Pebble Steel Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
1,374 words · ~6 min read
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with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an
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amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts this isn't my
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first experience with the pebble ecosystem and you can find my original
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review in the video thumbnail here but if you don't feel like watching that
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I'll summarize for you the pebble is one of those few products that changed the
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way I go about my daily life the app store has imp improv the product further
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since my original review with easy access to apps for better music Control
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forcing your phone during when you can't find it and much more stuff like that and even better but even though I'm not
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a heavy app user worth every penny only
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begins to describe how I felt about my vanilla Pebble so for the first time
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pretty much ever I ordered the Pebble Steel the second I heard about it
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instead of waiting to see if it was good and here is my review of the unit I
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bought that ended up being delayed 5 months because of a shipping address
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mixup that to Pebbles credit they did eventually resolve to my satisfaction
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speaking of things they resolved to my satisfaction my original Pebble actually
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started glitching out around the same time my steel arrived and while it's
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disappointing that the screen is displaying gobble deg a lot of the time
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it is actually still somewhat usable and after a couple quick messages to their
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support they're shipping me a new one and I don't even appear to have to send
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the original back so two thumbs up for saving me the cost of shipping the unit
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on to the steel now I think the packaging actually says just about
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everything there is to say about this product versus the original it looks
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great feels premium and the message that it gets across is hey we may still be
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the same company with the same basic product but we're all Grown Up Now check
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us out and that's what steel is compared to the original Pebble the main stuff
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hasn't changed it has the same sized eink display with unchanged contrast and
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resolution things I'd like to see upgraded in a future revision the battery life is the same the button
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layout is the same it's still waterproof the Bluetooth connectivity is unchanged
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and it's still compatible with all the same apps the improvements are all in
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the design which is great because let's face it Pebble owners most of the
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comments we get about our watches sound more like the heck is that versus oh wow
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that's great what is it and there's a big difference now that changes the
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steel is available in matte black or brushed stainless steel and both bottles
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ship with a leather strap pre-attached and a metal wristband that was a touch
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big for me out of the box but has an included screwdriver and the ability to
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shorten it so I was able to resize it and swap it myself Pebble doesn't
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recommend doing this yourself but aside from the pins being extremely tight on
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mine I had a pretty hard time with that I didn't have too much difficulty and
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this guide here got me through it in about 20 minutes now that I've tried
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both I think I'm going to stick with the metal band for now honestly they're both
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great and whichever one you like better is 100% a personal choice the leather
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one is lighter not waterproof and feels a bit more casual while the steel one
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feels aside from the added weight and bulk uh slightly more comfortable on my
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wrist with the waterproofness being a nice touch so there's the pros and cons
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of each of those moving past the strap
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the watch face itself has gotten a nice upgrade too it's smaller overall with
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cleaner straighter lines the bezel is smaller particularly on the top and
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bottom the buttons are closer together with a nicer tactile feel to them and
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the Front plastic of the original Pebble has been replaced with gorilla glass a
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welcome upgrade I mean I may not do hard
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manual labor every day but I do work with my hands sometimes like even just
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in computers and I have scratched the beebus out of my original Pebble this
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should hold up much better the last upgrade is actually a pretty minor one
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there's a little RGB LED for charge status indication and app developers I
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guess can make use of it at some point but I haven't seen any news posted about
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it in the last few months correct me if I'm wrong so um looks like it hasn't
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really been used much yet which closes
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out the positive points that I'm going to make in this review and leads well
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into my one complaint Pebble seriously
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you changed the charging cable it's one
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thing to have a proprietary charging connector Apple does it and I accept the
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way they do it because not only is the lightning standard they developed infinitely better than the micro USB one
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that everyone else is using but they also don't change it on US every year
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Pebble what the heck man I really hope this doesn't turn into a trend and I
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hope that they've given the consideration a little bit more thought for the future so I don't need to run
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out and buy new charging cables every time I upgrade my watch to the latest
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and greatest as I'm very likely to do unless Apple knocks it out of the park
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with the eyewatch and the iPhone 6 or the Moto 360 really blows me away
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overall I like their charging cable I like that it's magnetic I like that it's
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easy to use but I just really wish they wouldn't change it all the time and I guess that's pretty much it I loved the
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pebble the steel is is even better because it doesn't attract as many weird
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stairs I know a lot of you noticed that I was using another Smartwatch for a
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while there um to be perfectly honest the only reason I was wearing it for so
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long without reviewing it was that I was really busy and couldn't find time to
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get it working properly so I just kept leaving it on my wrist to remind myself
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to Tinker with it when I had a moment and right now I'm waiting to hear back
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from their support I I still haven't gotten it working so you may see a review on that one when the software
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improves but for now pebble's still my go-to my experience hasn't been without
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it rough patches as I outlined at the beginning of this video but they've managed to make it right every time and
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quite frankly aside from the product support has to be a factor when you buy
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things and up to this point I'm a very satisfied customer so guys like this
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video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it I hope you enjoyed my review
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of the Pebble Steel and the difference in the experience I know I didn't really
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cover that much about actually using the thing quite frankly once again it hasn't
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changed that much so go check out that other video if you want to know what
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it's like to use a pebble guys if you enjoy our videos then check out the
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