EEVblog #758 - Pebble Time Smartwatch Unboxing & Review

[hamdi.tn]

My Question: How far away from your phone can you be and still get alerts?

i don't think it will do better than any other BLE device, 10m top

[ornea]

Or how far under water, I recall that he has some dastardly plans to run it through
it's paces, next time the teardown of the warranty papers should come after the
testing just in case, otherwise a pebble in a dry riverbed would be more useful.

I use a sundial personally, the power supply hasn't failed me yet.


Muttley

They always seem to fail before sunset until after sunrise and sometimes during eclipses and overcast days. 

[rs20]

So, I'm going to get notified that I have to take out my smartphone? I thought that was what vibration motors inside of he phone were for?

I really like my smart watch because it improves these usecases:
-- The phone can be on silent in my backpack while I'm cycling, and I can still get and see notifications (and see whether they are worth getting my phone out to handle*)
-- Then the same phone can be in my pocket at work, still silent during the meeting, still get notifications. The point is, wearing a watch is the great invariant throughout your day; having a phone in your pocket and being in a position to take it out is not. Before, I'd miss notifications because my phone was on silent in my backpack, or disturb meetings because it was wasn't.
-- When getting driving directions with my phone, I can just safely glance at the watch to see the next direction (know which lane to be in well in advance; rather than nervously waiting for the next voice announcement to suddenly arrive). All while the phone screen is completely off, which is good for the battery life of the phone.
-- And combinations thereof; directions while cycling in particular.
-- And yes, you can dictate a reply -- although you look a bit weird doing this in public. During driving though, absolutely. None of this only getting the phone unlocked and then the lights turn green again.

I'm not arguing that it's not a first-world-problems luxury item; it surely is -- but I really like it and these arguments that it is intrinsically worthless are simply incorrect. The improvements that it makes are slight but very numerous and it really stacks up.

Crucially though -- it is not for people that already wear a normal watch. If you wear a normal watch, then you need the battery life of a normal watch, and you'll only be annoyed by a smartwatch. Maybe dual-wield, I dunno.

[ornea]

Don't you think your screaming outbursts of frustration are starting to get a bit over the top? Damn, you're pissed off by everything...

Of course you have to create a damned account, don't you understand the point of a smartwatch? And of course it needs lots of privileges on your phone, it ties into almost everything. That's the point! And who gives a flying toss whether it tells the time out of the box - it tells you how to configure it out of the box, isn't that preferable??

I thought it was the right balance of rant and review.  And not pissed of by everything, there was clearly features that Dave liked.

Keep 'em coming Dave. Look forward to the teardown, curious how you are going to get it open.

[EEVblog]

I thought it was the right balance of rant and review.  And not pissed of by everything, there was clearly features that Dave liked.

Apart from the out-of-box experience, I liked most things about it. But the fanboys and people who foam at the mouth about how harsh I was don't see this, they just hear what they want to hear.
Remember, the video was an unboxing and first impressions video. I unboxed it and gave my first impressions, raw.
Not my fault I'm not a fanboy or previous user who might have gone softer on the issues.
Not my fault the thing didn't setup seamlessly when I followed the (incomplete) instructions.

[McBryce]

A 'watch' where the battery only lasts 7 days?

7 days isn't bad, the Apple watch only gets 18 hours

I'm sure the pebble thingy is well designed, but I just can't see the point. People who are "communication obsessed" will like it, but I don't check my phone at all unless it vibrates and if I happen to be in the car on on my bike at the time, I wait until I get to my destination to check it. In fact I don't always have my phone with me, it stays at home quite often, but then again I come from a generation that lived quite happily for several decades with phones that had a cable going into the wall and a dial to choose the number you wanted to call.

McBryce.

[rs20]

I heard about this watch recently. I'm not going to buy another watch but it is intriguing all the same. It's called a "slow" watch.
https://www.slow-watches.com/

No-one has ever looked at a watch and thought "11... wait is that 11am or 11pm?". Get rid of the minute hand, sure, but using a 24-hour rather than a 12-hour hour hand just throws your intuition out the window and halves the resolution you can see. Evidently I'm missing the point.

[EEVblog]

I don't check my phone at all unless it vibrates and if I happen to be in the car on on my bike at the time, I wait until I get to my destination to check it. In fact I don't always have my phone with me, it stays at home quite often, but then again I come from a generation that lived quite happily for several decades with phones that had a cable going into the wall and a dial to choose the number you wanted to call.

Same here. I rarely get or make calls, and if do it's usually the wife. Since employing David2, I think my phone usage has quadrupled (he's a young hip phone dude).
The main use my phone gets is tweeting something, and a bit of surfing when out and about, or Google mapping in the car.
I actually find people calling me (mobile or land line) often intrusive.
Phone company sales conversations usually go like this:
Sales: "You can get $1000 worth of phone calls a month for free!"
Me: "But I hardly make any calls"
Sales: "So you'd like a plan with $500 worth of calls?"
Me: "No, I make about $5 worth of calls a month"
Sales: long pause
Sales: "But the $500 plan has much cheaper calls"
Me: "Let me do the math for you...."
 

[EEVblog]

No-one has ever looked at a watch and thought "11... wait is that 11am or 11pm?". Get rid of the minute hand, sure, but using a 24-hour rather than a 12-hour hour hand just throws your intuition out the window and halves the resolution you can see. Evidently I'm missing the point.

They are still popular in some circles, but most have the 24/0 at the top, not the 12!
Why you'd go against this defacto standard I have no idea.

