Editors' Note: Pebble has shut down and is no longer manufacturing or selling smartwatches. Existing devices should continue to work as they have, but functionality or service may be reduced in the future. As such, we can no longer recommend this product. Our original review is below.
Hot on Apple's heels, Pebble is updating its smartwatch lineup with a lot of same the fitness-tracking functionality you'll find in the Apple Watch Series 2 ($180.52 at Amazon) or a dedicated fitness tracker. The Pebble 2 + Heart Rate ($129.99) is the first out of the gate, with a lighter, slimmer design than the original Pebble Classic, along with an accelerometer and an optical heart rate monitor to track your workouts and sleep. But heart rate and sleep results were inconsistent in testing, so you're better off with a fitness tracker like the Fitbit Charge 2 ($149.95 at Fitbit) . And if the fitness features don't hold much appeal, the Pebble Classic can be had for about half the price, and remains an Editors' Choice.
Design and Display
The Pebble 2 is available in five colors: black, white, aqua/white, charcoal/flame, or charcoal/lime (we received the charcoal/lime version for review). The watch weighs 1.1 ounces, including the band, and the face measures 1.5 by 1.2 inches (HW). That makes it both lighter and slimmer than the Pebble Classic (2.0 by 1.4 by 0.5 inches, 1.5 ounces) and the Pebble Time ($0.00 at Amazon) (1.6 by 1.5 by 0.4 inches, 1.5 ounces). Pebble is working on a new version of the Pebble Time, the Pebble Time 2 + Heart Rate, which should be available in January 2017.
The polycarbonate case looks very similar to previous Pebbles. There are four plastic buttons for navigating menu screens—three on the right side, one on the left—along with a microphone on the right for voice replies. There's a magnetic charging port on the back for the included proprietary charging cable.
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You need to install the included 22mm silicone strap when you first get the watch; it uses quick-release pins so you can swap it out for any standard 22mm band. The strap is soft and smooth to the touch, similar to the Sport band on the Apple Watch Series 2. I kept the Pebble 2 on for several days and nights without it ever feeling uncomfortable or in the way.
The watch face is slightly curved so it contours to your wrist. The display is an always-on 1.26-inch, 144-by-168-pixel monochrome e-paper panel with LED backlighting. It's the same as you'll find on the Pebble Classic, but it's covered with Gorilla Glass 3 for an extra layer of scratch resistance. The screen is crisp and easy to see indoors and out, even under direct sunlight. The backlight turns on automatically when you lift your wrist, and you can adjust how long it stays on. The fact that it's always on is definitely a plus, as most smartwatch and fitness tracker displays automatically turn off after just a few seconds.
The Pebble 2 is waterproof to 98 feet, which means you can shower, bathe, and go in the pool or ocean with it. But you can't take it diving or snorkeling, and you need to clean it with fresh water afterward. I wore it in the shower and in the rain with no problem. There's no built-in swim-tracking mode, but you can download third-party apps that count laps and intervals. It should be noted that the Pebble Classic is waterproof to 164 feet.
Battery life remains one of the main reasons to get a Pebble. The Pebble 2 lasts up to seven days, just like previous models. The Apple Watch Series 2 and Android Wear watches like the Huawei Watch ($0.00 at Amazon) typically last little more than a day, if that. Even fitness trackers like the Charge 2 and the Fitbit Blaze ($299.96 at Amazon) only last about five days on a full charge.
Pairing and Features
The Pebble 2 works with Bluetooth devices that run Android or iOS. I downloaded the Pebble app and paired it with a Samsung Galaxy S6 ($249.00 at Amazon) after following some simple onscreen instructions. One firmware update later, and I was ready to go. The whole process took around five minutes.
Navigating the Pebble 2's interface is nearly the exact experience as it is with previous Pebble watches, which is a good thing. The aforementioned buttons on either side of the case toggle back and forth between menus, which in turn activates charming animated screen transitions with star-shaped happy faces and smiling cartoon suns. You can view a timeline of your Google Calendar appointments and weather reports using the top and bottom buttons on the right, while the middle button brings up your music, notifications, settings, watch faces, and installed apps. You can map certain apps to the right buttons for speedier access. Pressing the left button brings you back one step.
Smartphone notifications are accompanied by a gentle vibration, and appear at the exact same time as they do on your phone. You can get notifications for most apps and features, including calls, emails, texts, calendar events, Google Hangouts, and even Snapchat. You can also mute specific apps or turn off notifications altogether by holding down the left button to activate the Pebble 2's Mute command.
