Pebble Time Round reviewed: You can judge this book by its cover

Pebble's newest smartwatch is mostly different in design—and that's the point.

Read the whole story

 

[timeodanaos]

As a techy-geeky-how-does-it-work kind of person, I would like Ars to publish articles with a more technical background and less the fashion aspects. I understand you perhaps want to reach another (ywf?) demographic, but personally, these questions partly addressed in the comments would have interested me:
Display type, underlying technology, cross-platform compatibility, and, of course, interesting nerd facts.

 

[aleph_nought]

timeodanaos[/url]":2zawp4ce]As a techy-geeky-how-does-it-work kind of person, I would like Ars to publish articles with a more technical background and less the fashion aspects. I understand you perhaps want to reach another (ywf?) demographic, but personally, these questions partly addressed in the comments would have interested me:
Display type, underlying technology, cross-platform compatibility, and, of course, interesting nerd facts.

That's funny because the Pebble Time Round specifically is meant to address the fashion aspect of smartwatches. It's not for tech nerds who embraced the square plastic Pebbles of old. It has much less battery life and waterproofing than other Pebbles but it looks a heck of a lot better.

I agree about the specs though, a table of spec details should have been included.

 

[death_to_novell]

Tsur[/url]":2s6c0kab]

Fiendish[/url]":2s6c0kab]If only the bezel weren't comically large.

Doughnuts to dollars that the bezel hides a square display.

I suspect you're right. The geometry works out. That's pretty much exactly what the bezel would need to be if one were going real cheap and making a circular display by just masking off the corners of a square.

 

[SplatMan_DK]

aleph_nought[/url]":3iy5fxob]

timeodanaos[/url]":3iy5fxob]As a techy-geeky-how-does-it-work kind of person, I would like Ars to publish articles with a more technical background and less the fashion aspects. I understand you perhaps want to reach another (ywf?) demographic, but personally, these questions partly addressed in the comments would have interested me:
Display type, underlying technology, cross-platform compatibility, and, of course, interesting nerd facts.

That's funny because the Pebble Time Round specifically is meant to address the fashion aspect of smartwatches. It's not for tech nerds who embraced the square plastic Pebbles of old. It has much less battery life and waterproofing than other Pebbles but it looks a heck of a lot better.

As a geek, allow me to ask you this : does it matter who the product is meant for on a site read by geeks?

Surely Ars could cater to readers with geeky technical facts regardless of the products actual target group?

 

[CraigJ ✅]

Fiendish[/url]":3qbc93t3]If only the bezel weren't comically large. Eyeballing those pictures, it really looks like the surface area of the bezel might be greater than the surface area of the actual screen. How is that not in the Ugly section?

By my quick math it's a square screen with a huge bezel to hide the corners.

 

[ZXDunny]

To be honest, I just want a watch that has an LCD display (preferably round) which I can change the watch face on. It must be able to tell me the time at a glance, and other info too - stopwatch/lap timer, countdown timer, date/month display.

I don't want anything else from a watch; I have my phone for all the rest. And I don't really want my watch to connect to my phone. Surely that will save some battery life?

 

[caspar347]

ZXDunny[/url]":6xdf8omn]To be honest, I just want a watch that has an LCD display (preferably round) which I can change the watch face on. It must be able to tell me the time at a glance, and other info too - stopwatch/lap timer, countdown timer, date/month display.

I don't want anything else from a watch; I have my phone for all the rest. And I don't really want my watch to connect to my phone. Surely that will save some battery life?

Sounds like you want a Pebble in airplane mode. I can stretch mine to 2 weeks of battery by doing that.

 

[emercer]

Tsur[/url]":101z7tnu]

Fiendish[/url]":101z7tnu]If only the bezel weren't comically large.

Doughnuts to dollars that the bezel hides a square display.

If I remember correctly, it uses the same 180px diameter screen as the Garmin Forerunner 225, which is octagonal behind the bezel.

 

[meyerweb]

Well, it addresses one of my complaints about smart watches: they're too think.

Other than that, it's still too expensive for something that will probably only last a couple of years, at most. And it still doesn't do anything I really need. Paying $250 to avoid taking my phone of my pocket just doesn't compute.

 

[crhilton]

Tsur[/url]":1d7dymzk]

Fiendish[/url]":1d7dymzk]If only the bezel weren't comically large.

Doughnuts to dollars that the bezel hides a square display.

I believe it hides battery or electronics. The screen was the size it was, leaving them extra width to use up. This way they can make it extra thin.

 

[Deleted member 174040]

timeodanaos[/url]":21ilz2eo]As a techy-geeky-how-does-it-work kind of person, I would like Ars to publish articles with a more technical background and less the fashion aspects. I understand you perhaps want to reach another (ywf?) demographic, but personally, these questions partly addressed in the comments would have interested me:
Display type, underlying technology, cross-platform compatibility, and, of course, interesting nerd facts.

Why can't you ask for more without at the same time asking them to cut back on information that others may enjoy reading?

Surely there are geeks that also enjoy fashion.

 

[blazeoptimus]

One of the things that's not mentioned in this article is tech support. I received my Pebble Time Round last week. It was unfortunately DOA. The device does not show up on when attempting to pair inside the mobile app. After 4 days with tech support putting the blame on me or my phone, I finally asked for a refund. Its a bit sad since its the most comfortable smart watch I've used. The whole experience sower d me to the point I can no longer recommend pebble and I likely won't be buying any more of there products(I'm a 2x backer).

 

[loombot]

Where's the commenter who always complains about how circular interfaces make no sense for displaying text? He/she is the only one worth upvoting in here.

 

[MarcoPon]

One crucial but missing piece of information is that the "low" battery life is due to the super small battery size. That in turn means that the watch recharge very quickly, as in 15 min!

 

[10basetom]

"The Ugly: Some existing Pebble watchfaces and apps don't work on the Time Round yet because of its circular display."

This is more "The Bad" than "The Ugly" since it's something that can improve over time. What's truly Ugly is the two-day battery life, which you're stuck with. They just removed one of the main reasons that attracted what little market they got to buy a Pebble.