Smartening up with a Pebble Steel

Sleek box for the Pebble Steel.

I use a smartphone in my attempts to smarten up the dumb in me. Apparently it's not enough and now I have a smartwatch, thanks to My Bibe. This is a long-delayed post, though.

When smartwatch maker Pebble announced in January at the CES 2014 that they're releasing an update to the original Pebble watch--the Pebble Steel--My Bibe immediately got me one. Well, because it was on pre-order, and with free shipping to the Philippines to boot, we had to wait. And sometime first week of March, the watch finally arrived. (We actually kind of forgotten about it already.)

For whatever reason, however, I only got to unbox it a couple of weeks later.

First look at what's inside the black box.

I actually had no idea what to expect from this watch, let alone how it functioned. The smartwatch and wearable tech concepts were kind of new to me since I was very much content with having nice-looking watches around my wrist. So the dumb in me was fairly surprised to see a USB cable in the box. It was a charger. Haha!

Hmn...the watch had a charger.

The original Pebble sports a polycarbonate watch case and a TPU rubber or silicone band. The Pebble Steel, on the other hand, uses Corning Gorilla Glass and has a marine-grade stainless steel case (but of course!) that comes in two finishes: brushed stainless steel or matte black. Mine's matte black. The Steel also comes with interchangeable leather and metal watch bands.

The battery should last between 5-7 days on a full charge, depending on the number of notifications that you have that keep your watch vibrating. The Steel is water-resistant with a 5ATM rating, which means you can go swimming with it.

The Pebble Steel comes with both leather and metal watch bands. Need to go to a watch repairman to have the bands changed, though.

The USB cable with a magnetic connector snaps on to those two metal squares to charge.

So what does the Pebble Steel do? Well, first off I had to download the app on my phone (available to Android and iOS only) then synchronize my watch via Bluetooth. Options on what notifications you want your watch to receive (e.g., SMS, call, email, Facebook) can be customized.

Please note, however, that you cannot answer a call or reply to an SMS or email through your Pebble. You still need your phone for those as the watch is only meant to alert you or let you preview messages. It doesn't have a speaker either. Nevertheless, I find the alerts quite nifty. One curious thing I often experience, though, is that SMS gets to my Pebble first before my phone even receives them. Kinda weird, huh?

By the way, you can also control music that's in your phone through your Pebble but then again, you can't play music on your Pebble.

My Pebble when it first lit up.

I also got to update the watch's software. Apparently there was a new release. Next up I need to replace my shattered but still functioning Samsung S3.

Upgrade complete!

Loads of apps are available for Pebble watches, some free, others at a cost. Though I still have to explore more of them, right now I'm content with just having the ability to change my Pebble's display, with several options for what they call "watchfaces." The Steel has three embedded options plus lots more online.

I just love how this watchface makes it so easy for me to tell the time. You only need to know how to read.

Another watchface; this one shows the date.

You can also go analog if you want.

In the end I settled for this. Can you tell me what time is it?

For more info, go to getpebble.com/steel.