Gadgetory

one of the most recognizable names and smart wearables maybe not the first but definitely one of the earliest has made its final mark on tech history unfortunately it wasn't the most positive of exits for pebble to remember a crowdfunding giant and one of the respected names in the business we look at the last product that they were able to put out before their eventual demise this is the pebble - quite literally the last of its kind age - regard from Andrew authority what's going on everybody and I'm here to bring you a review of this the pebble - now this is the very last one that they're going to make because much of what made pebble while pebble got acquired by Fitbit but after the review I'm also going to bring you my retrospective on the company and the product itself however for those last couple of parts I did call upon an old friend to give me a little bit of help and he has some opinions of his own that he would like to share with you it's mr. Mobil himself Michael Fisher this is the disembodied voice of mr. Mobil thanks for having me Josh but first let's get into the review the pebble - one of three different products that were part of the last Kickstarter campaign was the base model watch but served as the example of pebbles movements forward in software and hardware the watch body bears quite a bit of resemblance to the original pebble but sports a larger screen which is of course a welcome addition all the buttons do pretty much all the same things as they did before and still have that satisfying click the main addition to the pebble - is a heart rate sensor a move into the health segment that started with pebble health in previous watches pebble software underwent a number of positive changes over the last year and it all looked great on the larger display despite its lack of color that was reserved for the pebble time series honestly that might be the one part that was a little bit depressing is that for me I really wanted the pebble time to it's the follow-up to what has been one of my favorite smartwatches of all time but that's all a thing of the past now with Fitbit acquiring much of the company the future of existing pebble devices will run into 2017 with no word on what will occur after if you do have a pebble to cherish it it is quite literally the very last of its kind now and that's kind of sad because pebble was one of those products that you actually wanted to see succeed a lot can be said about the company itself and how everything was handled but for a product like this SmartWatch it thought differently from the other one and it was still incredibly effective swipes and taps on Android wear tend to have a small margin of error and you could get into some trouble there meanwhile the buttons on the pebble in particular we're always so reliable and got you exactly where you needed to go not to mention the community that pebble garnered over its tenure so many loyal developers came to pebble because they felt like a group separate from those who flocked to the giant companies and their existing fan bases pebble stood alone and it supported users and developers with a fervor that was palpable in the pebble app store and in the subreddit and it wasn't as a pebble as a walled garden either it even leveraged the open nature of Android wear and used its back-end to provide voice and canned actions used in notifications and all of this one was set to continue with an all-new piece of pebble tech called the core the pebble time to and this the pebble to mr. Mobile here I never got to spend time with the core or the pebble time to but I was delighted enough by my experience with the standard pebble to that I don't think I missed out on much Josh already covered most of the pebble twos bits and pieces so I won't retread them instead I'll tell you what I loved most about this upgrade pebble didn't sacrifice its fundamental simplicity part of that is the after mentioned preference for tactile buttons over touchscreens and part of it is the use of well-designed software some may find the animations a little cutesy I get it but to me they gave pebble a personality that's missing from other wearables that plus the small footprint and rock-solid notification reliability is something I'm really gonna miss Plus and this is a little more subjective I feel like pebble gave itself a license to be geeky in a way that most of its competitors are a little too shy to do so pebble is no more and we're just gonna have to deal with that at least fit bid has said that existing pebble devices are going to work through 2017 and I plan on wearing this proudly throughout the year but especially after 2017 where does that leave us with other smartwatches well there are a lot of choices out there but I do find myself because I was a pebble fan looking for alternatives that have out-of-the-box thinking especially when it comes to navigation fully touchscreen watches aside there is main player I actually really enjoy the Samsung gear s2 and s3 it's rotating clicky bezel is one of the most unique and still funnest ways of getting around a SmartWatch today it's third-party app support is a bit anemic compared to Android wear but there's plenty more that you can do with it even take calls the problem price at $349 it is not a direct alternative to pebble but instead a highly premium option more cost-effective choices could come from lesser-known companies and one that we are currently testing is the tick watch - it isn't heavy on physical controls but it does bring a different form of navigation there's a touch-sensitive panel on the side that users can tickle in order to scroll up and down on the interface and it is powered by a full version of Android our full review of the tick watch 2 is coming soon but to check that price $179 for a display forward SmartWatch that packs all the features you'd expect now I haven't played with the tick watch - so I'm gonna fall back on an old standby vector first caught my eye over a year ago in fact Josh and I were at the same bar when we saw it and it interested me mainly because it was one of the only smartwatches to work with Windows Phone I know I'm a weirdo when I found out that vector rated its watches battery life in weeks rather than days and that they came in such attractive trims I resolved to follow up with the review but with pebble in the picture it was always an afterthought well after a week with the vector luna i'll say that it hits a lot of high notes the always-on display is familiar the build is better than any pebble since the steal and the battery life is indeed outrageous vector promises 30 days and my colleagues at windows central actually got more than that now it is on the pricey side and its capabilities basically boil down to notifications and minor health tracking but it executes on those fundamentals pretty well sound familiar the only things giving me pause are the fact that one of the band loops broke on my retail device after the first day and the price is a little high for what it is but the former I'm willing to write off as a one-time flaw and the letter well the price always comes down eventually it's not at all a 100 percent pebble replacement the ecosystem in particular is pretty lacking but until we get whatever we're going to get from the new and improved Fitbit it's the best I've found thus far but who knows maybe this saga between pebble and fitbit's fit bull peb fit will still keep in mind the loyal fans of pebble even though pebble no longer exists we are of course sad about the end of pebble but we do have some fond memories that we're going to take with us and one in particular is actually kind of funny and involves both Michael and myself being in the same place at a conference having to take notes and listen to the people who are speaking to us and then we got an email that said that the pebble time was on Kickstarter we clamor to get to that pledge button and no notes were going to be taken until we were able to put in our pledges for that SmartWatch at the time some good times there and we only have pebble to thank for memories like that and hopefully we're going to see pebble users still be able to proudly wear and still remember one of the first SmartWatch creators that really did it right as always thank you guys very much for watching I hope you enjoyed this collaboration between myself and Michael Fisher there's a version over on his channel the mr. mobile that has me in it as well so this collaboration is kind of twofold you can find him on YouTube if you're searching for him look for the mister mobile but there's also a card up on the corner that you can click on if you didn't notice already that will link you to his channel he's got his take on mobile tech robotics cars and also Star Trek related gadgets of that floats your boat and once again a good shout-out to you man it's always great to have a good friend to collaborate with and you definitely fit that bill so thank you again to Michael Fisher the mister mobile CES is right around the corner and the both of us are actually going to be at the show we might collaborate again there so you can stay tuned to both our channels for all the best coverage in mobile tech and beyond because of course we are your source for all things Android