11
votes
Smart watch for Android post-Pebble
Hi there everyone. I gave up on smart watches after Pebble sold out to fitbit and my OG Pebble started having screen issues (again). I never watched to spend hundreds on a smart watch or switch to the iOS ecosystem to use an Apple watch.
I was wondering if anyone here has had success with any other watches after having to give up their Pebble, something with a great battery life and good notification features without resorting to terrible china-watches.
Hope you have a great day!
I'm using an Asus Zenwatch 3, and I'm waiting for AsteroidOS to be fully ready for it to make it run even better and more free. I got it on a special for around $180 and I can't say that I have any regrets tbh, decent battery life, doesn't suffer from the tire like the Moto 360 does, looks great and runs well, but I know it can run even better when not being encumbered by Google for sure. From everyone around me, I can imagine some Pebbles were really nifty devices for what they were, esp. the battery life! :D
What about AsteroidOS excites you? I have a compatible watch and am looking for a reason to try it.
Just the fact that it comes with the bare essentials and won't slow the watch to a crawl due to those extra background services. I try to run as much free-software as I can on my devices so that's a big bonus. Looks might be a bit meh but I'm sure it's themeable in one way or some point in time.
Nice, thanks for clarifying!
I haven't ever had a pebble but I have had multiple smart watches, the battery lives on most of the popular Android Wear watches last a couple days at most, which will probably not be much coming from a pebble watch. If you're willing to live with that, there are plenty of options to choose from, some cheaper than others.
Which android wear watches have you used? Do you think its worth picking up an older one or do they not hold up well with updates/performance?
I've used the original LG G Watch, the LG G Watch Urbane, and the Wear24.
I currently switch off between the Urbane and the Wear24, they are both pretty much current in software and performance but will probably not get any more updates.
I hear the LG Style can be had for a pretty great price nowadays, and it's a fairly recent watch.
I had a pebble time steel and I am now using the fitbit versa. I like it a lot
Likewise for the fitbit ionic. It's undoubtedly a fitbit, but I think the overall functionality, watch faces, and apps get it edged a bit closer to smart watch territory.
I know some people love the Amazfit Bip, don't have one myself, it has an E-ink screen, battery lasts 45 days or something ridiculous like that supposedly. Again haven't used it myself, but heard good things. I just recently got a Fitbit Versa, 4-5 day battery life, it is ok, but I miss my Pebble Time Steel RIP :(
Does the versa do vibration, visual text alerts and whatnot? does it have a mic for like hey google stuff?
It does vibration and visual text alerts, you can select what apps will send alerts to your watch, and it will honor you Do Not Disturb settings on Android. It does not have a mic on it, so no voice control which I rarely used on my pebble, so I don't really miss it.
I had an LG Watch Urbane before my Pebble, and the battery life made it a non started for me. The Fitbit Versa seems like a nice compromise between battery life of the Pebble and being a "smart watch". But to be honest it isn't perfect, and I'm still going to wait for a true successor to the Pebble, or an android watch that can last more than a day or two, that looks good and isn't huge. On my Versa it doesn't always turn the screen on when I left my wrist (which as a watch is annoying), and has a few small UI annoyances, but it is not too heavy on my wrist, battery lasts a while, can see notifications with details, etc. So for now it is IMO the best option for android users, but it isn't perfect.
I'm honestly so sad that I missed the Pebble. Is it worth picking up an old one or are they pretty much junk now?
My Pebble Time still:
I will lament the loss of voice dictation at the end of the month though.
I think the later ones (except the round) are still sort of supported by the community, I know one of the issues was due to the servers shutting down so a lot of the apps must be side loaded now. Probably not worth it because the supply is gone too and prices are likely to be inflated at this point.
I made the switch from a Pebble Round to the Huawei watch. It's got a round face, so it's not obviously a smart watch at first glance. Great screen, simple design with just one button, and compatible with standard watch bands that you can buy online. It's wonderful all around. Highly recommend.
I am still using the original Pebble Time. May not look very cool but it is very practical. Especially after installing Pebble Tasker and interesting it with Tasker.
I tried looking into some Android Wear watches but battery less than 1-2 days is awful. Samsung watches seem alright but they don't have great 3rd party software support.
I've got a Garmin Vivoactive 3. When it works, it's great. The problem is that it's buggy as hell. This has admittedly gotten better over the last month or two (maybe one of those software updates finally fixed it), but it used to randomly partially disconnect from my phone on a regular basis, requiring power cycling both phone and watch to fix it (temporarily).
I replaced by Pebble Time with an LG Watch Style. I like the Style a lot; I don't mind charging it every night because WearOS doesn't support sleep tracking like Pebble did, so there's no point keeping it on overnight (the biggest feature loss I've experienced switching to WearOS). However, Qualcomm is likely coming out with a new wearable chipset for the first time in 2 years, so I would counsel waiting for the new generation of devices rather than buying now.