Pebble - Smartwatch 33mm Plastic - Black Silicone

Though the lack of software features at this time is a little disappointing, I do not regret my purchase at all! I have had my pebble for nearly 2 months now (ordered it the day it became available on Best Buy's website) and am astonished at the flourishing developer community. Would've given 5 stars if they had done more development before release (small bugs in the OS, big picture features such as internet connectivity missing from the Pebble app, which require 3rd party less reliable apps). I'll break it down like this: External The watch itself looks and feels great, seems sturdy enough to withstand the average person's daily life. I shower with it because I lose track of time easily, and it lives up to the water proof claim, even in hot water, which I had heard was problematic for some. I don't care for the cheap rubber strap it comes with, so I replaced it with a water resistant leather strap I found on Amazon for around $20. Also added a screen protector which covers the entire face (GadgetWraps) because I heard it scratches easily (par for the course for any smartphone owners). Internal hardware Can't complain about anything! Sure some of the Kreyos features would be nice (especially speaker/mic for taking calls) but for the cost and small form factor it's a great piece of hardware. Battery lasts up to 6 days for me, 4 days with an animated watchface. Fully recharges in about 3 hours. Software This is where it gets sorta meh. For now at least. The Pebble company as well as many 3rd party developers are hard at work. Many choices for various kinds of watchfaces are already available, and there's even a website which allows you to make your own custom analog/digital watchface with your own image for a background. Watchapps (including games) are lacking but growing. My biggest gripe is the information transmission/alerts are still a work in progress. For instance, several watchfaces and watchapps require access to the internet via the bluetooth connection to your smartphone, a feature which (in my opinion) should have been implemented in the Pebble app. Perhaps it will be one day, but for now it requires the httpebble app (for iOS, not sure what the Android equivalent is called) a decent app with some minor connectivity problems (just because it says it's connected doesn't mean it always is). The worst part is I now have 3 apps on my phone which communicate with the watch (httpebble, Smartwatch Pro, and Pebble Snap) all with different functions, however the watch can only connect to one of them at a time. Smartwatch Pro works with a companion watchapp, capable of accessing your iOS calendar, Twitter (if the phone is logged in) changing volume (the watch's built in music controls lack the ability to change volume or browse music selection, more features Pebble needs to add) check your phone's battery level, and play a loud noise if you lose your phone but it's still within range of the watch. Pebble Snap allows you to control the phone's camera as a remote shutter release or on a timer. If one of these apps connects to your phone, the others lose their connection. Why is that? These apps lose their usefulness if I have to take my phone out of my pocket to reconnect them constantly. Really all or most of these features should be integrated into the Pebble app, but if they can't or wont do this, they need to figure out a way for multiple 3rd party apps to communicate with the watch simultaneously. Compatibility Some would say Pebble does not deserve the "Excellent" compatibility rating I gave due to the fact that it only supports Android and iOS. First off, there is no point in owning this or any smartwatch unless you own a smartphone and use it a fair amount. My father has an iPhone 3Gs because it was free with contract and he needed a new phone. He mostly uses it for calls, so I wouldn't recommend he invest in a smartwatch unless he starts utilizing more smartphone features. If you are a true smartphone enthusiast and you don't own a device running either Android or iOS, you need to rethink your choice of phone. I don't know anyone who takes the Windows Phone platform seriously (sorry Microsoft, I love your desktop OS, but your phone OS seems like it belongs in a toy compared to my iPhone) and the Blackberry is quickly going the same way as the 8-track or BetaMax. Anyway, that's enough of my rant. Overall, if you're looking to get in on the ground floor of this new smartwatch craze, Pebble is a great option. After many hiccups in mass production, they are finally starting to catch up with demand, and once that is complete they should hopefully have more time for software development. I look forward to the future of Pebble.

