won’t find it slow or sluggish.  The Time is functional across both platforms Android and iOS and uses Bluetooth LE for connectivity. The display is a 2.5D colour e-paper display with an LED backlight. The colours are pretty muted and are not as sharp or vibrant as you would see on conventional LCD-based display systems. The device is powered by a rechargeable battery that can fuel the device for a maximum of 7 days, depending on the usage and amount of apps installed on it. In my case, I could get a average between 3 to 5 days since I am a heavy user with tons of emails, messages, alarms, apps and what not, constantly vibrating my wrist, almost every few minutes. As mentioned earlier, the watch is water resistant and can be used under water to 30 meters. The Time measures 40.5 x 37.5 x 9.5mm and weighs just 42.5g without the strap.

Specifications:

• Display: 1.25-inch 64-colour LCD e-paper display @168x144 pixels with Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
• Processor: ARM Cortex-M4.
• Memory: 256KB.
• Storage: 16MB.
• Battery: 150mAh.

Basic features of the Pebble time include an always-on colour display, voice reply, personalisation of watch faces, notifications, alarms and health monitoring. The device does not have any heart rate sensors, but does track your steps, sleep, and gives you personalized insights. In short—Pebble has managed to create a device that is simple, intelligent, light and comfortable, and you would never need to unstrap from your wrist.

The Pebble Time is compatible with loads of customised watch faces. You can choose between basic analog and digital faces or simply download some funky ones to suit your style and mood. Apart from watch faces, you can customise the watch for basic functions to notify you. An internal vibrator—which can be adjusted for a low-to-high nudge—can be set for notification types. These could be differently set for messages, emails, and alarms and alike.

While setting the watch faces and notifications can be done from the watch itself, you need to pair the Time with your phone using Bluetooth first. All you need is to download the app from the Play store, pair it, and you are set. A few functions need to be tweaked before you get on with your daily chores—alerts, notifications and alike. Additionally, you can download plenty of watch faces and apps from the Pebble app’s market on your smartphone itself. There are thousands of apps and watch faces to choose from. I managed to get some cute, and a few productive apps ranging from a simple compass to some remote camera apps. But here is a downside of the app—it’s pretty slow.

Using the watch was a welcome—unlike the Android smartwatches that I used earlier, this one is pretty much simple to operate and is ‘to the point’. It notifies you when you get an alert, a call, a calendar event or an alarm. Every notification is instant and the nudge on your wrist is well distinguished to alert you about the same. When an alert comes in, all you need to do is simply hit the up/down buttons and read the information or hit the centre button to either dismiss the alert or reply back. Replying with pre-defined messages can be done and it needs to be configured in the app on your smartphone. You can also reply back with your voice—but trust me it is not as easy as it is on your smartphone. Hitting the back button will simply clear the message on your screen. Dismissing the alert will also dismiss the alert on your smartphone.

The display is crisp and clear, though you can see the pixellations on the face. But that does not count as the display is meant for reading text only, along with a few graphical icons, and the screen caters to just what is required. Don’t expect the display to show you pics or videos—it is not meant for photos. Display readability in broad daylight is simply awesome—thanks to the coloured e-paper panel along with a reflective back which enables you to read what is on it at any given point of time. Even in low light areas, you can see what is on your screen. However, there is also an LED backlight below the display which lights up when you press any button. It also has an ambient light sensor which allows you to read messages in dark environments. Flicking your wrist to see the time also puts on the display light so that you can see the time without touching any buttons. If you missed an alert, or have multiple alerts, or want to go back to previous alerts, you can simply hit the centre button to check all your notifications that you received earlier. These messages consist of emails, notifications, SMS, calls, and a few others. You can clear all notifications if you like. Additionally, you can also set the watch to show your weather updates or show your upcoming calendar events that you have for the day. The lack of a touchscreen will definitely wear you down as you need to keep pressing buttons to move all the way up or down the menus to find what you are looking for. All the best if you install loads of apps on your watch! Long pressing on the left button will put the watch in quiet time (or do not disturb mode) and doing the same will release it back to alert mode. You can also set the watch to automatically go into quiet time mode from the app itself so that you are not disturbed during sleep or during important meetings.

However, there are a few drawbacks that we did find on the Pebble. Lifting your wrist to see the time does not always put on the light—you have to sometimes flick your wrist pretty hard for the light to come on. On the other hand, I could see the display light come on every time I rode my bike—thanks to the vibrations, the watch thinks I am reading something. The backlight also stays on for a short amount of time, which is a little irritating. Other issues we noticed is that alerts on your watch don’t automatically fade away and stay on the display for a really long time. Though a good feature—it shows you that you have an alert on your phone—it would be nice if it would automatically disappear after you lift your wrist to spot it. You need to press the back button each time you want that notification to disappear (or dismiss it). This calls for using your other hand to operate the watch. Adding a feature like ‘shake to dismiss’ or something similar would have helped, especially when you have both your hands full. But this can be relaxed by adding some third-party applications to do it for you—albeit at the cost of a little battery life and storage space.

Adding third party applications can help a lot. For example, watch faces with time alerts every hour, Bluetooth disconnection (to alert you when you are out of range from your smartphone), making phone calls, using OK Google, Etc. However, as I did say earlier —this comes in at a cost of storage and battery life.

Speaking on battery life, we got an average of 4.5 to 5 days on the maximum. Plainly because I did install a few watch faces (ones with the second hand drains more battery), background apps for Bluetooth range disconnections, additional alerts from many applications, alarms and hourly notifications and step counter. But if you tend to use minimal applications in the background, you are destined to get more battery life from the Time.

Charging the watch can be done within an hour—it charges quickly. However, whilst on charge, there is no information about the battery percentage—you have to manually check it. The Time only displays ‘completely charged’ when done. The Time comes with a single magnetic USB cable in the box. You can use any smartphone charger or connect it to your laptop or PC for charging. Connecting it to conventional phone chargers will charge the watch faster than plugging it into your laptop or PC. But you have to make sure you handle the cable with care since this is not a regular micro USB cable—if damaged or lost, you could be left hunting for a similar cable online or have a useless watch on your wrist.

Another issue we noted with the Pebble is security—it is an open book to those inquisitive with your messages. If you leave your watch around for charging, or whenever, you could be in for a surprise since anyone can snoop into your alerts, messages and other stuff. Pebble has not incorporated any security feature where the watch can be locked with a code if it is placed apart from your wrist.  A simple four-digit code could have been helpful. The Pebble also does not feature any sensors to detect if it has been off the wrist. Android smartwatches make use of the heart rate sensor to detect if the watch has been unstrapped and automatically locks the device to prevent snooping. Pebble should look into this matter too.

To wrap up the experience with the smart watch, I would state that the Pebble Time is one of the most simple, yet intelligent enough smart wearable for a smartphone user. Together with a battery life of around a week (where conventional Android and Apple watches drain out in just 1.5 to 2 days) and an always on display with an effective price, the Pebble Time is one of the most recommended smart watch out yet. The Pebble Time is an excellent gifting option to those looking for ideas to gift ideas. The Pebble Time is a great add on to those who have a busy life around their smartphones and often drive or have their hands full at most times. Writers, drivers, riders, cooks, mechanics, and others in similar professions where they simply cannot access their smartphones while working are advised to consider the Pebble Time. The Pebble smartwatches are available from a starting price of Rs 5,999 and max out to Rs 15,999. The simple functionality and apt alerting system on the watch makes the Pebble Time a ‘unique’ wearable in the smartwatch market.