We have heard for a time relating to this tiny gadget and the increasing interest lots of people have shown, but exactly what is a smartwatch and what does it do?

Well, a smartwatch appears like a normal wristwatch but, besides showing the exact time, it includes “smart” capabilities. You will need to connect it to a smartphone or tablet so that you can access the smart functions.

Some have called them an add-on to smarter gadgets.

So what can a smartwatch do?

Smartwatches come with various configurations and applications but the most common features will be the possibility to read emails, texts, take pictures, become GPS and much more. (Note: At this time, the Pebble company has implemented about 5500 apps for their smartwatch.)

As a way to access the applications of other smart devices, the smartwatches usually connect via Bluetooth.

Note: Some smartwatches might not connect to all smartphones among others may lack compatibility to various operating systems (not all are compatible with iOS and Android).

Why do I want a smartwatch?

If you don’t prefer to check your phone every five minutes and fancy the idea that your watch may alert you when you receive emails, keep up with important news, check your social feed or other important services you could have subscribed to, then the smartwatch may be the perfect device for you.

Basically you will be far less distracted than you would be when checking a smartphone, you won’t be interrupted from your work and when an important notification arrives you will know about it. Besides mysmartwatch.se/dam/ of this, smartwatches are used extensively for their fitness applications.

Applications like RunKeeper will monitor your heartrate, count steps, measure your stress level and how many calories have you burnt.

Hopefully we managed to capture your interest so let’s take a look at one of the greatest and non expensive smartwatches available, the Pebble Smartwatch.

Note: The Pebble SmartWatch took birth because of a very successful Kickstarter campaign that managed to raise over 10 million dollars in about five weeks.

Design and Display

At the first glance, the Pebble Watch appears like a normal watch. It has a simple, yet elegant look, without having to be bulky or heavy. The casing is constructed of plastic and has a cushty and sturdy strap.

It weighs 38g and its own dimensions are 50x32x11mm. On the proper side you will discover the up-down and choose buttons and on the left side an individual menu button along with a group of contacts for the magnetic power connector.

The Pebble Smartwatch isn’t fragile and is capable to withstand temperatures between 14 to 140F and can function even if it is submerged around 160 feet in water (this is great for explorers!).

The display features a 1.26in 144�168 Sharp Memory LCD e-paper, it really is monochrome and is covered by a plastic lens that may reflect light. Even though viewing angle is not a complete 180 degrees, it is possible to see notifications or any running screen app without the backlight during the day without difficulty.

Comparing to its competitors, the screen is a tiny low point but it does its job properly.

Performance and Battery Life

The Pebble Smartwatch features an ARM Cortex-M3 processor and 512 KB on-chip storage that’ll be able to retain some apps and customizable watch faces. Aside from the main specs, the watch includes a magnetometer, an ambient light and a three-axis accelerometer.

The apps should benefit from all this features and create a great user experience.

Because of its tiny low-resolution display and the 140 mAH battery, the Pebble watch is capable to continue to 5 days of extensive use and over weekly of occasional usage.

Note: Pebble watch doesn’t have a battery indicator.

In order to be waterproof, the Pebble watch can be charged by connecting a bespoke cable to the tiny magnets privately of the watch.

iOS and Android

What’s really interesting relating to this watch is that it supports both iOS and Android platform.

After downloading the Pebble app, first we tested the watch alongside an iPhone. It was a hassle to make it run, as iOS doesn’t really look like it tried to produce a good management for Pebble but directly after we configured it properly, the watch worked perfectly across the iPhone.

We were able to download new watch faces or access contact support but it does appears like everything happened at the iOS level (iOS acted as a placeholder).

The Android experience is fairly different. The settings with this platform appeared to be more set up and the apps made more sense. Comparing to iOS the Android seemed more open sufficient reason for a lot more applications to select from.