I have been using my Pebble since February, as I got it as a reward for backing the Pebble Kickstarter. Since day one it has worked perfectly with my Android phone. I get all of the default notifications (SMS, Calls, Hangouts, Gmail/Email) with no problems whatsoever, and 3rd party apps available in the Play Store have allowed me to push notifications to my watch from almost any installed Android app. In addition several apps add additional functionality like live weather alerts, automatic SMS replies and other handy features. There are even a decent number of arcade-style games available for play on the watch! The notifications are incredibly useful in an office environment. I can leave my phone on silent and still get notified of important events, my next meeting, etc. without having to pull out my phone. At home, the watch is handy because you can get notifications on your wrist when your phone is in another room, which eliminates finding your phone with 20 missed calls/texts from a frantic stranded relative. Since the Kickstarter backer community got their hands on this watch about 6 months ago, there are already hundreds of amazing watch faces ready to use with the Pebble. There are also online 3rd party utilities that allow you to create your own custom watch faces and then push them right onto your Pebble watch. Another thing that may seem minor, but which is important to me is that the Pebble uses a standard 22mm watch strap. This means that you can swap out the default strap for something more comfortable if you want to. The plastic strap that comes with the Pebble is fine, but I prefer something more comfortable and a lot of other recent smart watches appear to use non-replaceable straps. Honestly the Pebble has changed the way I interact with my phone, and how I live my digitally-connected life. Now for some negatives. One of the main problems facing Pebble is the lack of a unified app store. According to Pebble, one is being created but for now you have to download your watch faces from 3rd party websites and you have to search through the Play Store or App Store to find 3rd party apps that support the Pebble. Another issue is that iOS notifications can be spotty. There are issues in iOS 6 that occasionally prevent the iPhone from sending notifications to the watch. Also there is a persistent bug that prevents contact names from showing up on the watch when a call or SMS is received. Some of these are problems that may be fixed in the iOS 7 release this fall as Apple is increasing support for 3rd party accessory devices, but for now these issues impact a lot of users. The issues can also be resolved by jailbreaking your iPhone, but a lot of users don't want to jailbreak. So keep this in mind if you use an iPhone.

Going on my first week with the Pebble. I will break up the review so it's easier to follow and will update if anything changes for the better or worse. Overall: It's a great smartwatch! I showed it to some of my geeky friends who criticized it for not doing more, but you have to understand what you're buying. I've been keeping up with this phone for about a year so I knew what I was getting. Features: First of all, this is a smart watch, not a smartphone replacement. It does the 'watch' job beautifully, with customizable watch faces (switching between watchfaces is as easy as pushing a button). Bluetooth connectivity is easy to setup, and I usually have had no problems keeping it connected to my phone. Waterproof (tested in the shower so far). Screen is easy to see, if it's too dark (at night), a shake of your arm will temporarily turn on the back light. Currently use of the accelerometer and magnetometer is limited until the full SDK library/functionality is made available, and I'm looking forward to that. Notifications on your wrist is awesome (you can choose which apps to get notifications for with 'pebble notify'). Design: I got the black version from Best Buy (wife did as well). It's pretty nice looking, not too big on our wrists (maybe a bit big for my wife, but not enough for her to care). There are good screen protectors available online, so we installed those (already cut to the shape of the watch) before we tested the manufacturer's claim of "scratch resistant lens". It's very lightweight, which is a watch requirement for me. My wife changed the watch band on her watch while we were at Target with no issues. Buttons are initially hard to push, but once you break them in they work fine. Battery: Only one week with it, so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Initially I only charged it for 15 minutes out of the box before I decided I had to play with it. It came partially charged from the factory, and the 15 minutes extra made the battery go for ~2 days. I then full charged and I'm going on day 6 without a charge. No noticeable changes on my phone's battery either for keeping the bluetooth on at all times (HTC One X, jelly bean). Apps: There are several cool apps (cooler ones to come once programmers can use the accelerometers). I used the watchface generator online (very easy to use) to create my own watchface with my university logo (great for bragging at work). It comes built in with an alarm, which I use, I also added on Glance (shows a count of unread SMS, email, missed calls, current weather), a monthly view calendar, a stopwatch (not sure why it wasn't built in), pebble dialer (for enhanced call notification, accept/dismiss), and pebble tasker (read more below). It does also come built in with a music control app that works with several apps on your phone (pandora, google play music, etc), allowing you to skip, go back, pause/play. We also used runkeeper and it displayed the activity information on our watch automatically (pace, distance, time) without us having to look at the phone on our armband while jogging or puling the phone out of our wet-bag when we went kayaking. Other apps are out there, just look it up, but keep in mind that there is a limit of how many apps you can store on the watch at one time so choose wisely (built in ones + 8 downloadable? can't remember exactly). Automation via Pebble Tasker: Some of the things I've been able to do with my watch via pebble tasker (and Tasker on the android side): 1. Push a button to send myself an e-mail at work with current time and date when I walk in the gate. 2. Push a button to request my phone to read the last text message on speakerphone (or bluetooth headset/car speakers) mainly for when I'm driving. 3. Push a button to request a more detailed weather forecast for my current location to be sent to my watch 4. Push a button to help find my phone by changing the phone ringer volume and playing an alarm. 5. [Use your creativity for what you want/need.....]

