What is a smart watch?
We’ve been hearing about this little device for a long time and the growing interest that many people have shown, but what is a smartwatch and what does it do?
Well, a smart watch looks like a normal wristwatch but, in addition to displaying the exact time, it comes with “smart” capabilities. You will need to connect it to a smartphone or tablet to access smart features.
Some have called them a plug-in for smarter devices.
What can a smart watch do?
Smartwatches come with various settings and apps, but the most common features are the ability to read emails, text messages, take photos, act as GPS, and much more. (Note: At this time, the Pebble company has implemented around 5,500 applications for its smart watch.)
To access apps on other smart devices, smartwatches often connect via Bluetooth.
Note: Some smartwatches may not connect to all smartphones and some may lack compatibility with various operating systems (not all are compatible with iOS and Android).
Why do I need a smart watch?
If you don’t like checking your phone every 5 minutes and you like the idea that your watch can alert you when you’re getting emails, keeping up with important news, checking your social feed or other important services you’ve subscribed to, then the smartwatch is the perfect device for you.
Basically, you’ll be much less distracted than you would be when checking a smartphone, you won’t be interrupted in your work, and when an important notification arrives you’ll know it. In addition to all this, smart watches are widely used for their fitness applications.
Apps like RunKeeper will monitor your heart rate, count steps, measure your stress level and how many calories you’ve burned.
Hopefully, we managed to catch your interest, so let’s take a look at one of the best and cheapest smartwatches available, the Pebble Smartwatch.
Note: Pebble SmartWatch was born thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign that managed to raise more than 10 million dollars in about five weeks.
Design and display
At first glance, the Pebble Watch looks like a normal watch. It has a simple yet elegant look, without being bulky or heavy. The case is made of plastic and has a comfortable and resistant strap.
It weighs 38g and its dimensions are 50x32x11mm. On the right hand side you will find the up-down and select buttons and on the left hand side a single menu button along with a set of contacts for the magnetic power connector.
The Pebble Smartwatch is not fragile and can withstand temperatures between 14-140F and will work even if submerged up to 160 feet in water (this is great for explorers!).
The display features a 1.26-inch 144×168 Sharp Memory LCD ePaper, is black and white, and is covered by a plastic lens that can reflect light. Although the viewing angle is not a full 180 degrees, you will be able to see notifications or any other screen apps running without the backlight during the day quite easily.
Compared to its competitors, the screen is a low point, but it does its job properly.
Performance and battery life
The Pebble smartwatch features an ARM Cortex-M3 processor and 512KB on-chip storage that will be able to hold some apps and customizable watch faces. In addition to the main specifications, the watch has a magnetometer, an ambient light and a three-axis accelerometer.
Apps should take advantage of all these features and create a great user experience.
Thanks to its small, low resolution screen and 140 mAH battery, the Pebble watch can last up to 5 days of heavy use and more than a week of occasional use.
Note: The Pebble watch does not have a battery indicator.
In order to be waterproof, the Pebble watch can be charged by connecting a custom cable to the small magnets on the side of the watch.
iOS and Android
The really interesting thing about this watch is that it is compatible with the iOS and Android platform.
After downloading the Pebble app, we first tested the watch in conjunction with an iPhone. It was a bit of a hassle to get it working as iOS doesn’t really seem to have tried to do a good deal for Pebble, but after we got it set up right the watch worked perfectly alongside the iPhone.
We were able to download new watch faces or access contact support, but it seems like it all happened at the iOS level (iOS acted as a placeholder).
The Android experience is quite different. The setup on this platform seemed to be more in place and the apps made more sense. Compared to iOS, Android seemed more open with a lot more apps to choose from.
In the end, we were able to sync with both platforms and were able to receive alerts via email, revenue calls, or text messages, and thanks to the Pebble store, we were able to customize the screen, download cool apps, and even some games (like Flappy Bird). It doesn’t matter if it was made with iOS or Android.
Note: Pebble Smartwatch is compatible with iOS 6 or higher and Android 4.0 or higher.
As a conclusion, we can say that Pebble did not make the same mistake that many manufacturers do when trying to build a smartwatch, they did not try to create a small smartphone with a wrist strap. Instead, they made one of the best smartwatch builds, by creating a lightweight, simple and capable device that put smartwatches on the list of one of the most wanted devices in the world right now.
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