Pebble 2 goes for heart rate and battery life in a seriously affordable package (hands-on)

Pebble 2 goes for heart rate and battery life in a seriously affordable package (hands-on)

 

Pebble might not be the largest name in smartwatches, but it was one of the first brands in the category, and its watches still do things that others don't: Always-on screens. Battery life that lasts about a week for most models. You can swim with them. They work equally well with Android phones and iPhones, but also work independently as fitness watches when the phones aren't nearby. And, on average, they're more affordable than most premium smartwatches

Pebble's new duo of watches arrives this fall, and while they look different, they still deliver all of those great features while adding heart rate monitoring to the mix. Combined with Pebble's ever-improving fitness and sleep tracking, these could end up being the best everyday fitness tracker smartwatches we've seen yet...especially if you care about not having to charge your watch every day

The original Pebble, revamped

The Pebble 2 is a long-overdue reboot of the original plastic Pebble, adding many features that were in the Pebble Time that debuted last year. It's got a black-and-white display, but it's now covered in Gorilla Glass. It has a microphone for voice responses to messages, something that Time watches can do but the original Pebble couldn't. It has optical heart rate monitoring. All it lacks is fancier looks and a color screen

Even with its pared-down plastic design, the Pebble 2 has sharp looks. It's small, too: I tried both the black and white models on (it comes in five colors), and I loved the way it felt on my wrist. At $129 (that converts to about £90 or AU$180), or less if you preorder it via Pebble's current Kickstarter campaign, it's one of the most affordable smartwatches around. It will run Pebble's current timeline-based OS, and will get all the software features on their way later this year, too

CEO Eric Migicovsky doesn't seem concerned about making Pebble a more feature-packed smartwatch as much as a more efficient watch, one that handles fitness tracking and notifications better while focusing on long battery life. His focus is on speed. "If you're gonna spend more than 5 or 10 seconds on your watch, then you might as well take out your phone."

That said, one nod to battery life is how the heart rate tracking is implemented. It passively monitors every ten minutes, and then switches to active monitoring during exercise. (It wasn't clear if the shift happened automatically or needed to be toggled manually, because I didn't get to test the prototypes I wore briefly.)

Two new OS features seem like welcome additions. Pop-up notifications will peek up below the watch face instead of taking over the whole screen, and a new Actions menu will pick quick tasks faster and assign roles to the Pebble's buttons. Checking weather or calling an Uber should be faster, skipping app-opening completely

Step-up Time 2 adds a larger color screen and steel

The more expensive Pebble Time 2, at $199 (that converts to about £135 or AU$275), is like the big brother of Pebble 2. It has the same functions, the onboard heart rate, plus longer battery life (10 vs 7 days) and a larger color screen (53% bigger than the current Pebble Time Steel). Otherwise, it looks exactly like the Time Steel, but at a lower price. It arrives this November, instead of the September debut of the Pebble 2.

The Pebble 2 and Time 2 are like a casual and premium version of the same watch. They work with the same magnetic Pebble Time charge cables, and are both compatible with future Pebble smart straps, should you choose to get one

What about smart straps? Good question. Pebble's promised that extra features could come via straps that connect to the Pebble's data and power, and a few small projects have debuted so far. But Pebble's not making its own smart straps. Not yet

Could these be the perfect casual fitness watches we've been waiting for

Pebble's automatic fitness tracking software updates on its existing watches has gotten pretty good. With heart rate, these could be great. But these are modestly improved, enhanced Pebble watches. Not radically different watches. They lack touchscreens, and speakerphones. Some people might find that's a very good thing

But the smartwatch and fitness-tracker landscape has gotten a lot more competitive and a lot less forgiving. Later this year there will be a new wave of Android Wear watches, and possibly Apple and Samsung watch updates, too. The Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 might face the closest competition from Fitbit Blaze, a fitness watch that does some smart things too

There's no way to tell how Pebble will fare, but at least the watches are sticking to what works...and doing things a bit differently. It's hard to tell if that will be enough, but I want to wear one


To buy from Amazon