Navigation – Stop stabbing your Pebble Time
The Pebble Time isn’t touch enabled so if you’re going from a touch enabled smartwatch to the Pebble Time, you’re going to spend a few days stabbing the screen of the watch.
The buttons on the Pebble Time have a nice response to them and flexing your wrist will not result in any unwanted button presses. The display of the Pebble Time works in all light conditions and because of its e-ink display will always be on so you’re not waiting for the screen to turn on like the Apple Watch or Moto 360. The color e-ink screen isn’t great for pictures (but that’s e-ink for you) and from our perspective, the colors just seem dull.
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Sensors – The Pebble Time is lost without a phone
In terms of sensors, it still only has an accelerometer like the Pebble Classic. GPS is still coming from your phone and you’re still going to need to use the ole’ fingers on your jugular to record your heart-rate.
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Fitness – Pretty great if this was 2010
The Pebble Time, by itself as a fitness device, doesn’t provide much especially when compared to other devices. The apps for the Pebble Time are generally quite simplistic, though the Fitocracy app for the iPhone is quite nice. Pebble has mentioned that they’re going to be adding smart straps to the Pebble Time line of watches but as of August 2015, we haven’t seen anything solid for the smart straps.
There is one fitness feature that makes the Pebble Time standout against the Apple Watch and Android wear devices as the 7-day battery allows you to track your sleep with the Pebble Time. With that being said, the screen always switched on during any sort of movement so rolling in your bed usually resulted in a mini light show. Make sure you turn off the ambient sensor on the device if you want a full nights sleep with out the light show.
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Practicality – Your life won’t change with the Pebble Time
In terms of practicality, we don’t think the Pebble Time is life-changing. Certain apps will make your life better but having used a multitude of smartwatches in the last 6 months, we would find ourselves hard-pressed to take off our shoes to get the Pebble Time if we forget to get it before leaving the house. We can’t say the same for the Apple Watch.
If you’re looking for an affordable smartwatch that allows you to go swimming with, this might be the best option for that but other than that, as an everyday smartwatch, we’d stick with an Android Wear device or Apple Watch.
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