Pebble Steel

Pebble Steel Review – When we previously reviewed the original Pebble, we loved it. While the device was pretty big and rather plasticky, the combination of great battery life, good performance and an excellent e-paper (monochrome LCD) screen convinced us that the Pebble, borne out of a Kickstarter campaign, was the smartwatch to buy. Above all, the implementation was just what we felt a smartwatch should be – it didn’t try to do too much, but what it did, it did well. Fast forward to 2014 and here we have the second iteration of the Pebble.

Pebble Steel, Can the new Pebble make the best smartwatch on the market even better?

Since the release of the original, a number of competitor devices have appeared offering more power, full colour screens and the ability to run more complex software on the device itself – so how does Pebble respond? Thankfully, Pebble has taken the right approach to upgrading its device. It hasn’t ruined the battery life with a huge colour screen, it hasn’t deserted existing owners by completely changing the software and it hasn’t skimped on where the Pebble most needed an update – design. Internally, the Pebble Steel is identical to its predecessor. If you’ve used the original this means you know exactly what to expect, but it also means software improvements on this device can also be applied to the original. Externally is where you’ll find the changes.

Although the screen is the same, it’s now covered with Gorilla Glass – a useful update, as the original was particularly susceptible to scratching. The slightly mushy buttons now click positively, which makes the whole device feel quicker in operation. The device is smaller overall and, of course, it’s now made of metal. Gone are the cheap plastics, replaced by a beautifully crafted black or silver body with both leather and metal straps included. With this change the Pebble has moved from being a geek’s plaything to a genuinely desirable piece of jewellery – and that’s no mean feat. Charging is still carried out via a magnetically attached USB cable (necessary due to the water resistance), although the design has changed slightly from the original.

A charging LED is now present on the front of the watch. With the new device comes a new release of both the watch software and the Android companion app, which includes the new Pebble app store to smooth the process of loading content on to your watch. This change feels like a ‘coming of age’ for Pebble. Whereas the original software could feel a bit ‘thrown together’ and installing new watchfaces and apps could be confusing, the new app brings everything together into one place. The new watch software itself also brings new capabilities for developers, so ever more innovative apps are starting to appear.

Is the Steel perfect? Nearly, but not quite. Battery life does seem to have dropped slightly compared to the original, but this can be attributed to the more thirsty version 2.0 firmware. We suspect that over time Pebble will improve this, but even so the watch will still outlast rivals such as the Galaxy Gear.

The biggest disappointment with the Steel is that Pebble has moved from a standard 22mm watch strap to a proprietary design. No longer is the strap mounted by a conventional spring bar, instead there is a tiny screw that must be removed to change the strap, and on the metal strap itself the pins make the strap cumbersome to adjust. With that said, once you have the watch all set up it’s a non-issue, and we imagine we’ll see a dedicated replacement Pebble strap ecosystem spring up.