Pebble Steel, inside and out (pictures)

The Pebble Steel looks a lot sleeker than its 2013 predecessor, the Pebble Watch. Its charge cable has been redesigned, and so has the rest of its outer body.

A new LED light glows orange when charging, green when done.

The Pebble Steel (right) next to the original Pebble (left). Same size screen, but it looks less glossy.

Another comparison shot. Buttons on the side of the Steel are spaced more closely together.

Some new Pebble 2.0 apps include this watch face, which also shows the weather (look closely).

Wrist-to-wrist comparison of the Pebble Watch and Pebble Steel.

One more. The Steel looks a lot nicer, but it also costs an extra $100; it's $249 to the first Pebble's $149.

From a distance, it looks like a regular watch.

A newly redesigned Pebble application manages the watch's apps and easily loads and deletes files on the watch.

There's also a new app store -- at long last -- that offers a central place to discover new apps and watch faces.

Even early on, there is a decent number of apps to choose from: more than 200, and that's not even counting watch faces.

Searching by category in the app store.

Unfortunately, the Steel has just eight memory slots, just like the first Pebble. You'll have to keep loading and unloading apps as needed.

Dots is one of several watch faces that stand out on the Pebble Steel through its Gorilla Glass-covered display.

New apps add some useful functions. For example, Foursquare allows one-button check-ins.

Smartwatch Pro, an app that contains sub-apps within it, is one of several that try to one-up the basic Pebble options menu. It requires an extra paid app purchase on Apple's App Store or Google Play, a common trend among premium apps.

Yelp, one of a handful of Pebble's launch partner apps, pulls info on local businesses and offers shake-to-shuffle for a random suggestion.

You can pull up reviews, too.

Apps that require too much button-pressing end up feeling awkward.

It would be nice to see more apps use gesture control.

Trying out another watch face. The Pebble Steel has no shortage of those.

Text messages and notifications pop up easily, the same as before, but old notifications can now be browsed after they disappear.

The Pebble Steel's best feature is still acting as an everyday wrist-worn pager.

A map app mirrors turn-by-turn GPS directions and shows what's around you.

A peek at both the silver and matte-black variants of the Pebble Steel.

The shinier steel version, from the side.

A look at the back. Like the plastic Pebble, this one's water-resistant and shower-friendly (to 5 atmospheres).

Both colors of Pebble Steel next to the original Pebble (right).

All Pebble Steel models also come with an additional leather wristband. It looks nice; here it is on my wrist.