Left: Original Pebble. Right: Pebble Steel.
The Pebble smartwatch was the first Kickstarter success story, and the first popular smartwatch to arrive on the scene. A year after showing the Pebble off at CES, some of the biggest names in the mobile industry like Sony and Samsung have developed and released smartwatches of their own, while others like Apple and Google have yet to release their initial efforts.
Despite the massive spike in interest in the category, the humble Pebble remains one of the strongest options on the market. While it doesn’t have the massive marketing machine that the Sony SmartWatch 2 or Galaxy Gear enjoyed, it’s just a damn good watch – its battery life is measured in weeks rather than days or hours, it supports notifications from iOS and Android, and it has a burgeoning developer community that have produced the largest collection of apps for any smartwatch to date.
The watch isn’t perfect though, and perhaps its biggest flaw is its look – bulky, brash and not quite cool. That’s why Pebble have come to CES one year later with a new variant – the Pebble Steel. As the name suggests, the Pebble has been remade in a steel chassis that is slimmer and much more attractive. Combined with the choice of steel or leather straps in either steel grey or black, and you’ve got a smartwatch that is properly stylish.
Elsewhere, not much has changed – and that’s a good thing. The display is now protected by Gorilla Glass, but operates at the same size and resolution. The phone remains waterproof as well. The only other changes are a new RGB LED for displaying charging status (and available to developers) and a new connector, necessitated by the body’s change in shape. Internally things are almost identical as well, although RAM has been pushed from 4 to 8 MB. That means apps will work equally well on the new Pebble as the old, and developers won’t need to worry about targeting just one or the other.
Speaking of apps, the Pebble App Store is due to arrive at the same time as the Steel – at the end of this month. The app store should allow developers to distribute and promote their Pebble apps more easily, and make it easier on consumers to actually find these apps as well. Combined with an expanded developer API, we should see more capable and numerous apps on Pebble than ever before.
All in all, the Pebble Steel looks like a solid upgrade over its predecessor, and may yet retain the title of ‘best smartwatch’ in 2014.
The Pebble Steel will be available for pre-order on Mobile Fun once we receive information on its UK release date. Until then, you can register interest and see more information on the Pebble Steel via the product page linked below.