I purchased my Pebble via the Kickstarter campaign (note: some features may have changed since then, but I have not seen nor heard any evidence of this) and thought it was a cool watch. I have worn it almost daily for about a year and here are some observations: The Good: - The watch is stylish, people comment on how cool it is regularly. - Apps are great- Sbux app allows you to go to Starbucks and scan your watch instead of your gift card or gold card. This is impressive and reduces pocket clutter. Another app that I like is called Morpheus- it tracks sleep patterns using the accelerometer and tells you the amount of different types of sleep you got based on your movement. It will also allow you to set a wake up range so that you are not in deep sleep when your alarm goes off. There are a ton more apps and more every day that help make life easier in little ways. - Handy alarm. I set an alarm often for a reminder and it is subtle as it only vibrates your arm. This way my wife does not stir when I wake for work. - Never miss a text or call - this watch lets you know when texts, emails (if desired) and calls are coming in. I often will answer the call when the phone is still in my pocket, allowing me time to get it out or go somewhere quiet enough to talk. Also handy when hands are wet, or you don't wish to miss the call. Reading texts is helpful and aside from not being able to reply to them, it can be a subtle and useful tool during meetings or other places where it would be inappropriate to bring out a phone. - Control music on a run or while driving. I can have the phone in my pocket and control the tunes without dragging my phone out. This is great when skiing and gloves have to come off and on to do it otherwise. - Flashlight: with a shake of the wrist, the backlight comes on and can help find keys, see items on the floor at night or check on the baby sleeping with a soft and gentle light. Automatically dims after a configurable amount of time. - Weather apps- always know the time, temperature and forecast on your wrist. Very useful (chews up battery life). - Golf GPS- this one is useful to know the distance to the hole you're playing. Load up the courses on your phone and sync with the watch. Requires connectivity to the phone (very heavy on the battery) The Bad - BATTERY LIFE stinks for both the phone and the watch. I often go on business trips for multiple days and often need to have brought my charger. This is quite possibly the worst part of the watch as many times you end up disabling features to lengthen battery life. But without those features (i.e. bluetooth) it is really just a watch. - Scratches easily. I am admittedly a bit tough on a watch, but not so much that the numbers are hard to read. This watch claims scratch resistance, but be warned- you can't use it in everyday life without some damage. It is much less resistant than most. - Cheap band. The silicone band is simple and not very exciting, but already after almost a year, it has cracked at the line where the tail end comes out of the buckle. I guess it dries out over time. - Faulty watch band pin keeper. The little holes where the watch pin is held and enters into the watch is only cheap plastic. With a slight pull, you can pull the pin easily out of the watch, which then falls to the ground. I was putting on a coat once, and the watch caught my sleeve and the watch fell to the floor because the plastic was misshapen. Once it happens the first time, beware- it will happen again. - Frequent disconnects from phone. This happens a LOT and is in need of some serious attention by the developers. You cannot really count on a steady connection to the phone, so it should never be used for really important tasks- you just cannot depend on it. When it disconnects, you either have to manually do it, or hope it tries it on its own. This is something they are trying to fix but has been an issue since the beginning. Bottom Line: These watches still have some way to go before they become a mainstay in my world. Battery life of my iPhone5 is HORRIBLE when this is connected (even when new I found myself charging 2x + per day). I might recommend this to a friend, especially one that is tech savvy (for troubleshooting and reconnections) but might advise them to wait for another year when better options are released (Apple and others are entering the game).

