After launching a low-cost AI smart ring, Pebble is back again with a new wearable, the Pebble Round 2. As the name suggests, this has a round screen. It covers all basic health and activity tracking, like steps and sleep. However, you don’t get heart rate monitoring, which could have catered to a broader audience.
Pebble Round 2 launched with a 1.3-inch e-paper display
The Pebble Round 2 is apparently a reboot of an older Pebble smartwatch, the Pebble Time Round, to be precise. This was the company’s first rounded watch, which is claimed to be the industry’s thinnest smartwatch back then. The new model offers 10-14 days of battery before needing to charge again. While this isn’t groundbreaking, it does the job.
Additionally, the Pebble Round 2 is quite slim at just 8.1mm in thickness, compared to 7.5mm of the original. The side button allows you to perform some tasks like silencing incoming calls, playing and pausing music, navigating, going back, and scrolling.
The Pebble Round 2 gets a 1.3-inch color e-paper display with 260X260 pixels at 283 DPI. The screen also has a backlight, meaning you can see it at night. Under the hood, the Round 2 runs the open source Pebble OS. The smartwatch can run thousands of apps and watch faces that are available on the Pebble Appstore.
Pebble Round 2 is quite slim at 8.1mm in thickness
The watch features dual microphones that allow for speech input and replying to messages. The latter is an Android-only feature currently. The Pebble Round 2 features a stainless steel frame, accelerometer, and magnetometer. You also get a silicone watch band and a Pebble charge dongle. There are three watch color options to choose from: matte black, silver, and rose gold.
However, they each support different band sizes. The matte black has a 20mm quick-release band, the silver supports either a 14mm or 20mm band, and the polished rose gold supports only the 14mm band.
Pebble is also reportedly working on AI features for its devices. The company recently launched an AI smart ring that can record audio and transcribe conversations. TechCrunch reports that the company will bring some of the Ring’s functionalities to Pebble watches, too.
Price, availability
The Pebble Round 2 costs $199. It is available to pre-order from Pebble’s website. It will ship in May. Customers who previously bought the Pebble Time 2 will get the option to switch to the Pebble Round 2, if they wish to.
