6/21/2023 0 Comments Comic when to quickpress![]() The problem is that the Pebble can’t do much more than track some wrist movement and elapsed time, basically causing it to guess on number of calories burned and distance. I found the swim tracking to be adequate but not overly impressive. I used Pebble to track my swims as at a local pool, doing laps with both crawl and breast strokes. Apple has come out with a similar feature in it’s Apple Watch series 2. The Pebble can be showered with, fully submerged, and you can even swim with it. ![]() They are harder to take on & off but the additional choices and cost savings are a nice benefit. Instead of using a proprietary wrist strap like Apple, Pebble just works with the standard watch straps you can find anywhere, giving you many more options. While I like Apple’s clever custom mechanism to attach wrist straps to their watches, the Pebble has a unique advantage here because it works with nearly every existing wrist strap on the market. It seems maybe a bit heavier than expected when you first hold the watch in your hand but as soon as it’s on your wrist, you hardly notice it. Even more impressive, while wearing it at night for sleep tracking, I was never bothered or frankly even noticed it. Still, the Pebble’s backlit display looks good in the dark and illuminates more than enough to use the device comfortably. I hope this will be improved in the next version. After a while, I just gave up on that and instead used my free hand to tap one of the buttons on the Pebble to get the screen to show the backlight. ![]() Whenever you raise your wrist to look at your Pebble, the backlight is supposed to turn on but I found that I had to flick my wrist up, almost violently to trigger this action (sometimes multiple tries). The main issue I ran into was that the “raise wrist to show backlight” feature is difficult to trigger. Because the screen doesn’t provide touch and the raise wrist to turn on feature requires a massive flick of the wrist to activate, I found it hard to see the time without having to fumble for a button press with my other hand. But the Pebble is less impressive in very dim light. Whereas the Apple Watch’s screen is unreadable in bright light (the Apple Watch series 2 is better but still not as good in direct sun as the Pebble). Speaking of direct sunlight, the Pebble’s eInk display really comes alive in direct sunlight. That being said, I did find that the Pebble’s screen seemed to get micro scratches often dulling the smooth look after several days of use (most noticeable in direct sunlight and hardly detectable otherwise). The components feel well made and everything adheres without seams giving you piece of mind in the water or a dusty place. I never felt worried about banging it into a wall on accident like I do with my Apple Watch. Sort of like the difference between a case-less iPhone and a Nintendo DS (if that makes any sense). The Pebble feels more rugged and solid, less like a miniature iPad on your wrist. Luckily, there are tons of affordable bands for the Pebble. (thinner bands made the watch itself look oversized & too large on my wrist). I did notice that using a thicker / wider band helped make the watch look more cohesive on my wrist. It isn’t too flashy and with the frame & interchangeable watch bands, it goes well with my wardrobe no matter what I choose to wear. There’s a sleekness to it but its design also makes it look more like a watch than a mini-computer strapped to my wrist. I think it looks better on my wrist than my Apple Watch. And in some cases, like Pebble’s incredible battery life and price, it bests Apple’s much more expensive watch. But more surprising, the Pebble holds its own against my Apple Watch, especially when it comes to the core features a smart watch needs to really do well. That’s pretty obvious because the Pebble is a quality, full-featured wearable watch. The quick of it is: the Pebble easily blows away the basic fitness trackers like FitBit and the MisFit 2 in terms of features, usability, & design. Having been a long time Apple Watch user (been wearing an Apple Watch since it was first released) and also having used a majority of the fitness bands on the market, I wanted to see how the Pebble compared. I’ve been wearing a Pebble Time watch for the past 60 days (day & night), only taking it off to shower, and I have to say, it’s a solid wearable device.
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