One Week With the Pebble
After countless production delays of the Pebble watch, mine finally arrived a week ago. I have been intrigued by the idea of wearable computing devices for quite some time, whether it be watches, glasses, or the human body itself, as seen in research at my alma mater.
As computers continue to evolve and become more pervasive in our every day lives in new ways, I leapt at the chance to back a Kickstarter project that is on the forefront of this movement and that could land on my wrist now. Below are some of my findings so far:
Hardware
The watch face itself is built surprisingly well for a small indie hardware team. While it is not made of curved glass as a potential Apple “iWatch” is rumored to have, it is comfortable to wear and is lighter than expected. The rubber watchband shipped with the device, however, is bland and mediocre. Fortunately this can be replaced with any standard watchband.
The always-on e-ink screen is very readable in sunlight, and has a backlight that can be activated by clicking one of the buttons or simply a flicking of the wrist (this one took me some time to figure out, but is a welcome gesture). The 144x168 resolution isn’t spectacular, but felt good enough for a secondary screen. My only experience with e-ink displays has been through the first generation Kindle, and I didn’t realize just how much the refresh rates have improved on these displays, as I found the transitions to appear smooth.
The buttons do not feel as sturdy as one would hope, and in fact I have read at least one report of a button falling out. Hopefully I’m not jinxing myself.
To charge the watch a USB-Pebble cable is included, which works similarly to the Apple MagSafe connector in that it latches magnetically onto the side of the device.
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