Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pebble Round 2

repebble.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 303 posts

Re: Pebble Round 2

#181

Post by novoreorx »

Just pre ordered one. It reminds me of my first and favorite smartwatch - Withings Activité. Sadly, that one broke after 2 or 3 years, and since then I haven't found a smartwatch I'm willing to wear daily. My Apple Watch is now strictly used for workouts only.

They share a lot of similarities:

- Round dial

- Analog hands (though Round 2 simulates this with e-ink)

- Long battery life (Round 2 is ~2 weeks. I remember Withings lasting months on a coin battery)

- Thin and light

- No speaker, so no noise

These are the features I appreciate. I love gadgets, but for smartwatches, I want them to maintain a classic watch appearance. I don't want to worry about charging it every day, and I don't want too many features and notifications to distract me.

As for the "smart" part, I want the tech to focus on sensors, i.e. recording movement and sleep. The rest goes for aesthetics, like changing interesting watch faces now and then. That's really it. Most products on the market are no what I want because what the tech brings on them are interference and inconvenience.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#182

Post by eweise »

mrinterweb wrote: post #84

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave t…

If it doesn't tell me distance to the hole, then its just a pretty bracelet.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#183

Post by apparent »

ramses0 wrote: post #174
tw04 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Are you sure you aren’t thinking of another brand? Literally every garmin watch I can find on their site has buttons. The size is also very much watch specific. They will all be thicker than a pebble, but they’ll also all have far more features. Like pulse ox, which is one of the main drivers of thickness.

Nope, some are touch screen only or with only 1-2 buttons. The Garmin's with 5 buttons (eg: Forerunner 55 at ~$170) are decent once you get used to the button-mechanisms, but pebble's UX for "productivity notifications" has always been top-tier.

I seriously cannot understand how to see old notifications on my Garmin. On the Pebble it was just "scroll up" (or down, I don't remember). But on the Garmin it's like multiple button pushes, and even then the list of notifications is not complete. I basically figure if I don't see a notification when it comes in I won't be able to find it in the Garmin's history.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#184

Post by ajsnigrutin »

cromka wrote: post #137
RestartKernel wrote: post #66

Looks great, but a mere 30 day warranty for manufacturing defects is kind of insane. I'm glad they're planning to fully support notifications on iOS in the EU due to the DMA, but that warranty wouldn't even be legal if they sell directly within the EU.

They'll likely be shipping to EU from outside, not selling them directly.

That means a painful order + customs paperwork for every european who orders it.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#185

Post by apparent »

cbsks wrote: post #161

What’s the maximum range to your phone to get notifications? I’ve been trying to cut back on my reflex to look at my phone every few minutes. It’d be great if I could keep my phone on a charging stand and be able to walk around my house and still get notifications.

I think Eric posted about this, and it was an impressive distance. Obviously YMMV based on the size of your house and how thick the walls are, but my old Pebble worked in much of my house and I would expect that as BT has gotten better (on both the phone and watch) in the last decade, the new versions will have even more range.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#186

Post by apparent »

utopcell wrote: post #166
zoklet-enjoyer wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're going on a back country camping trip, I don't really see what difference it makes if the battery life is 3 days or 30. I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4. It's a generation or 2 old. The battery lasts 2 to 4 days, depending on the features I'm using. I take it off and charge it each day while I shower.

The main advantage of Pebble watches was their battery life. If 3 days works for you then there are more sophisticated solutions out there, including the "Garmin Vivoactive 4" which looks great. I'm personally happy with the 3 days I'm getting out of my Pixel Watch 4. For folks that consider 14 days to be a plus, I'm simply mentioning that, 10 years later, it's no longer a differentiator.

The other big differentiator is the fact that you can do anything on the watch with just buttons. Some Garmins let you easily control music without using the touchscreen, but I think it's just the 5-button ones.

This is great for when you want to give the watch input signals without looking at the screen and hitting specific tap targets, or when your hands are wet/gloved/etc.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#187

Post by Larrikin »

majesticmerc wrote: post #126
mrinterweb wrote: post #84

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave t…

I'm a runner, so obviously biased, but I implore everyone (to the point of annoyance) to check out some of the cheaper Garmin smart watches. They use MIP displays so the battery life runs about 2 weeks, you get phone notifications, the ability to find your phone, sleep scoring, step counting, heart rate monitoring. Then there's the obvious GPS run recording which you don't have to use. There's more stuff as well but…

I've waited for years to get a Garmin, ever since Google started removing features from FitBit. The specs are great for many of the models.

But they were all ass ugly, too big, or both. I ended up buying a Pebble because Garmin just never made anything I actually wanted to put on my wrist.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#188

Post by Forgeties79 »

mrinterweb wrote: post #84

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave t…

Love my core 2 duo. I’m a light user so my battery pulls almost 3 weeks. It’s fun to use too tbh

Re: Pebble Round 2

#189

Post by lacunary »

faldor20 wrote: post #48

I'm a staunch believer that watches should be small enough to never annoy, always show the time, and never have to be charged but I think this finally does all those things well enough that it's a legitimate option. What is that warranty though? 30 days is pretty rough for a new and untested product. It's definitely enough to make me hold off for a year just in case.

hard to beat a solar quartz movement if those are the criteria! no need to charge or service it for up to 20 years.

Re: Pebble Round 2

#190

Post by afavour »

I’m an OG Pebble user converted to Apple Watch… couldn’t resist placing an order for the Round 2 because it looks amazing but I worry I’ve grown too accustomed to the feature set of the Apple Watch (deep OS integration, contactless payment). Maybe it’ll be my “dress” watch.

All else aside I hope this might inspire Apple to try with their watch design. The first watch felt lazy and it’s basically unchanged since then.

Post reply on HN