Gear Review: Pebble Time Round

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[David] The Pebble Time Round doesn't really look like

a smart watch, it's not big and bulky, it doesn't

scream, I'm wearing a computer on my wrist.

It's really small, and thin, and light.

It comes in a bunch of different options, and colors,

some of which look even nicer than this one.

You can get it in small strips, like this one,

and really small strips.

It's designed for people who don't want gigantic

smart watches, they don't want the computers on their wrist.

There really aren't a lot of new features, or specks here.

The Time Round has Pebble's same timeline interface,

which goes from top to bottom, guiding you through

your day with email notifications, or calendar events,

or the score from the game last night.

There are some apps, sure, but they're mostly really

simple, and really basic.

You can say, Remind me to pick up milk at five PM,

or you can track your steps, but those aren't really

what this is about.

The Time Round, like all Pebble devices, is about just

guiding you through your day, it has way more in common

with a Mickey Mouse watch than with an Apple watch.

The most smart watchy thing the Time Round will do

is send notifications from your phone to your wrist.

If you're on Android, this is great, you can pick

which apps you can send notifications, and you can actually

take action on some of those notifications,

like replying to emails, or even just dismissing

them all together.

If you're on iPhone, you don't get any of that.

You get every notification, first on your iPhone,

then about a half second later, on your wrist.

Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it chaos.

If you've ever been in a group chat,

it feels like a whole body vibration the whole time.

It's crazy.

All that stuff is about Pebble in general though.

Let's go back to the Time Round screen,

it's a little dim, and it's a little bright

when the lights on, it definitely cause attention

to itself every time you get a notification.

But the nice thing about a screen like this is

the battery will last a long time.

Even in this tiny body where there's basically

no room for battery, you can still get about

two to two and a half days of battery life

before you have to charge the thing.

That's much better than having to throw it on

the charger every single night.

It also charges really fast, which helps, too.

Some of the other Pebbles will last a lot longer

than this one, but they don't look nearly as good.

You should pick your own trade off, but I think this one.

Pebbles always been really smart about what it does,

it's not trying to be everything to everyone

the way the Apple watch is.

This is just a watch, only a little bit smarter,

and it's dedicated towards the same thing as every

other watch, getting you through your day, and telling

you what you need to know every time you look at it.

Pebble's problem has always been design, and yeah,

the bezel on this thing is huge, and it does feel a

little cheap and tacky next to some of the other watches,

even the ones that also cost $249.

But I like the Time Round, it's simple and easy to

understand and it doesn't feel overwhelming and complicated.

It's just a watch, a smarter watch.