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We have heard for a little while relating to this tiny gadget and the increasing interest a lot of people have shown, but what is a smartwatch and what does it do?

Well, a smartwatch looks like a normal wristwatch but, besides showing the exact time, it includes “smart” capabilities. You will need to connect it to a smartphone or tablet in order to access the smart functions.

Apple watch screen detached, shattered or cracked have called them an add-on to smarter gadgets.

So what can a smartwatch do?

Smartwatches come with various configurations and applications but the most common features will be the possibility to read emails, text messages, take pictures, become GPS and a lot more. (Note: Right now, the Pebble company has implemented about 5500 apps because of their smartwatch.)

In order to access the applications of other smart devices, the smartwatches usually connect via Bluetooth.

Note: Some smartwatches might not connect to all smartphones and others may lack compatibility to various operating systems (not all are appropriate for iOS and Android).

Why do I want a smartwatch?

If you don’t like to check your phone every five minutes and fancy the idea that your watch may alert you when you receive emails, match important news, check your social feed or other important services you might have subscribed to, then your smartwatch may be the perfect device for you.

Basically you will be far less distracted than you’d be when checking a smartphone, you won’t be interrupted from your work and when an important notification arrives you should understand about it. Besides all this, smartwatches are used extensively for his or her fitness applications.

Applications like RunKeeper will monitor your heart rate, count steps, measure your stress level and just how many calories have you burnt.

Hopefully we were able to capture your interest so let’s take a look at the most effective and non expensive smartwatches available, the Pebble Smartwatch.

Note: The Pebble SmartWatch took birth thanks to a very successful Kickstarter campaign that managed to raise over 10 million dollars in about five weeks.

Design and Display

At the initial glance, the Pebble Watch looks like a normal watch. It has a simple, yet elegant look, without being bulky or heavy. The casing is constructed of plastic and has a comfortable and sturdy strap.

It weighs 38g and its dimensions are 50x32x11mm. On the proper side you will discover the up-down and choose buttons and on the left side a single menu button plus a set of contacts for the magnetic power connector.

The Pebble Smartwatch isn’t fragile and is capable to withstand temperatures between 14 to 140F and can function even if it is submerged around 160 feet in water (this is great for explorers!).

The display features a 1.26in 144�168 Sharp Memory LCD e-paper, it is monochrome and is included in a plastic lens that may reflect light. Although the viewing angle is not a complete 180 degrees, it will be easy to see notifications or any other running screen app minus the backlight during the day quite easily.

Comparing to its competitors, the screen is really a bit of a low point nonetheless it does its job properly.

Performance and Battery Life

The Pebble Smartwatch features an ARM Cortex-M3 processor and 512 KB on-chip storage which will be able to retain some apps and customizable watch faces. Besides the main specs, the watch includes a magnetometer, an ambient light and a three-axis accelerometer.

The apps should benefit from all this features and develop a great user experience.

Thanks to its tiny low-resolution display and the 140 mAH battery, the Pebble watch is competent to continue to 5 days of extensive use and over a week of occasional usage.

Note: Pebble watch does not have a battery indicator.

To be waterproof, the Pebble watch can be charged by connecting a bespoke cable to the tiny magnets privately of the watch.

iOS and Android

What’s really interesting concerning this watch is that it supports both the iOS and Android platform.

After downloading the Pebble app, first we tested the watch along with an iPhone. It was a hassle to make it run, as iOS doesn’t really look like it tried to produce a good management for Pebble but after we configured it properly, the watch worked perfectly along the iPhone.

We were able to download new watch faces or access contact support but it does seems like everything happened at the iOS level (iOS acted as a placeholder).

The Android experience is fairly different. The settings on this platform seemed to be more in place and the apps made more sense. Comparing to iOS the Android seemed more open sufficient reason for a lot more applications to choose from.