The founder of the Pebble smartwatch brand has introduced a pair of new devices running on the newly liberated PebbleOS software. Here’s how they compare.
The Pebble Core 2 Duo and Pebble Core Time 2 were announced by Eric Migicovsky today and are already available to pre-order for worldwide shipping with a release coming later this year.
With familiar designs for fans of the smartwatch pioneer of the early 2010s, the timepieces rising from the ashes retain the always-on e-paper displays.
Battery life for both watches is up to 30-days, which is a massive improvement on the 7-days on previous generation of 2016. There’ll are thousands of pebble apps and watch faces that’ll still work, Pebble says, there’ll be a new iOS and Android companion app to help with pairing and management of the devices.
There are physical buttons, simple designs and both watches are hackable thanks to the open source nature of the software project. Pebble says they’re the only devices on the market that promise this combination of features.
These devices won’t be able to compete with the best smartwatch options in terms of specs and functionality, but if you’re in the market for a long-lasting smartwatch that’ll do the basics and have a flair for the retro then these will do just nicely!
So let’s have a closer look at the devices.
Pebble Core 2 Duo
The Core 2 Duo (Duo stands for Do-over, Pebble says. Cute) watch has a 1.26-inch black and white e-paper display. The lightweight polycarbonate frame comes in black and white, and will offer step and sleep tracking. There’s no heart rate sensor here.
It’s also waterproof to IPX8 certification, includes a microphone and a Nordic nRF52840 chip with Bluetooth Low Energy. This time there’s a barometer and compass sensors and the buttons will last up to 30% longer.
It costs just $149 (around £115) and is available to pre-order now with delivery expected in July.
Pebble Core Time 2
The higher-end Pebble Time 2 has a 64-colour 1.5-inch e-paper display with a touchscreen too. It’s the first time the company has shipped a model with a touchscreen too.
The design is highlighted by a metal frame and buttons in black and white (with a potential third colour). The flat glass lens cuts down on reflections and glare. The screen offers 53% more real estate than the Duo model with 88% more pixels.
There’s the same microphone, but no compass or barometer. The IPX8 water proofing is here, and this one has a heart rate monitor too. It’s not clear whether that’ll be used for activity tracking, sleep tracking insights, or just general observation.
The Pebble Core Time 2 is also available to pre-order now, but it’ll cost $225 (around £173) with shipping set for December.
What will work?
With Google freeing up the pioneering smartwatch company’s OS (joining the dots here, Fitbit bought Pebble, Google bought Fitbit), there’s plenty of ways this can go.
Each watch runs open source PebbleOS. This enables all the baseline Pebble features like receiving notifications, timeline, watchfaces, alarms, timers, calendar, music control, basic fitness tracking, etc.
The really fun part is that most of the existing 10,000+ PebbleOS watch faces and apps will immediately work on these new watches, though some may try to access web services that no longer exist.
Comparison of the key specs can be seen in the image below.
