Gadget review: a Pebble that rocks

All clear: the Pebble E-Paper Watch is easy to read outdoors. Source: Supplied

IT'S the gadget that raised $10.2 million in 48 days to become the richest project in Kickstarter history.

It's also one of the leading catalysts behind the wearable technology trend.

The Pebble E-Paper Watch has won attention the world over and it's done so with one promise: to deliver news to your wrist so you can keep your smartphone stashed.

With demand setting records, the fledgling company has been shipping 15,000 watches a week since late January. Switched On borrowed one of the few to reach Australia for a thorough test drive.

Despite its rich background, the Pebble arrives in spartan packaging. Its plastic form lays flat in a rectangular box with only a charging cord as company. Users must discover how to use the watch by visiting the go.getpebble.com website.

In reality, the Pebble looks like its prototypes. Its plastic face is glossy and houses a 1.26-inch, 144x168-pixel, black-and-white E-Paper display. This helps extend its battery life and ensures it can be read outdoors, while providing a backlight for easy reading.

The watch is controlled with four buttons - a menu button on the left; up, down and selection buttons on the right. Contacts for its USB-ended charger also line its left side.

The Pebble has a slim profile, at 8.4mm, and a flexible rubber band, making it easy to wear. It doesn't match the sophistication conjured by the term "Apple iWatch" but it is well made, solid and its water-resistance underlines the point.

Setting up the Pebble watch is straightforward. Apple iPhone and Google Android users must download the appropriate Pebble app and pair smartphone with watch using a Bluetooth connection.

That it can be used with both major phone software brands is a bonus.

With the Pebble app, users can choose which notifications appear on the smartwatch screen. These can include incoming calls (with ID), text messages, calendar reminders and emails.

All these notifications worked as promised within moments of pairing the Pebble with a Samsung smartphone. Texts appeared on the Pebble's screen before they did on the phone's display, and email notifications arrived with abridged messages.

Incoming calls can be rejected with the push of a watch button. Apple iPhone users can remotely answer calls with another button.

The Pebble app also offers notifications from third-party apps, including Facebook and WhatsApp, but these proved more difficult to use successfully. After scanning forums for answers, we installed the free Pebble Notifier app to overcome these issues.

With this app, users can also nominate notifications to appear on the Pebble screen. We marvelled as tweets arrived on our wrist in real-time.

Notifications are clearly the biggest attraction of this device and what transforms the Pebble from a wristwatch into a connected, must-have device. Its sturdier-than-usual Bluetooth connection is also to be applauded, reconnecting to its host phone without delay.

The Pebble watch offers extra features, too. These include a host of clock faces ranging from traditional to unorthodox, recurring vibrating alarms, and the ability to control music playback on your smartphone, whether it's songs stored in the handset or in services like Spotify.

As the watch is loaded with sensors, including a magnetometer, ambient light sensor, and three-axis accelerometer for movement-tracking, its makers have promised more apps to extend its use.

The promised cycling, jogging and golfing apps are yet to arrive. They will make this smartwatch more useful when they do.

The Pebble delivers as many as seven days' service from one charge. Perhaps given the frequency of our notifications, ours lasted just six days.

The watch's shiny face also attracted plenty of fingerprints.

Quibbles and future promises aside, the Pebble smartwatch is compulsively convenient. Once set up correctly, it's hard to keep your eyes off it and it makes a convincing case for wearable technology.

* PEBBLE E-PAPER WATCH
Pebble, $US150
getpebble.com
Rating: 4.5/5

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