Gadgetory

smart watches a new trend in technology that seems to have a rather polarizing effect while an influx of new wearable tech is coming this year there is one company that harnessed the demand for this new form factor and the update to their popular SmartWatch is now on my wrists hey it's Josh regard for manager authority what's going on everybody and this is the pebble steel but first a quick disclaimer while this version of the pebble the new pebble steel has been out for a little bit already I actually have been a pebble user since Christmas and my version is the original that was bought at Best Buy now while this review is about the pebble steel it will be somewhat in comparison to the original pebble that I'm more used to and after that I will go over what it's like to use the table itself in into general experience now one of the hurdles when it comes to smartwatches is that they can't seem to figure out how to merge the two different mediums while having extra functionality and a watch is pretty unanimously desired it's proven rather difficult to put it all in something that rivals a real timepiece the original pebble was able to look pretty simplistic and didn't try too hard to mask the fact that it's a piece of technology that goes on your wrist and for a lot of people that might be a little too far away from the timepiece collector side of the spectrum and it's more in the trendy nerd area than might be comfortable enter the new pebble steel instead of a completely plastic build the pebble has started to move more into familiar watch territory with a metal or matte black construction that can be outfitted with either a metal or leather band both bands look quite nice on the pebble steel and aren't too hard to change up but if you want to use your own watch bands on the pebble steel it won't quite be as easy as it doesn't take the standard measurement band that the original did this is a level of customization that thus has been lost in the transition but the trade-off is a new look that actually works incredibly well and much better sits alongside real watch offerings the body of the watch face itself has a more decisive look to it with rigid lines and more thickness it isn't too large for small wrists nor does it look weird on larger ones and because of the better build materials all around every button has a much better feel than before having a much better click to them rather than the somewhat soft squishiness of the original there's really only one problem that I have with the new design choices in the pebble steel and one of them has to do with that logo now I understand that traditional watches have the advantage of being able to put their logo underneath the glass and that's not a luxury that the pebble has but I did feel a little bit miffed that my SmartWatch has to pretty much yell at you that well it's a pebble and the final gripe in terms of design deals with the charger while it won't be a big deal to newcomers of the pebble those who use the original will find that the charger has been changed while the new charger has a stronger magnet and seems to stay on better than the one before it's just a bit of a bummer that I couldn't ostensibly have an extra charger when buying the next iteration but thankfully battery life on the pebble is very good as long as I wasn't constantly getting notifications I was usually able to go for five days without needing to plug in over all the pebble steel is a proper update to the original that was already a pretty great SmartWatch and the new design choice is bringing into a more conventional watch style the metal band or the leather band on a metal body or a matte black body do provide very little room for customization so if you want a little bit more freedom when it comes to the look of your SmartWatch then the original pebble is probably the one for you and if you happen to be like me you'll also find sometimes that metal watch is just ring really aren't your back and in that case we always have the original to fall back to and thankfully the pebble ecosystem is very reliable so choosing either version of the watch will bring you the same overall experience in the transition to the pebble steel the operating system has been updated to version 2.0 bringing along with it the ability to check your notification history and also a new Android app that quite literally consolidates the entire software experience while in the past you were able to install your applications by scouring a number of different sources and installing a bunch of different companion apps for each and every one now every pebble app and watch face has been brought under one roof I already have a feature focus available showing the functionality of the brand-new pebble 2.0 application when it was in its beta version but the full version that came out on the Play Store really just brings a much faster experience and is largely the same as you would find in that feature focus video now the best part of the new app is really the consolidation of those pebble apps especially when coming from an earlier model of the SmartWatch signing into the app allows you to easily grab all of the apps you were using before and automatically load them into your SmartWatch and with the ever-growing breadth of watch faces and applications searching for the ones that you need is never too difficult but now here comes the most important part since having the original pebble and having a paired up with my smartphone that I use every day I have found that there is one particular benefit that it has never failed to provide ultimately when you have the pebble set up with a third-party notification system or even the one that is built in you'll find yourself not looking at your phone nearly as much as you did before now call me a communications guy which I am but the growing problem of people being constantly glued to their phones is helped by the ability to have them all send to the pebble if something comes up you can glance at it and if it's not important you just dismiss it and get back to what's really important and for everyone else the time no longer taken up by constantly checking your phone every time it goes off really adds up sure you can easily find places nearby to eat using Yelp you can keep yourself focused and productive using a Pomodoro app or you can even read your notes using Evernote like I am right now but ultimately what the pebble does best is easily bring you your immediate information to your wrist so you don't have to go searching for it and waste time and to me that is the ultimate appeal of pebble while the pebble steel brings more conventional style to the ecosystem ultimately it is a SmartWatch that sets out to perform at least one great function notification consolidation and it really succeeds while other smartwatches might simply try too hard to replace your smartphone or at least parts of the smartphone experience the pebble complements that experience you might still need your phone nearby to get the most out of the pebble but its benefit is undeniable and just like how you might feel a little naked when you don't have your favorite watch around your wrist you will also feel the same way when you go out with your smartphone and it doesn't have its trusty pebble connected to it so as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this review of the pebble steel SmartWatch as well as the original pebble and overall the pebble experience itself it is a great SmartWatch to have I wouldn't say it's the best one out there because we have a ton of them that are coming out especially with Android wear being announced recently so keep it tuned to Android 34 that and all of the future SmartWatch and wearable tech news and remember to watch our reviews on them or comparisons and to watch all of the content from my buddies in android that's Jace Joe and Kevin the tech ninja so keep it tuned here and remember 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