@jonobacon
I heard you talking about a smartwatch and how you wanted one. I highly suggest the Pebble. Although the company is dead, the battery life of the smart watch is impeccable compared to the other crap that is out there that does too much and therefore has very little battery life. 5-7 days, actually. They are cheap right now. I highly recommend the Pebble Time Steel, which is still available on Amazon for ~$100. The Pebble Time is the next best thing at ~$50.
Until battery tech gets better, and while we are stuck with Lithium, the micro and the paper dispay on the Pebble does a great job of sipping power while still providing decent responsiveness and screen update rates.
It basically is the opposite of what other companies are trying to do, and if you do not need the fitness stuff (since Pebble never really had a stake in the health sector before the Pebble 2HR), then the notifications and apps that are available for it will be just perfect for you if all you want is to stay connected, but still not be worried about missing out.
IME, it changed my digital life basically. In some situations, I still do have some tendency to check my phone if itâs out of pocket still, even though it doesnât buzz me, but only mostly for Telegram as I have long since disabled watch-buzzing for that.
EDIT: One last thing., I suggest you get a non-leather band if you want to fully explore the water-resistant properties of the wonderful pebbles!
For this precise reason. âHey, letâs buy this product Iâll expect to use the absolute shit out of every day, without a warranty after purchase, statutory or otherwise, and without a software update in sightâ.
I bought a Pebble 2 in the third kickstarter not long after buying what is now termed a Series 0 Apple Watch. I tried both, and eventually settled on the Apple Watch. Itâs more comfortable (IMHO, natch), the display is obviously tremendously better, and the app ecosystem is obviously more thriving. Yes, the Pebble 2 has better battery life, but thatâs not enough for me.
As an owner of a Pebble Classic, Pebble Time, and the Steel, I can speak to the usability during most of my day. I canât say that it is the best smartwatch out there as far as apps go nowadays, as you said, and the lack of updates might see the companion apps breaking through Android iterations, but by then I bet another company will come along and do the smartwatch community in general a justice.
Plus, they are cheap enough now that you can just buy 2 just in caseâŚ
The display, by all counts, can be considered to have very good visibility, even in direct sunlight because of the display tech, as itâs meant to take in ambient light rather than fight with it.
Also, the Pebble core was IMO a terrible idea. I saw no reason to believe in the purpose they were trying to push onto it.
Also, if you want to switch to an iPhone, it can do double duty