To respond to messages, you can send canned responses, emojis, or voice replies. Like previous Pebbles, the microphone here is accurate and responsive; I was able to dictate full sentences while walking down busy city blocks or standing in noisy crowds.
Pebble says it has more than 10,000 apps and watch faces in its app store. It's easier to navigate than the last time I visited, with a slider up top that recommends specific categories for watch faces (Halloween, for example) and apps (such as fitness). You'll find lots of the usual app suspects here, including ESPN, Evernote, Jawbone, Misfit, Pandora, Runkeeper, Whatsapp, and Yelp.
As far as watch faces go, my favorite is a downloadable one based on the Seiko watch from Metal Gear Solid V . There are numerous Star Wars-related faces to choose from as well. A Heartbeat face is another cool option that shows an animated heart and an EKG-style pulse line that responds to your actual heartbeat. The Apple Watch Series 2, by comparison, has even more in the way of apps (a strength of Apple's across all its platforms), but just a handful of built-in watch faces to choose from.
Performance and Fitness Tracking
The Pebble 2 uses the same ARM Cortex M4 processor found in the Pebble Time. That's a step above the Cortex M3 in the slightly slower Pebble Classic. Equipped with an accelerometer, an optical heart rate sensor, and a built-in fitness app, the watch can track your active minutes, calories, distance, heart rate, and sleep. Trackable activities include running, walking, or a generic workout. There's no built-in GPS or altimeter, so you're not getting the same level of self-quantification you do with the Apple Watch Series 2 or the TomTom Spark Cardio + Music .
To access the Pebble 2's fitness features, press the upper right button to get to the Pebble Health screen and cycle through your steps, heart rate, and sleep stats. Pressing the middle button on any of these screens will give you a deeper dive into the information gathered, like a daily breakdown of the number of hours you've slept per day. You can view even more detailed information in the Pebble app on your phone, which lets you drag your finger across graphs to view hourly data.
To test accuracy, I wore the Pebble 2 and the very accurate Fitbit Charge 2 for several walks and bike rides. Sometimes they returned similar results—distance and steps were mostly comparable, for instance. But Pebble's heart rate monitoring was all over the map. At times the Pebble 2 would report the same numbers as the Charge 2, but other times it reported numbers far too high or low to be accurate. For example, I would be walking at a normal gait and the Pebble 2 would show my heart rate at close to 200 beats per minute—way off the mark. The Charge 2, meanwhile, posted much more credible numbers in the 80s and 90s. Sitting still would often result in BPMs in the 40s, which is very low. The Charge 2 would report a more accurate low-to-mid-60s. In addition, the heart rate monitor would report random numbers when I wasn't even wearing the watch, and the app would record these readings, throwing off my data.
I contacted Pebble about this, and a spokesperson for the company said it's a known issue it's working to resolve in a coming update. We'll revisit this review when the update is available.
From left to right: Pebble Time Round, Pebble 2 + Heart Rate, Fitbit Charge 2
Sleep tracking was similarly inconsistent. Once again, the Pebble 2 was right on the mark some nights, and off by four or five hours on other nights, while the Charge 2 remained consistent with my actual sleep and awake times. And just like the heart rate sensor, the Pebble would record ghost readings when I wasn't wearing it. For instance, it detected that I napped for two hours even though I wasn't wearing the watch at the time.
Comparisons and Conclusions
With an update to fine-tune its fitness-tracking capabilities, the Pebble 2 + Heart Rate has the potential to win over smartwatch fans with an interest in fitness, and vice versa. As it stands, however, its fitness capabilities just aren't up to par with the Apple Watch Series 2 or a dedicated tracker.
The Apple Watch Series 2 is far more expensive, and for iPhone users only, so its potential audience is a lot more limited than Pebble's. But Apple offers the best selection of smartwatch apps out there, and built-GPS makes the watch a compelling alternative to a dedicated fitness tracker. The Fitbit Charge 2, meanwhile, costs the same as the Pebble 2, and offers more accurate fitness metrics and a thriving social community. But if it's just smartwatch functionality you're after, the Pebble Classic offers all of the same features and functionality, minus the fitness focus, for considerably less.
The Pebble 2 + Heart Rate is a very good smartwatch, but its fitness-tracking features could stand to be improved.
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