Smartwatches are still trying to find their footing so to speak as a must-have companion device. Early market leader Pebble has been leading the charge and is still quite well known as the earliest multi-platform smartwatch available. Their initial offering was quite bland in terms of design, but subsequent releases have improved the look of the watch – but they’ve lacked that circular something…until now. Meet the Pebble Time Round.
The Pebble Time Round was launched last week by Pebble, bringing the Pebble Time aesthetic to a round designed smartwatch with all the great features you’ve come to know and love. It not only looks good, but it’s thin(7.5mm to be exact) and light (just 28 grams), but you do have to deal with quite a large bezel around the screen to get to that thinness – it’s 38.5mm wide and the face is quite a bit smaller.
The Pebble Time has a 64-colour always-on e-paper display with LED backlight and 2.5D Gorilla Glass protection over the top.
While earlier Pebble models have easily won the battery war, offering up to 7-10 days of battery life, the colour display does seem to have a draw-back in a reduced battery life. Pebble is reporting that the Pebble Time Round will have 2-day battery life and it’s complemented by quick charge which ‘gives you a day of use’ with just 15 minutes charge
The Pebble Time Round is available for pre-order now for USD$249.99 and it comes with 5 different variations, including 3 with a 14mm watch band, and 2 with support for a 20mm watch band in a variety of colours:
14mm:
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Silver with Stone Leather
Rose Gold with White Leather
Black with Flame Red Leather
20mm:
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Black with Nero Black Leather
Silver with Nubuck Brown Leather
If the Pebble Time Round sounds like your next smartwatch head over to the Pebble website and get your pre-order in. Pebble have advised that the watch will start shipping in early November.
It’s not the colour that kills the battery life, it’s that they totally butchered the size of the battery.
OG Pebble has 130 mAh
Pebble Time has 150mAh
Apple Watch has a 205 mAh
Moto 360 has a 320 mAh
2 Days vs 7 for the PT would put the Pebble Time Round at ~43 mAh.
They REALLY need to get an auxiliary battery smartstrap sorted sharpish. You could easily get to a month of endurance without going particularly bulky.
You may as well go with an android wear watch. What I would throw my money at would be a pebble time running android wear
The price is decent, for people wanting to dip their toes in with smartwatches. Shame about the 2-day battery life compared the to Pebble Time’s 10-day battery