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.

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.

I would like to have an Apple Watch but I don't want to drop hundreds of dollars for a watch that will be useless if I forget to charge it every night. The pebble steel is a great looking watch and lasts on average of 5-6 days with all my notifications from my iPhone hitting it all the time. I am sure if I turned off the notifications it would last the full 7 days easily. It looks great, and I even bought the steel watchband for it and it is very comfortable. It tracks all my steps, calories burned, sleep habits, lets me control music on my phone and gives me the weather and the time. All for less than $100. I love it.

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.

75% of the time is works great, the other 25% it has squiggly lines across the screen or is dropping connection. I am using an iphone 6 plus. I mainly got it for running so I can change songs & change the volume on the watch instead of messing with my arm band, in which it works >90% of the time. The waterproof feature was the main reason why I bought it, I am constantly in the pool, shower, ect, I hate taking my watches on/off, it stays on my wrist 24/7. It is also very convenient for work, where I can just look at my watch if I get a text or an email & I can't be looking at my phone all day. I bought a blue diver band from amazon for it which looks way better than the fake plastic leather it came with.

Technology has moved on with color versions of Pebble Steel with new features. Android Wear now seems ready for prime time. And of course there is the new Apple Watch. But for $89 on a 4 hour Best Buy sale the original Pebble Steel can't be beat. It gives me notifications for calls and texts and allows me to respond with canned or pre-edited responses right from the phone. Plus it is a great watch and readable in all environments. All that plus consistent 7 day battery life, even with moderate to heavy use, makes this watch a no-brainer.

First it is a watch, and it looks good. Not bulky which was a key requirement for me and also water proof to 30m, also a requirement. I like that it vibrates to notify, which has now become my alarm clock and the best way to wake up. It is easy to read in the daylight and a quick flick of the wrist turns on the back light for a few seconds at night. This is a great watch, that happens to notify me of my txt, calls, email, integrates with my music and sleep app to create a great watch with smarts. So far average battery life is ~4 days to 20% and the need to charge for a few hours.

The Pebble Steel is a perfect basic smart watch. I say basic because it doesn't have the over the top features of the Apple Watch or the Galaxy S watch or a the LG smart watches. For anyone wanting features like you would find in those smart watches, this isn't the watch for you. But for anyone looking for something minimalistic and easy to use, then this is it. Right now, I only have 1 watchface and 2 apps installed on my Pebble and it's honestly all I need right now. I just want to see my notifications and how many steps I've taken throughout the day. That's it. Style - I must say I thought it would be bulkier but it's not bad. It's got some weight to it so it doesn't feel cheap. It's got a nice retro look to it when you bundle it with the stainless steel band. I had to adjust the band as my wrists are small but it fits perfectly. It's a nice looking watch. Battery - It's really good. I purchased the Pebble 8 days ago and I've only charged it twice since. So the battery is lasting me 4 days at a time but that's because I get notifications non-stop throughout the day. Features - Again, this watch is very basic so it's not going to give you EVERYTHING that the apple watch will. But you can download apps that track your fitness levels, your sleep activity, and there's even an app for GPS. Personally, I have Misfit and a GPS app installed and that's literally all I need right now. My watchface has a bundled weather portion which updates via my iPhone and it's been working wonders. And the display works GREAT. You'll be able to see it clearly in both Daylight and in the dark so don't worry. Overall - If you want a nice conservative smart watch that's easy to use, this is it. You may have a few problems setting it up on an iPhone but a restart will do the trick. Don't worry about getting it wet either, because it is waterproof. As for a screen protector, you probably won't even need it. I haven't scratched mine yet (knock on wood).