Gadgetory

the second-generation smart watch from pebble is now available we spent over 21 days using testing and probing pebble steel and now it's time to give you our thoughts on the device I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is our 4 view of pebble steel hardware was commonly accepted as the lowest point of the original pebble its casing was made entirely of polycarbonate a matte finish on the underbelly and a shiny smooth finish which was susceptible to serious scratching on the topside and even though you could swap the van with any 22 millimeter band there was no getting around how cheap the original pebble looked and felt fixing the aesthetics of pebble was the company's sole mission with pebble steel mission accomplished the casing a pebble steel as the name suggests is made almost entirely of a high-quality machined marine grade stainless steel it comes in two finishes a bear brushed steel or a matte black PVD coating and every model comes with two straps out-of-the-box a genuine leather strap or a steel band with a button clasp both feel very high-quality and luxurious like something you wouldn't mind wearing every day with casual or dressy attire that said it's important to note pebble steel will not work with just any standard watch band like its predecessor due to the unique design of the band attachment for the foreseeable future owners will be limited to the two standard straps a small price to pay for a much better looking and feeling watch the physical size of pebble steel is smaller than before in all dimensions it's 46 millimeters tall 34 millimeters wide and ten point five millimeters thick this is especially helpful for those with smaller wrists though we feel it looks just fine on our thicker wrists and due to its metal chassis it weighs a good bit more 56 grams with the length of strap or 99 grams with the steel band pebble steel also uses the same button configuration as before one back button on the left edge and up and down buttons flanking a select button on the right edge these buttons unlike before are very easy to press and offer a nice tactile feedback upon pressing them this has significantly improved the usability we found it far easier to use and navigate menus and settings on pebble steel compared to its predecessor pebble has also changed the charging port it's now smaller and unfortunately for existing owners this means you will not be able to use your spare charging cables to charge pebble steel for what it's worth the magnetic connection seems stronger so accidental unplugs a common problem with magnetic style chargers happen less frequently and there is an RGB notification LED which currently only works for charging status Orange for charging green for fully charged outside the vast visual differences the company hasn't touched much on the inside virtually all the specs are the same as before it has the same battery ePaper display CPU and RAM it also has the same waterproof rating 5 atmospheres it does hold twice the storage inside though that extra storage is not available to the user we aren't sure if that extra storage is future proofing for future software updates or if it will be unlocked in the future for additional watch face and AB storage one of the more important upgrades on pebble steel is the introduction of Gorilla Glass this is meant to help prevent scratching and shattering of the face and so far it's proven to hold up well against the frequent bumps and dings on walls door frames and table corners we can see no signs of wear on the glass at all but there are a few tiny Nick's on the metal chassis there is another benefit to the Gorilla Glass though and that's the appearance of the display while the display has not been physically upgraded it appears clearer than before without any of the visible distortion light refraction or discoloration from before frankly we're pleased with all aspects of the pebble Steel's hardware it's easily the best-looking SmartWatch on the market and everything about it is more solid from the finish of the design the tactility of the buttons or the tightness and strength of the vibrate motor the software side of things are exactly the same it runs pebble OS version 2 and any differences will be indistinguishable to the end user however we must say we quite enjoy the upgrades brought to the smartphone side of the pebble equation pebble app store currently only officially available on iOS and a better watch app management system within the latest version of the pebble app for iOS comes what pebble calls blocker a sort of keepsake area for storing your favorite watch apps on your phone you can see and manage the apps installed on your pebble this feature makes being limited to just eight watch apps much easier to cope with by offering a quick way to swap out your favorite applications when your watch is full the App Store has breathed new life into what was once a very limited product we can now keep up with our favorite sports teams check into locations using Foursquare and grab weather updates all from pebble and if you want more frustration in your life just install a tiny bird on your pebble a flappy bird knockoff we're still unimpressed by how pebble notifications are handled when using iOS unlocking your iPhone after several hours of inactivity will release a barrage of notifications you've likely already received this can be managed within Notification Center settings but the setup is not exactly user-friendly it's especially not any fun for someone with lots of applications installed on their iPhone on a lighter note battery life has been great since pebble steel arrived on the 11th of February we've gone through three full battery charge cycles that's an average of almost charging every seven days every six days or so we'd receive a notification for pebble only having 20% charge remaining in our experience with the original pebble this is comparable in all pebble steel is a truly impressive product and marvel in design $250 price tag will be difficult for some to swallow but after having used the original pebble in pebble steel extensively the $100 difference in price is easily justified it wasn't until after we use pebble steel that we understood this it fixes all of the problems we have with the original pebble which all mainly stemmed from the design build quality and aesthetics unlike before it looks great with any attire and hides the nerdiness of a SmartWatch under the perfect guys for the final score and a more in-depth look at pebble steel be sure to check out the written portion of this review on pocketnow.com ladies and gents if you enjoyed this video be sure to help us out and let us know by clicking the thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel to see more videos like this one in the future be sure to follow us on all the usual places twitter facebook and google+ at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at Katz's protect and I will see you next time you