Gadgetory

two years ago pebble introduced what would eventually become the modern idea of the Smart Watch the first bevel was a watch that worked with both iPhone and Android and mostly let you see notifications on your wrist it was also super plasticky and felt as cheap as it looked now pebble is launching the pebble time it's most refined SmartWatch yet mostly it's just a better pebble but the time does have a couple new tricks up its sleeve the biggest most obvious difference between $199 pebble time and the models that came before it is its new color display it's not a brilliant vibrant screen instead it displays only very few colors and it's pretty muted it's not particularly bright or readable indoors and it's fairly low res so pixels are easily visible but it is always on and it's perfectly readable outdoors because it reflects this on back at you going from black and white to color sounds like a pretty big deal but it doesn't really change the pebble experience all that much the times design is also significantly more refined in the first pebble or the pebble steel that came out last year it's light and slim with a slight curve to better hug your wrist it's comfortable to wear and it's reasonably small so it doesn't look like a giant computer on the average-sized arm there's a steel frame surrounding the display but the time is mostly plastic and it can be a bit creaky feeling you're either going to love or hate the times Digital retro techy aesthetic but I don't think it's a look for me there are four buttons on the time one on the left and three on the right along with a microphone for voice recording the time is impressively water-resistant the company says it can go as deep as 30 meters underwater I didn't test it beyond wearing it in the shower it takes standard 22 millimeter straps and the included rubber strap comes with quick-release pins to make changing them a snap the charging port has been moved from the side of the watch to the back and it now supports data transfer that's potentially a big deal as pebble says other accessory makers could fabricate straps that take advantage of this new port but it's still just unfulfilled potential at this point pebble isn't making these so-called smart straps and you can't yet by any from other companies aside from the freshly designed hardware the time is running an all-new software interface gone is at utilitarian means to an end software the earlier pebbles instead the time software is full of personality with whimsical animations and fun little touches it's built around what's called the timeline a running track of everything in your life from the recent past to the near future at the center of the timelines your watch face of which there are thousands to choose from but only a handful support the x color display press up and you can see the past 36 hours of events sports scores weather information and more press down you can see what's coming up next on your agenda what's hot on TV tonight or what tomorrow's weather will be like it's designed to give you a lot of useful information at a glance without burdening you down with navigating a grid of apps and waiting for loading screens the most part it works before to really be brilliant pebbles going to need a lot of third-party apps applying data into it and right now only a handful do notifications on the time are no different than they've been on older pebbles they just have a little more color to them you can get alerts whether you're using an iPhone or an Android phone but Android users have the ability to send quick message replies or take actions on their email alerts from the iPhone can only be dismissed from the pebble which is a bummer if you're hoping to manage income email without touching your phone also exclusive to Android is the ability to dictate voice replies to incoming messages which works just as well as it does on Android wear or the Apple watch which can't use your voice or anything else like launching apps or searching the web which is a little bit of a bummer compared to older pebbles the time is fast and snappy and its battery life is just as great I was able to go for days without charging time which isn't quite the seven days the company claims but it's still far more than the Apple watch or Android wear smartwatches despite all these improvements the core purpose of the pebble doesn't really change with the time it's best function is still getting smartphone alerts on your wrist which is something you either really want or want no part of the pebble time is mostly just a better pebble which is great if you're a fan of the first pebbles but if you haven't bought into the idea of a pebble yet or you're just on the fence about smartwatches in general the time isn't likely to change your mind