A Pebble smartwatch for a Malaysian

We all know what are watches: they sit on your wrist and tell you the time and date --some even had calculators! 

In the past, I used to wear watches, digital, analogue, whatever. I just needed something to tell me the time. I was never a great watch connoisseur, just a guy who needed a watch.
So when I got into smartphones, I started to wear less and less of those little gadgets on my wrist, as my phone could tell me the time --and I was never in any situation where glancing at my own phone was criminal.

When I saw smartwatches start emerging from all over the place, I thought they were really... silly.

The one that made me scoff at smartwatches most was the ridiculous battery - why the heck would anyone need a watch that you'd have to charge every day or two?
I also argued that one could just easily just put their hands in their pockets or bags and whip out their phone to read that ever important Facebook status or Tweet.

I just basically didn't see any need for a smartwatch in my life.

Until that faithful day I happened upon the good ol' Pebble smartwatch, and I saw how its battery was supposed to be able to last you up to a week, and also how it's quite value priced: USD $99 for the plastic/classic Pebble. Of course Pebble's been around for a long time, I was slow to catch up to it until then.

At that point, I figured to myself that eh, I sort of do need a watch --but I didn't want something overly traditional, and so I thought I'd give the Pebble smartwatch a try.

And I made a complete hypocrisy of myself with my generalized statement that smartwatches are silly.

I ordered the Pebble watch off their website on sale ($79 instead of the original $99) and also some skins from GadgetWraps to protect the watch. Few weeks later, and wham, the two things I ordered were on my desk.

Pebble smartwatch and GadgetWraps skins

So what was it like using the Pebble watch? To sum it up: Very subtle, yet functional.

It's like the father of smartwatches - the OG, if you will. It has all the features that you'd expect a smartwatch to have: notifications, music control and the like. I had many uses in mind when I got the watch: glanceable information when I'm driving, when I'm out of my mancave socializing with people, swimming, and at work.

Setting the watch up is very easy: all I had to do was download the Pebble app onto my Android phone and then pair it with my Pebble; it immediately got an update to its firmware too. However, unlike the watch, the Pebble store/app is a rather buggy piece of software, but more on that later.

The Pebble without any skins or protector is just glossy plastic all over.

So I had set up the watch, taken some glamourous shots, and then applied my first GadgetWraps skin (which failed because I placed it wrong; but GadgetWraps allows people to purchase a replacement at only USD $1, which is great!). The skin is great, it's as waterproofed as your Pebble is and pretty easy to apply actually, looks great too - those looking to get a Pebble watch should really consider getting a skin and screen protector for it.

Then I literally took the watch to town.

Using the watch is truly subtle, and not at all distracting. Notifications from apps that you select in the Pebble smartwatch app appeared on the screen with the watch vibrating to notify me whenever a message came in or someone favourited a Tweet.

The Pebble locker page, where apps you aren't currently using on your watch are stored locally on your phone instead.

The simplicity of the Pebble and it's hardware buttons makes it actually perfect for doing things whenever you shouldn't pay full attention to it.
Whenever I'm driving with both hands on the wheel, I can just glance down quickly and back up to read any information that is coming through.
And yes, I know... I know it's wrong to use your phone when you drive; that's why I'm just looking at my smartwatch to y'know, check the time.

Pebble's music control can be set up to control any media app on your phone, such as Google Play Music or Spotify

I've never experienced any other smarwatches before until my Pebble, but I think a smartwatch with hardware buttons is much more practical than a touchscreen. Put it this way: we all remember how it was like to text with a feature phone without even actually looking at the screen, or when you shouldn't be texting during classes or meetings. Our hands and fingers naturally know where to press on the smartwatch because we can feel the individual buttons and perform actions without looking at the Pebble itself.

Before I actually put the Pebble into water, I was slightly worried and skeptical about it being waterproofed even though it is. I Google'd around and to my surprise there were quite a few cases of water damage. Keeping all those cases in mind, I still wore my Pebble and jumped into the pool. And by jump, I mean lowering my self and the watch in the pool slowly in fear of damaging it - just being paranoid.

And tadah! The Pebble is fine underwater, even the buttons work well in water - no leaks or anything. There is one issue however: The Bluetooth connection disconnects underwater, so my Pebble won't be paired to my phone. I guess this is more of the Bluetooth connection's properties more than the watch's hardware. This is not a problem as I pretty much use Pebble apps that don't require a phone.

Now, what of the battery life? Amazing.

I literally got through many one weeks in between charges for my Pebble, and I'm constantly getting notifications which vibrates the Pebble and lights up its display.

The Pebble's e-Ink display is one of those olden displays you'd see on older feature phones or that old Gameboy you have lying around. It's actually very effective and does the job much better than it sounds: you have great viewing angles, it's always on, you can view it in the day time without having the sunlight drown out its brightness. In short, it's a functional display, and I love it.

So, by now you must be wondering that this watch can't be all that great? You're right, but that's only on the Pebble app for the smartphones - that app is just buggy and takes a really long time to respond at times. It also zooms in for no apparent reason at random, so all I'm looking at is the top corner of the app. Settings of Pebble watchfaces and apps are also buggy, it is almost often I find myself staring at a blank screen when I click settings for apps.

To summarize my whole experience with the Pebble watch: It's a functional piece of gadget, it's not a distraction, it's not something you need to charge every day (my biggest fear); it just works. It shows you glance-size information, and you can respond to notifications with the AndroidWear compatible update with preset texts or emoticons.

Will I be getting myself a Pebble Time (or Time Steel)? Perhaps, but I'll definitely hold out until I've seen reviews of the first batch that goes out to people.

Until then, cheers!