Pebble Time Steel is real: Coming in July, smart straps with sensors arriving later this year (hands-on)
Fancy a fancier Pebble Time watch? This all-steel version is coming this summer, and smart straps with sensors are on the way too. We tried it on in Barcelona.
- Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
BARCELONA -- Remember just a week ago when Pebble Time, Pebble's newest smartwatch, was announced and people wondered when a steel version would arrive? Surprise: the company unveiled the Pebble Time Steel here at Mobile World Congress, and it's on Kickstarter today, with wider availability in July.
I got to look at Pebble's newest watch in person with Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, who proudly showed off three early prototype models in a padded box.
Just like Pebble Time, the Pebble Time Steel is available to back on Kickstarter first for $250 (about AU$320 or £165), or $299 (AU$380 or £195) when it hits stores in July. For that added cost you get two bands -- one in leather and a steel-link bracelet, much like the original Pebble Steel. The bands will be sold separately eventually, and will work between both Pebble Time watches. The good news is that anyone who's already backed Pebble Time on Kickstarter can upgrade to Pebble Time Steel and keep their position on the waiting list.
It's a better-looking watch than the Pebble Time, but would I pay an extra $100 for it?
Design: An all-steel Pebble, once again
The new Pebble Time Steel design looks a lot like the plastic Time, but a little more refined: it's CNC stainless steel, and looks a little sharper all around. It has the Pebble Time's same internal hardware, including that reflective 64-color display, which looks better in person than you might think. It's not as vivid as regular color displays, but comes with faster refresh rates and looks crisper than Qualcomm's Mirasol screens.
The leap in style between the Time and Time Steel isn't as great as the one between the original Pebble and the Pebble Steel. Last year's Pebble Steel was metal and glass compared to the Pebble's all-plastic body; here, both Pebble Time watch models have Gorilla Glass screens and metal bezels.
The Time Steel is also a tad thicker than the Pebble Time, but that's understandable when you realize the other trick up its sleeve: extra battery life. It'll last up to 10 days on a charge, up from the seven-day maximum on the Pebble Time. That alone might encourage people to upgrade.
The gold, silver and black versions all looked good, but the silver stood out most on my wrist. The black version, with its two-tone bezel, looks a little too much like the regular Pebble Time for my tastes.
Smart straps to come
While the Pebble Time Steel is a nice surprise, the bigger news is the promise of smart straps down the road. These hardware-enhanced straps will interface directly with the Time itself. The Time's rear hardware port can work with sensor-studded straps made by third parties.
New straps could attach to the new Pebble Time watches and hook into the port in the back, adding new features like GPS, heart-rate sensors or even LED lights while the port powers the accessory. Pebble is already working with third-party developers to create some of these straps, and according to Pebble the first smart straps will be shipping later this year.
In Pebble's press release, Migicovsky clearly lays out his opinion on sensors in straps versus the watch body: "In order to add a heart-rate monitor or GPS directly into a smartwatch, you have to make serious compromises on design and battery life. And it's likely that if you buy a watch with a certain sensor today, it will be out of date within 12 months.
"We are creating an open platform that will enable anyone to build smart straps for Pebble watches. For example, imagine a smart strap with a GPS chip or a heart-rate monitor, that transforms Pebble Time into a high-performance fitness watch; or a strap with a pollution sensor inside, that keeps track of the environment around you; or a strap with an extra battery that extends the battery life of Pebble Time past seven days. We can't wait to see what people develop; the opportunities are endless," Migicovsky says.
That smart strap plan sounds ambitious to say the least, but Migicovsky suggested a lot of imminent and longer-range possibilities when I met with him, including possibly powering a fiber-optic LED band that could receive glowing messages along the length. The smart straps can be swapped on the fly as needed, allowing someone to conceivably carry several at once and put them on at whim. It's a pretty ingenious idea.
If smart straps work as advertised, they could be the best part of Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel, and could help make this new generation of Pebble watches much more versatile than they seemed just a few weeks ago.