Pebble - Steel Smartwatch 33mm Stainless Steel - Black Leather

When it comes to tech, I review stuff for a living. I've had the chance to play with many really cool devices and the Pebble is one of them. I think for what it does, it's a bit pricey, but if you are looking for a good watch to tell time and control different things around your home, the Pebble will do the trick. With an open platform for developers to create apps to work with all sorts of things the Pebble App Store is becoming a go to for me at least once a month. I owned the Cherry Red Pebble before switching up to the Pebble Steel and the first thing I can say about the Steel is it's heavier then the original Pebble. The Steel is much nicer looking the the plastic Pebble and the leather band is really nice. The Corning Gorilla Glass is strong and I don't worry about scratching its screen. I even think that Im getting a brighter display from it then I did with the original pebble. $225 is on the high side to pay for the average person, but the average person does not go out and buy a Rolex ether. I would have liked to see the price on the Pebble Steel be closer to $175, but maybe later on that might happen. So is it worth buying? Yes and no. Yes, if you are really into wearing watches. It will allow you to keep that watch front and center on your wrist and give you some cool features. No, if you don't already have that, "I must have my watch on," ingrained in your brain. Even with the options to control different things around your home with third party apps made for the Pebble app store most likely you are already carrying around your smart phone and could just as easily do it from it faster. The Pebble Steel is really cool and I own one, but I don't use it as much as I should. One really cool thing I like about the Pebble is I can leave my phone in a different room and still get my notifications. Email, text, Facebook, Twitter - really anything that sends me notification via push I can receive on the Pebble. This gives me a chance to charge my phone in a different room and quickly glance at what's popping up on it. I'm getting a break from being glued to my iPhone. One other thing that I enjoy is while out to dinner I don't have to be rude when waiting for that important message. I can keep my phone in my pocket and just take a quick glance at my watch when it vibrates. With so many different messages coming through I'd be checking my phone all the time. What ever happened to the good ol' days when people went out to dinner and had to wait to get home to see who called. I like my Pebble Steel. I say if its something you've been thinking about getting just do it. You only live once.

I really wanted to support the work being done by the Pebble corporation. The Pebble Steel is sleek and has great battery life. I can not however recommend this product to anyone. There is a known screen connection issue with Brushed Steel model 401S. The exact same issue has ruined three of these watches I have owned in the last year. Pebble will no longer replace these every few months when the screen pixelates. For more information, research Pebble Steel Screen Tearing".

The screen readability - The e-paper screen works great. Kinda like how the kindle can be read in sunlight, well the Pebble can to. It is super easy to read in sunlight – even easier than indoors. If it is dark, and you have backlight set to auto, the screen lights up in the dark. In a word - nice. The body - With the matted steel case and gorilla glass and the metal watchband, most people won’t even realize you are wearing a smart watch. It is stylish, and the different displays allow you to dress it up if you like. Pebble battery life – right now my battery looks like it will around 4-5 days or so – maybe a little longer if I keep my phone next to the watch 24/7 (ie during charges). I don’t have a lot of stuff hitting my phone (other than text and emails) right now, so that may be part of the reason for the nice battery life. IPhone battery - As far as the impact on my iPhone, I haven’t seen much of a difference after the initial set up. The initial set up consumed a lot more due to searches for apps, and getting the phone set up. Now everything is basically back to normal. Notifications – If you have a particular app on the iPhone notifications turned on, then you will see if on my Pebble. Simply as that. This applies to calendar appointments, reminders, emails, text, facebook, twitter, etc. Time & Clock functions – I use the Modern watch face since it allows me to see the current time, date and weather without any problems. Plus the modern watch face, in my opinion, looks the absolute best. Fitness tracking - If you want to track your fitness, this is very easy to do with the Pebble and the misfit app. You can track you daily steps, your sleep, etc. I loaded the misfit iPhone app so that my data from the Pebble would sync with the app and would be easier to review all of the data. So far so good – it syncs – it shows how well I slept – it does what I want it to do. Incoming Calls – it displays the name (as long as it is in your contacts) and the phone number of the person calling you. In addition, you have the ability to hang up/push the call directly to voice mail by pushing the button next to the “x”. Controlling your music – with the Pebble, you have the ability to control any of the music or podcast on your iPhone – no matter what program – and see what music is currently playing. I have played podcast and music without a single problem. In addition, you can play your Pandora list without fail. This feature to me is more important on runs/bike rides, or when the iPhone is sitting away from you and playing through speakers. Directions/GPS – I haven’t fully used this yet, but I have installed the PebbGPS and the companion app. I wanted the ability to use my iPhone’s GPS, but not be forced to hold my phone up and follow the directions. Now my iPhone still shows me the way, but pushes that info to my phone. I will update this review once I have a chance to fully test this out. Right now, the limited test I did worked flawlessly. This does require the use of a companion app to type of the location you want to go to. The apps – Some people complain about the limited number of slots you have available on your Pebble for apps (8). To be honest, I really don’t find this to be a problem. I have 6 apps loaded, and it does all that I listed above. The apps I loaded, in no particular order, are the Modern watch face, Misfit, Battery Lifetime, PebbGPS, Pandora, and Multi Timer (basically a very nice timer). In my locker (where you can easily upload to your watch), I have Gentle Wake, ESPN, and Cards for Pebble. The companion apps I loaded include, PebbGPS, RunKeeper, and Misfit.

