Gadgets

Pebble Time Impresses on Teardown Table

Once upon a time, before the world was wild about wearables, there was just the Pebble. We cracked it open and birthed a new category of devices on iFixit. Fast forward two years and this savvy smartwatchmaker has just sent its third generation smartwatch—the Pebble Time—into the war of the wearables.

Now the last time a Pebble graced our teardown table, we didn’t even know how to score it. We’d never dismantled a smartwatch before, so we didn’t have a metric to fairly rate its repairability. This time around, things are different. We’ve had tons of practice cracking open these compact computer clocks, and split the Pebble Time open in no time.

So is Pebble the smartwatchmaker to watch? We think so. And that’s why we gave it a repairability score of 9/10.

Pebble time smartwatch

Pebble Time teardown highlights:

• Compared to some other recent smartwatches, like the Moto 360 and Samsung Gear Live, the 150 mAh battery feels pretty tiny. But with its e-paper display, Pebble claims that the Time can last up to seven days between charges.

• While the Apple Watch and Pebble Time are roughly the same size, the displays were engineered with radically different approaches. The Apple Watch’s touch-sensitive, sapphire-covered, 272 x 340 display is pretty, but also power hungry compared with the truly minimalist, 144 x 168, 64-color, Gorilla Glass-topped screen on the Pebble. The Apple Watch display also spends most of its time switched off to conserve power, where the Pebble Time’s e-paper display is always on.

  • Pebble Time Hardware:
    • ST Micro STM32F439 180 MHz ARM Cortex-M4-based MCU
    • Spansion S29VS128R 16 MB, 65 nm Flash
    • Texas Instruments CC2564B Bluetooth and Dual-Mode Controller
    • Lattice iCE40 LP FPGA
    • Linear Tech LT3009 Linear Regulator
    • Bosch Sensortec 083 TS Accelerometer
    • Freescale Xtrinsic MAG3110 3D Digital Magnetometer
    • Texas Instruments DRV2603 Motor Driver

P.S. We got an Apple Watch Edition.