Pebble is perhaps most famous for getting over $10 million in funding on Kickstarter when it first launched at the very early beginnings of the smartwatch era we"ve slowly started to enter. The watch was quite nice and came in a variety of colors, but was made of plastic. People who wanted to wear a fancy watch to a five-star restaurant or a wedding probably felt goofy wearing a plastic device on their wrists, no matter how smart it was. Pebble has found an amazing solution to that problem: the Pebble Steel.
If the original Pebble was the iPhone 5c, the Pebble Steel would be the iPhone 5s. The Steel is made out of — you guessed it — high-quality stainless steel and Corning Gorilla Glass over the display rather than plastic. The watch looks absolutely gorgeous. There"s also an LED battery charge indicator and it"s still waterproof and gets up to a week of battery life.
Best of all, the Steel is completely compatible with all of the existing apps and software for the Pebble. There"s no need for developers to redesign or recode anything for this new watch; it works out of the box. Even better, Pebble will soon launch an official app store on iOS and Android to browse through Pebble smartwatch apps and download them onto your watch.
Speaking of the box, inside you"ll find both a stainless steel link band or a premium black leather band so you can choose which look you feel like slapping on your wrist. The Pebble Steel included with both band options will cost $249 and will start shipping on Jan. 28. That"s $100 more than the original Pebble, which is also still available for $149.
"We think there’s a lot of demand in the smartwatch space, and these will satisfy different needs," said Pebble founder and CEO Eric Migicovsky.
Source: TechCrunch | Image via TechCrunch