Pebble technology corp., the Kickstarter backed company was the first one to come up with a smartwatch back in 2012. Pebble recently entered Indian market with 4 smartwatches. The 4 products include Pebble Classic, Pebble Time, Pebble Time Round, and Pebble Time Steel. Pebble Time Steel costs the highest at INR 15,999; it is the upgraded edition of the new Kickstarter-backed smartwatch with stainless steel casing as a replacement for plastic.
You must not think that the Pebble Time Steel is just all about looks. It offers a whopping 10-day battery life, which Pebble claim is the longest among existing smartwatches. It has some more amazing things to offer but, is it good enough for your cash? We tested it and found this.
Pebble Time Steel Specifications
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Pebble Time Steel Unboxing [Video]
Pebble Time Steel Photo Gallery
Physical Overview
Coming at the looks of this smartwatch, I am really impressed with the looks from the very moment I saw it. We received the gold and red variant of the watch, although there are black and silver variants also available. We won’t compare it to the older version of the watch as it comes with totally extra metal and better design. The watch dial is made up of marine-grade stainless steel which feels very nice against the skin. The metal is PVD coated in matte and comes with a premium looking polished detailing.
If you love wearing a striking strap around your wrist which actually looks really cool, then you should go for the leather strap. If you are the one who prefers more metal then you can go for the one with the silver stainless-steel case and band, and it is a huge leap over the original Pebble.
The Pebble Time Steel comes with IP67 certification, which makes it waterproof up to 30 meters but it does not apply on the leather strap. The good thing is that you can swap the bands suiting your choice and the mechanism is also a cakewalk.
One thing that most of us point out is the excess space covered by the bezels. It is 1.25 inch thick and looks a little odd for a proper smart watch. The excess thickness results in making the display look even smaller. I don’t know the reason why is it designed in that way but surely takes some points away from the looks. But the 2.5D curve glass coating on the display adds up to the finishing on the front.
There is a single button on the left,
and three more buttons on the right for navigation control. You must know that the display does not support touch input, so that’s the reason for the number of buttons. Feedback from these buttons is good, although you will find them slightly stiff in the beginning but you’ll get used to it once you start wearing it every day. 
It includes the identical charging pins on the back which were seen in the Pebble Time, it supports a magnetic charger that comes with the watch.
The microphone is placed at the under the three navigation buttons on the right which was also seen in the Time. It can be used as for quick replies and voice notes.
Display
Pebble Time Steel still wears the same 1.25 inch colour ePaper display with 144 x 168 p resolution which was seen on the Pebble Time. The good thing about the display is that it supports the always on feature like traditional watches. The colours on this display look subtle and toned down.
I really liked it when I played a track in the music app and the display was showing the colours on the album cover. It may not compete with the AMOLED and P-OLED displays in terms of sharpness and clarity but it still pushes 30 fps, which can allow you to play games and offers great sunlight readability.
Software
The new software on the Pebble looks much like what was expected. However, I cannot make a comment about how productive are these features before using it for some more time.
It comes with a lot of similar features seen on Google Now, which displays time-sensitive content like notifications and events on a timeline with relative interfaces.
Battery
One of the most liked feature of the Pebble smartwatches is their impressive battery life. Luckily, the e-paper display is very economical when it comes to power consumption. While we are still testing the actual battery backup, I can believe on the company’s claims that the Pebble Time Steel can survive 7 days on single charge.
Conclusion
The new Pebble Time Steel does not have a lot of difference if compared to the original Pebble but the polished stainless steel case and new bands do provide cosmetic change which feels as a radical leap over the plastic body. The e-paper display makes the whole thing even better.
It looks good in hand and feels comfortable even if you wear it for long. One major reason that makes it worth buying is its 10 days of claimed battery backup which is rare in smartwatches till now.
