Gadgetory

flashy versus utilitarian when it comes to smartwatches the basic principle is to bring notifications from your phone to your wrist but of course like everything else in this industry it's not that simple I'm hi out to use them in the pocket now and let's compare pebbles timeline you I found on the pebble time against Android wear let's start with the basics Android wear is powered by Google and runs off of a backlit touchscreen interface with additional input methods like voice commands and hardware buttons depending on the manufacturer its UI is based on Google's material design with bright and colorful cards for writing information like weather stocks and fitness along with notifications from your phone there are plenty of Android wear offerings to choose from so if my motor 360 isn't your style you can pick up a ZEM watch or an LG watch urbane instead switching over to pebble timeline UI is a complete rethinking of the philosophy of a SmartWatch shifting from notification portal to personal assistant you'll still receive notifications on your wrist of course but a large focus is placed on scheduling pressing the up or down buttons will bring up a chronological breakdown of upcoming and past events and show important information for the day like the weather and time of sunset right now timeline UI is only available for the pebble time and pebble time steel but it'll make its way to older models soon so you won't have to spend money to upgrade just for the experience pebbles timeline UI and all of the corresponding hardware are known for outstanding battery life getting up to a full week and sometimes even more on a single charge that's something the Android wear just can't match with most watches seeing a day of use at most most of that can be pinned on the touchscreen displays which are considerably larger battery drain versus the egotist on pebbles on the other hand there's so much more that you can do with that touchscreen display the pebble has four buttons and is therefore limited to only four input options excluding the microphone but Android wear can handle input from anywhere on the screen meaning effortless scrolling and easier navigation through multi directional menus then again take both watches into water and that fancy touchscreen is rendered useless while the pebbles physical buttons remain fully functional there's also the ecosystem of each platform both pebble and Android wear have well established at Marc with hundreds if not thousands of watch faces and apps to choose from pebble has an edge in number thanks to its longer tenure in the field and the quality of apps for both platforms is pretty good I found the watch faces for pebble more playful and they always on eating display means you can actually enjoy them for longer than a few seconds without having to worry about battery drain when it comes to the apps themselves both pebble and Android wear largely focused on augmenting your smartphone with media controls and settings toggles and there are quite a few games on each as well then there's a small and annoying nuances things like Android wears more than an occasional lag though in my case that could be pinned on the older hardware at the Moto 360 or how timeline UI doesn't automatically dismiss some applications on my watch when I view them on my phone the way Android wear does I wish both platforms were less animation heavy and that's especially the case on timeline UI where you can't even skip or interrupt the animations and it gets to be tedious when you're just trying to quickly scroll through a menu but then again the animations make timeline UI charming it's a little cutesy for some people sure but I think most users would rather see too many animations than endure a lifeless device without transitions I've come to really enjoy both platforms but battery life notwithstanding I think Android wear makes more sense for most people using an Android phone pebble has some great offerings in its Timeline UI and the app ecosystem is larger than that of Android wear but unlike other modern smartwatches using a pebble just doesn't feel all that futuristic anymore maybe it's the hardware buttons and the display of yesteryear maybe it's the sort of retro chic design of the interface and even of the pebble time itself none of this is to say that timeline UI isn't worth while your time and in fact if you don't mind operating the watch entirely with physical buttons the trade-off and battery life might make a pebble of a better buy for you but like Michael Fisher I've just become accustomed to putting my Moto 360 on the charger at the end of every night with all things considered I think I'll probably stick with Android wear for a little while longer if you enjoyed this video we'd appreciate a thumbs up and a comment down below and don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already for more info on both the SmartWatch is shown here be sure to watch our video reviews on each and check out the full written reviews at pocketnow.com until next time this has been high outside Houston pocket now and thanks for watching we'll see you around