Pebble Time review

For those who want a simple, clean, slightly smart smartwatch

Pebble Time review
Pebble Time review

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The Time's 40.5 x 37.5mm case isn't too big or too small, which – despite the bezel – adds to the visual appeal of the watch. It's even slightly thinner than its predecessor, at 9.5mm.

The Pebble Time one-ups the Apple Watch with water resistance capabilities up to 30 meters.

If that isn't all, the CPU has been upgraded from the original Pebble as well. This model sports an ARM Cortex M4, allowing more processing power to push the graphical interface and to support the addition of a microphone.

Performance and interface

Initial set-up of the Time watch requires you to pair via Bluetooth after downloading the Pebble Time app. After a few glitches with pairing that took me to an SOS screen that wouldn't disappear, Pebble sent another watch for testing. It ended up working perfectly fine, though again, pairing took two tries to take hold and stick.

Pebble Time settings

Once that was all set up, I was able to finally test out Timeline, the new operating system Pebble has been touting for its new watches.

I first noticed that Timeline is clean, snappy and fun to use. Pressing up lets you see past calendar events, app notifications, reminders and whatever news you have set up.

Pressing down lets you see everything, but in the future. The information that's displayed on your watch is essentially laid out chronologically, hence the name Timeline. Clever, right?

So far, I've had no issues with the interface. Its new CPU seems to be doing a swell job of keeping the apps loading and running swiftly without problems.

The little animations and transitions – like a puff of smoke dismissing notifications – are also delightful and make the whole Pebble Time experience more pleasing and unique.