I’ve said it for years on Reddit and I will continue saying it here on lemmy. I miss Pebble.
I use a galaxy watch 4 now but while it can do some more thing it still doesn’t fully match the functionality of my pebble time. So many stupid software limitations that shouldn’t exist.
If the battery hadn’t degraded I’d still be using it.
I’ve looked at fossil multiple times and they’ve never matched the functionality I need. No current watches really do.
I upgraded from a Pebble Time to a Garmin Vivoactive 4. Quite a bit more expensive but I’m really liking it.
I’m just sad that Garmin is slowly replacing their Memory-in-pixel display in favor of AMOLED screens. MIP displays seemed to me to be the next best thing to e-ink type displays - always on with minimal battery drain.
I’ll just need to keep my watch for as long as I can.
Garmin is making the best smartwatches by far and has been for a while. I’ve been through Samsung, Google, and Apple offerings and I’m not leaving the Garmin lineup for the foreseeable future.
Yes but I’m sad they are moving away from MIP and switching to AMOLED. That said, I recently discovered Coros smartwatches and they are still using “memory LCD”. Only time will tell if they’ll stick to it or transition to AMOLED as many others have.
I have a Garmin Forerunner 55. It’s light on my wrist and the battery lasts 2 weeks. I don’t think it’s lacking any functionality I had on my OG pebble, but it’s got a few more bells and whistles.
I’m still using my Pebble Time. I’ve tried the Apple watch during my IPhone experiment, a fitbit, and a Garmin. Honestly the pebble is head and shoulders above any of them.
Not the same person, but I greatly enjoy my (now second) Pebble classic for several reasons, which I imagine some are shared between Starayo.
Always-on Display
Week-long battery life
High contrast display that can be read easily in low light as well as in direct sunlight
Simple notifications support, with quick canned replies
physical button navigation that make the watch easy to use without needing to look at it
Isn’t obscenely large
quick launch application shortcuts from holding side buttons
simple media playback control that is responsive
Doesn’t attempt to be another smartphone, but rather as a local companion to your existing smartphone (doesn’t thrive on individual apps, but rather companion apps to complement smartphone usage)
Customizable and relatively simple to write applications and watchfaces for.
Unfortunately for me, fossil’s watches do not match up. Looking at the gen 6, still uses an ill-suited AMOLED display that is bound to have poor contrast in direct sunlight unless the brightness is cranked so far that it will blow through the battery. Even then, the average battery life on the gen 6 is atrocious compared to most Pebble models as many reports say it can make it through one day. I’m sure by now, WearOS devices have worked out some of the kinks to make them easier and faster to use, though I am not sold on needing a personal assistant in order to do basic tasks (as Fossil markets their gen 6 smartwatch; I do doubt that this is necessary for general function).
Also, this might be controversial, but I personally feel that a device that has Bluetooth and is intended to communicate with a device that is often within ten feet of it really doesn’t need to waste resources and probably become more of a privacy nightmare by including Wi-Fi, LTE, and other data communication methods (beside NFC). Furthermore, pretty much every WearOS device I have seen has had a struggle to keep battery life for more than a couple days, and everyone deems that devices that can should be praised for whatever reason. Seeing as my ancient smartwatch that does most of what these newer watches do yet can effortlessly hold a six day battery life at worst, I seriously question why newer watches that have so much compromise and are incredibly misguided as to what a complementary wearable should be are what are being developed. Not to mention that the Pebble classic on launch was $99 USD whereas one can easily find $400+ smartwatches that still have way too much compromise in comparison.
I’ve said it for years on Reddit and I will continue saying it here on lemmy. I miss Pebble.
I use a galaxy watch 4 now but while it can do some more thing it still doesn’t fully match the functionality of my pebble time. So many stupid software limitations that shouldn’t exist.
If the battery hadn’t degraded I’d still be using it.
I’ve looked at fossil multiple times and they’ve never matched the functionality I need. No current watches really do.
I upgraded from a Pebble Time to a Garmin Vivoactive 4. Quite a bit more expensive but I’m really liking it.
I’m just sad that Garmin is slowly replacing their Memory-in-pixel display in favor of AMOLED screens. MIP displays seemed to me to be the next best thing to e-ink type displays - always on with minimal battery drain.
I’ll just need to keep my watch for as long as I can.
Garmin is making the best smartwatches by far and has been for a while. I’ve been through Samsung, Google, and Apple offerings and I’m not leaving the Garmin lineup for the foreseeable future.
Yes but I’m sad they are moving away from MIP and switching to AMOLED. That said, I recently discovered Coros smartwatches and they are still using “memory LCD”. Only time will tell if they’ll stick to it or transition to AMOLED as many others have.
PineTime, ~25$, is the spirit child of Peeble. Its OS InfiniTime is on github. And boy that battery, I can go way past 1 week, close to 2 weeks.
How are you getting multiple weeks? Mine barely lasts a few days.
I have the always on screen turned off and the only way to turn it on is the button or when a notification comes in. My battery lasts almost a month.
That might be it- my screen is configured to turn on when tilted up, too. I’ll try that out.
So you have to turn it on manually? Or does it react to movement?
It’s an option to have it react to movement, but I have it off to save battery.
Holy hell, that’s cheap. I’ll have to look into grabbing one to play around with.
I have a Garmin Forerunner 55. It’s light on my wrist and the battery lasts 2 weeks. I don’t think it’s lacking any functionality I had on my OG pebble, but it’s got a few more bells and whistles.
The garmin is too expensive for a watch, but my £50 Huawei GT2 also has a 2 week battery life and all the features I need.
I’m still using my Pebble Time. I’ve tried the Apple watch during my IPhone experiment, a fitbit, and a Garmin. Honestly the pebble is head and shoulders above any of them.
What functionality is missing?
Not the same person, but I greatly enjoy my (now second) Pebble classic for several reasons, which I imagine some are shared between Starayo.
Unfortunately for me, fossil’s watches do not match up. Looking at the gen 6, still uses an ill-suited AMOLED display that is bound to have poor contrast in direct sunlight unless the brightness is cranked so far that it will blow through the battery. Even then, the average battery life on the gen 6 is atrocious compared to most Pebble models as many reports say it can make it through one day. I’m sure by now, WearOS devices have worked out some of the kinks to make them easier and faster to use, though I am not sold on needing a personal assistant in order to do basic tasks (as Fossil markets their gen 6 smartwatch; I do doubt that this is necessary for general function).
Also, this might be controversial, but I personally feel that a device that has Bluetooth and is intended to communicate with a device that is often within ten feet of it really doesn’t need to waste resources and probably become more of a privacy nightmare by including Wi-Fi, LTE, and other data communication methods (beside NFC). Furthermore, pretty much every WearOS device I have seen has had a struggle to keep battery life for more than a couple days, and everyone deems that devices that can should be praised for whatever reason. Seeing as my ancient smartwatch that does most of what these newer watches do yet can effortlessly hold a six day battery life at worst, I seriously question why newer watches that have so much compromise and are incredibly misguided as to what a complementary wearable should be are what are being developed. Not to mention that the Pebble classic on launch was $99 USD whereas one can easily find $400+ smartwatches that still have way too much compromise in comparison.
Fantastic reply. Thanks for your thoughtful post!