If you're looking for a top-end smart watch, this is not it. If you're looking to get into the smart watch segment without spending hundreds of dollars, this is what you're looking for. No, it doesn't do everything the Apple Watch or Android Wear does, but it lets you tell at a glance if it's worth pulling your phone out. If you're looking at this and the original pebble, spend the extra $$ for a better fit and finish, look, and build quality Pros: Supports both Android and IOS (only smart watch to do so). E-Ink gives several days of use on a single charge. Great visibility in bright light with e-ink. Great visibility in low light with backlight. Decent amount of optional apps for customization and additional features. Water resistant (replace leather band with metal or silicone). Great entry level smart watch at a great price. Cons: No voice responses (but you can respond with pre-programmed responses). Limited to 8 custom apps (additional apps can be stored in a "locker" on your phone and swapped out without re-downloading).

This watch fit well, looked great, the battery had a long life and there are a ton of apps for it. However, it just wasn't for me. I was initially excited about receiving alerts for calls and texts on my wrist, but I quickly realized that the alerts stressed me out much worse than my phone in my pocket and I felt as though I couldn't disconnect from the world as easy. I also quickly figured out that it was not comfortable enough to wear to sleep for sleep tracking. Sure I could have turned off all alerts but then that defeats the purpose of a smart watch. I could've taken the watch off when I wanted to be phone free, but that is no different than taking my phone out of my pocket and leaving it in another room. And with no sleep tracking, I just decided to return it and go back to my old analog watch and phone in pocket combo. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to be connected all the time because it really is a great product.

The Pebble Steel is a great smart watch for iOS users waiting for the infamous iWatch. For just telling time it allows for a slew of user created watch faces to fit anyone's personal style. It has a a great assortment of utility apps to work nicely on their own or with a iPhone or android companion app. It also can run games, remotes, health and fitness apps, and a plethora of other helpful apps. It looks very nice, has a great feel, and is the perfect size. It is worth an extra $80 compaired to it's older original Pebble? Don't think so. Especially since the Best Buy model only has the leather band. It is basically the same guts too. They only added a couple of less noticeable features. There is no internal mic for connecting to Siri or speaker for any notifications and or else wise. All around a great smart watch. I would recommend this to any iOS and user out there.

I luv my Pebble. After owning the original Galaxy Gear for about two weeks and returning it because of freezing, crashing, and the inability to keep accurate time, the Pebble absolutely smashes it when it comes to basic functionality and performance. Lasting at least 3-4 days with my moderate to heavy use, the Pebble has exceeded my expectations. Tons of watch faces to suit anyone, integration with fitness apps like FIt BIt and MisFit to name a few; what really surprised me was being able to do things like dial my phone with the Pebble Dialer or send canned text responses with wristponder which coincidentally are my two quick launch apps. Sure the screen, isn't color or touch, but the buttons work exceptionally well and the learning curve is a few hours. Oh, and it keeps accurate time!! I also use apps like Pebble Bucks to pay for my Starbucks drinks with the watch face...there's a nav me app which gives you directions from Google maps....There's a Bible app for those that read it...Toggles app for toggling vibrate, wifi, bluetooth et all...those are my fav so far. The crowd funded version was a hit, the Pebble Steel builds upon that with some room to grow. The stainless steel is nice and weighty in hand, but not too much. I run and shower with it daily because it also give me basic info from Runkeeper or other fitness apps you might like. If you're gonna shower with it, definitely get the Steel band as the leather one starts to smell after a few washes. It's not the flashiest or most feature laden smart watch out there, but it does everything it's intended to do very well. You won't be disappointed.

I got a really good deal on this watch so I figured I would try this out as a "gateway" smartwatch to see if I would like it since I am a tech-geek but not a watch guy. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I used it a lot more than I thought I would. I enjoyed just being able to look at the watch instead of having to pull out my phone with every call or notification. The Pros and Cons: Pros: Battery Life! Almost a week on a single charge Style: Best looking smartwatch that actually looked like a normal watch Easy to read Screen. It lacks color but with the battery life it saved it was easy to accept. The screen was easy to read inside and outside. The backlight could have been better though. Shake to light up screen. Loved this feature. Didn't have to use two hands to see the time at night. Just a simple shake of the wrist. Cons: Bluetooth Problems. I did have occasional problems with my iPhone not linking to the watch but usually a reset of the phone or watch would fix. Metal Band Not Included. I had to buy seperately but it was only $20 so can't complain to much Limited Functionality. For the price it did more than enough but the Apple Watch does so much more. That is the reason I upgraded to the Apple Watch instead of the Steel Pebble Time. I'd rather pay the difference to have a much better overall watch. Lack of apps. You could only put a few apps or watchfaces on the watch. I like that you could save your favorites in the phone app but wish there were more slots for apps.