Shortly after bringing back the Pebble smart watch and launching a low-cost AI smart ring, Pebble is readying yet another new product: the Pebble Round 2. As the name suggests, this latest device is another version of the Pebble smartwatch, but with a rounded screen, giving it a more upscale look. But like other Pebble devices, the new watch is still an affordable purchase at $199.
Pebble keeps its smartwatches’ cost down by limiting what they can do. In the case of the new Pebble Round 2, the device offers basic health and activity tracking, like steps and sleep, but it doesn’t include a heart rate monitor or other features that would make it a fitness or sports watch alternative.
The tradeoff is longer battery life — the Pebble Round 2 should last 10 to 14 days before needing a charge.
Like the recently launched Pebble Time 2, the Pebble Round 2 is the company’s reboot of an older smartwatch. Back in 2015, Pebble launched its first rounded watch with the Pebble Time Round, which the company called the industry’s thinnest smartwatch at the time.
The newer version maintains that slim look, at just 8.1mm in thickness, compared with the original’s 7.5mm.
Image Credits:Pebble
“[The Pebble Time Round] was, by far, one of my favorite Pebbles, but it wasn’t perfect,” said Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky in an interview with TechCrunch. “It had a few things we could improve, most notably being the gigantic bezel around the edge.”
To make the original rounded watch face, the team had used an octagonal piece of glass with rounded edges that were hidden by a large bezel. But the result was a device that didn’t have a very large screen. Technology has since improved, of course, so the new device’s larger screen allows you to see more text. The updated design looks better, too.
The touchscreen is now a 1.3″ color e-paper display (260 x 260 pixels at 283 DPI — or twice as many pixels as the original Pebble Time Round). The screen has a backlight, too, so you can see it at night. Under the hood, the Round 2 runs the open source Pebble OS.
Image Credits:Pebble
... continue reading