This Thanksgiving I set some time to try all popular smartwatches out there. I tried the Metawatch Frame and Strata. The software for both is poorly developed, but I really liked the use of real glass (not plastic) for the display of these devices and also their water resistance. Unfortunately the Frame's buttons appeared loose and one of them regularly got stuck when pushed, which I found unacceptable for a $170+ device. The Strata's buttons worked better, but this device is not really very attractive. The best feature of the Metawatch family by far is the always-on display technology, but unfortunately the resolution is not great. What really kills this product line is the very limited capabilities of the support software. I tried the Sony Smart watch 2. Unfortunately I quickly realized that the device is bulky, and the screen is plastic, which will make the unit look really bad after a few weeks of normal use. The unit also charges with a micro usb, which concerns me for a watch. The best feature of this unit is the fact that the display is always visible and is color. I tried the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but quickly realized that I could not live pushing a button/shaking my wrist to see the time on my watch (yes, I can force the display to stay on, but that kills the battery and makes the device too distracting in public or dark places). And, yes, all the features are nice to have, but if the device fails to be an efficient 'watch' then I rather take my Galaxy Note 3 out of my pocket to see the time, and I won't need a Galaxy Gear, After I tried these, I finally tried the Pebble. I had read poor reviews in terms of quality of workmanship, which are mostly correct: the first unit I bought came with a damaged display, and the device feels cheap and will scratch very easily. That said; however, the Pebble has buttons that work as expected (not loose or prone to sticking), and the software, both on the watch and on Android devices, does exactly what it needs to do efficiently. At present, the only device that offers a good balance of features without loosing track of its primary function (being a wristwatch) is the Pebble. The only issue I see so far is cheap build quality. In fact, I would gladly pay another $50-100 if I could get a Pebble in a metal / ceramic case with a mineral glass (Corning Gorilla Glass anyone?), but that would bpe having your cake and eating it too! Perhaps the second (or third) iteration of these devices will get them to where they need to be, or perhaps Apple and Google are already adjusting their designs for early 2014.

!!BUYER BEWARE!! It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the Pebble Smart Watch retail launch, like I did. But I quickly found out this product is not ready for mass market. I picked up my Pebble smart watch from Best Buy yesterday after ordering online for store pickup. The install initially seemed easy enough (I have an iPhone 4S). The first few bumps were downloading some watch faces from online to install. For some reason, the bluetooth connection to the Pebble wouldn't stay on consistently. After downloading 3 faces, I had to disconnect bluetooth then reconnect to download others. Then I decided to give it a test with the RunKeeper app and a light jog. About 8 minutes into the run, I noticed the watch display froze. When I tapped a button, I saw the Pebble's screen wasn't refreshing. And then pixellated lines started to appear. What resulted was the dead screen you see in the picture attached. Today, less than a day after owning the Pebble, the screen is completely blank. After looking through online support and trying multiple ways to reset it or bring the screen back, nothing would work. While researching the problem, I saw that there really are many issues with the Pebble - something that was really alarming (besides a lot of disgruntled Kickstarter backers). I really wanted to back up a fresh tech company and be an early adopter. Unfortunately it looks Pebble is trying to jump the gun on other smart watches at retail stores and have ended up bringing a glitchy product to mass market. Good luck with your Pebble (I highly recommend getting Best Buy's extended service plan from if you are still considering the leap - because it sounds like the Pebble will fail eventually). I'm returning mine today and waiting for other smart watch options.