[gemby]

I got mine a week ago, have no pairing issues at all. I already know about app and registration, so i did it weeks before watch come in. But since it is one time process, it is not a big deal, so Dave, c'mon, you are overeacting.

One more thing, which is even more cool: https://cloudpebble.net cloud for app development for pebble, and the coolest thing is that when you have working app, you can either test it on online emulator, or you can instantly push app OTA to your very watch. Not to mention some custom push notifications, etc. Here: https://developer.getpebble.com  is lot of documentation, libraryies  and code examples, for both pebble, and for companion apps on smartphones.

[rs20]

They are still popular in some circles, but most have the 24/0 at the top, not the 12!
Why you'd go against this defacto standard I have no idea.

If the hand represented the position of the sun, having 12 at the top might actually make more sense!
...
I'll let myself out.

[george graves]

A little disappointed in the review.  Nothing a 12 year old youtuber couldn't (and will do) over and over again in the next few weeks.

But this did make me laugh...

You're a fanboy, I get it.

[Muttley Snickers]

I am already at the overload point of things that need charging and firmware updates. Not having any more thank you.

I agree 100%, which by the way is never the retained percentage of the battery that you left the gadget in after it was fully charged and packed away, these new devices with almost integrated batteries such as tablets are not what I am used to. Much prefer to fully disconnect and reset a clock on next power up if required.

Muttley

 

[Artlav]

As a software person, what makes me angry is the lack of it being open source or at least documented.
So you could wipe the thing and write your own stuff.
With the kind of hardware it have, i can imagine making the battery last a month would be easy just by crap removal and some optimizations.

I have the older Pebble, and it is so completely useless without an ability to customize.

[sleemanj]

This whole thread just makes me realise I am SO not the target market for this sort of thing.

Not only am I seldom within 10 meters of my "smart" phone (a G1) even on the rare occasion I remember to actually switch it on (let alone charge it), but I never wear a watch either :-/

[EEVblog]

I would advise against taking it in the mud. Small bits of grit could work their way into the buttons or the seal and compromise the water resistance.

That's kinda the point.

[EEVblog]

One more thing, which is even more cool: https://cloudpebble.net cloud for app development for pebble, and the coolest thing is that when you have working app, you can either test it on online emulator, or you can instantly push app OTA to your very watch. Not to mention some custom push notifications, etc. Here: https://developer.getpebble.com  is lot of documentation, libraryies  and code examples, for both pebble, and for companion apps on smartphones.

That does look pretty cool. Even a dummy like me might be able to write an app.

[ornea]

It's called a "slow" watch.
https://www.slow-watches.com/

If I had a website selling watches, all the watches would be animated with a freegeoip.net lookup to display the visitors time on them.

[amyk]

In other words it's just a glorified remote control for your smartphone that you can wear on your wrist... and incidentally it can be coaxed into being a watch.

[Grapsus]

It's funny how people used to imagine how we would all have flying cars and clean unlimited energy in the future. Instead we spend an hour to start a damn watch that can't tell time. 

Seriously, even if I'd never buy one, I thought this new pebble would be cool with its ink display. But it looks just like another "internet of things" crap. With 20 million bucks don't they have a panel of real people to survey in order to smooth the user experience and ship the watch with features that bring at least some value ? At this stage it really makes me think of the home automation market: lots of companies try to make products, there is a huge expectation, lots of press coverage but in the end it doesn't solve a single damn problem for the user.

Really can't blame Dave for being pissed off here.

[free_electron]

I received mine a couple of days a go.
I did not have so much trouble as Dave had.

I did not read any stinking manual and just winged it.

Power on watch. Downloaded App from Apple store ( yeah, i'm on an iphone )
Created account
Watch paired immediately. i hit the green button on the watch ( top button )

I was disappointed in the default watch face , but there's tons in the app store to pick from.

That is the whole idea behind pebble. It is an extention for your smartphone and you if you don't like the UI you can extend it.
As for the lack of stopwatch etc : i'm sure there's an app for that ...

As for firmware updates : good. That means in the time between shipping ad now , they have improved the firmware. So they are on the ball.

Readability. The backlight is a bit dim ...

I only have one gripe. The damn watchband is too small. I gotta stretch it to even close it in the last hole ....

[bitwelder]

I agree with Dave's opinion on this gadget (because, it's a gadget after all).
I find it quite outrageous that a smart watch doesn't show as the first thing the time, or at least ask for time settings. IIRC even when starting a smart phone one of the first settings is language and TIME. But Pebble Time, no, first screen is Music. 

Looking forward for the teardown (I hope to see some good detail on the e-paper screen, and a look on the estimated life of the NOT-replaceable battery)


 

[Fungus]

In other words it's just a glorified remote control for your smartphone that you can wear on your wrist... and incidentally it can be coaxed into being a watch.

Um, yes.

And your point was...?

[Laertes]

I gotta admit, I am very surprised at how Dave just glossed over the fact that it has a custom connector... I seem to recall Dave being very angry about bloody custom connectors in the past... and in that thing, (at least by the way it looks on the video) you could just have fitted a micro-usb on the side where the power button is... instead, you get to pack yet another custom cable for your stuff. Apart from the fact that I'm not the greatest fan of the concept of smart watches, that on it's own would be an absolute dealbreaker for me.

[PA0PBZ]

Bought my first smart watch some 30 years ago:



Since then I failed to see the point and still do. Haven't used a normal watch in like 10 years either.