Pebble Steel: Battery Life

Stamina is a real bone of contention with smartwatch owners. The first wave of Android Wear watches were plagued with terrible battery life, meaning that users had to charge their devices every night to ensure they didn’t run out of juice halfway through the next day.

The Pebble Steel is advertised as having 5 to 7 days of lasting power, and while that’s probably achievable with very little use, we found that 4 to 5 days is a more realistic figure. Even so, that’s impressive when compared to rival watches like the Moto 360 and LG G-Watch – neither of which is capable of lasting anywhere near the same amount of time with medium-to-heavy use.

Should I buy the Pebble Steel?

While the Pebble Steel has been overtaken by newer and more powerful smartwatch alternatives in the past 12 months – and Google’s own Android Wear standard has done much to standardise the way in which such devices work with Android phones – it is still arguably the best example of this kind of device that money can buy.

That’s because it marries functionality with great battery life and genuinely attractive design. Its cheaper sibling does the first two things identically, but is perhaps a little too cheap-looking to appeal to serious gadget fiends. The Pebble Steel on the other hand feels like a premium wristwatch thanks to its metal casing and leather strap – although it should be noted that you’re paying nearly twice as much for the privilege. Given that this more expensive variant offers only cosmetic improvements over its low-priced stable mate, you may want to consider just how much looks matter to you before handing over your hard-earned cash.

Verdict

Like the original Pebble, the Pebble Steel is possibly the most convincing smartwatch we’ve seen so far, thanks largely to its excellent battery life, straightforward functionality and growing collection of dedicated applications. It’s a highly recommended device that retails for around the same price as many Android Wear-rivals, but has the added bonus of being compatible with iOS. The only real caveat here is that the standard Pebble shares the same functionality yet is around half the price.

Thanks to Mobile Fun for supplying the unit used in this review.

Next our read our Pebble vs Apple Watch comparison

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