I never write reviews, as often it doesn't worth it... but I really want to share my opinion about this great watch. First, I need a smart watch to be a second screen of my phone, I do not want a watch to replacing it. I need a watch which uses the technology already existing in my phone, I do not need to have everything in double. Who wants to charge its watch everyday? Who needs a (bad) camera in his watch? Who want to push a button to display the time? Is a color screen so useful? This little Pebble is amazing, I wouldn't leave it off my wrist anymore. It does a lot and does it very well. A recent software update improved it a lot, and the next version (coming soon) sounds even more amazing. It is compatible with Android and iOS (iPhone) and there is now a little software for Windows Phone, but seems not doing everything yet. The watch displays every notifications coming on my iPhone and displays it on my wrist, calls, SMS, important mails, Facebook, turn by turn direction etc... For the email, it does not displays the complete email, but enough lines to decide if it is important enough to decide if it worth pulling out my phone. My phone is now in silent, the vibration of the watch is enough to notify me. There is a lot of nice software developed by a very active community. There is also a lot of watch faces available, mine displays the weather, humidity, wind, surmise, sunset etc... I love it. The screen is very nice and always displays the time and informations, no need a second hand to turn it on. A simple movement of your wrist will turn on the backlight. We are only at the beginning of the smartwatches era, it's already great with Pebble, and will be even bigger in the future. Yes, it is not touchscreen, but I do not really care... It is not color, but I do not want to trade color with battery life, and I do not really want something flashy on my wrist. This is a watch with a very nice design, very classy, and you can replace the bands with any other one (with the same size), so you can go leather, color.... There is also some wraps available online to protect the screen or personalize it with color, carbon... It is lightweight, I barely feel it on my wrist, yes some will say it feels cheap, but I do not agree, I have it now since 2 months, and it is still in perfect condition. Ah and it is waterproof (for shower and swimming....) Well done Pebble!

I've had a Pebble since April and I absolutely love it. I am one of the people who had their pebble "bricked". Pebble had a software update that malfunctioned, but they completely backed their product and sent me a replacement. As a watch, I love this smart watch. I use it with my Android phone and when combined with the apps available, I can do so much with it, and I only need to recharge the watch once every 7 or 8 days. The Pebble has music controls built in, so I can control my music from my wrist and even see the title of the song being played. I got sick of having to pull my phone out of my pocket to control the volume, so I use PebbleTasker and Tasker to make volume controls on my Pebble watch when headphones are plugged in.Completely wrist-controlled listening! When headphones aren't plugged in I can trigger a picture and quickly call my wife by pressing a couple buttons on my watch instead of getting out my phone thanks to the same two apps. I also use the Pebble Glance App so I can display weather on my phone and quickly send pre-written text messages to people. There is also an app to change the ringer to silent or vibrate or the other way around from my wrist. The conveniences are endless. In addition, I get detailed notifications on my wrist. It shows text messages, facebook messages, who is calling, Google Hangouts messages, Email messages, Gmail, and the list goes on. And you can use PebbleNotifier with Tasker to get notifications on the pebble for any app on the phone. The possibilities are endless and will only get better as Pebble continues to improve their software.***** As for Build Quality, I think it is great. The body is made of plastic, but still looks good. I would probably prefer metal, but I would not prefer the extra cost that would probably go along with it. I like that they made a highly functional watch at a reasonable price and still kept it looking good. That brings me to the price, $150. I think the price is extremely reasonable. I am basically wearing a TINY computer on my wrist and it works extremely well. I addition, it is Waterproof up to 5ATM. I've taken it under the sink, into the pool, and it is still working great. I was originally worried about scratching the screen, but I have smacked it around on quite a few things and not a single scratch has appeared. In conclusion, my Pebble is the best purchase I have made in a long time and I couldn't be happier with it. The capabilities are endless and every update is going to bring more things you can do with it. *****These features I have talked about often involve apps only available for Android. I can't guarantee that you can do all of these things on iOS due to iOS limitations and some of the apps not being available, such as Tasker, PebbleTasker, Pebble Glance, etc.