Pebble Time Steel is a classier watch with even better battery life

Just one week ago we saw the announcement of Pebble Time, a new smartwatch from Pebble on Kickstarter. The Time boasts a brand new design, improved interface, color display, and the same great 7-day battery life. Many people are not fans of the Pebble Time’s “amateurish” design, but it still sold like crazy. Today Pebble has announced a new steel version of the Time.

The Pebble Time Steel looks a lot like the original Pebble Time, except it’s made out of stainless steel and comes with leather and metal bands. It’s amazing how much nicer this version looks. The Time Steel has a few more improvements as well. It’s 1mm thicker than the original Time, which gives it room for a bigger battery, and battery life up to 10 days. No other smartwatch on the market can come close to competing with that.

The display is laminated on the Steel Time, which should make the color e-paper look even better. Pebble has also added a nice subtle texture to the buttons. You can back the Pebble Time Steel on Kickstarter for 0 right now (will be 9 at launch). They’ve put the Time Steel in the same campaign, which means if you already backed the Time you can switch your pledge to the Steel. You’ll have your choice of black, silver, or gold.

Pebble also announced Smartstraps, a way for hardware manufacturers to add tech to watch straps. Things like NFC, GPS, heart rate monitors, and even extra battery can be built into a Smartstrap. Pebble hasn’t actually made any Smartstraps of their own, but they’ve released the schematics for other manufacturers to start building. It’s a really cool idea if it catches on. Are you going to back the Pebble Time Steel?

ASUS ZenWatch 2 comes in 2 sizes, features magnetic charging and a stainless steel chassis [VIDEO]

ASUS showed up at Computex 2015 as they always do (considering it’s the premier tech event in their own backyard of Taiwan), and they didn’t disappoint with a few nice announcements. One of the devices on tap was a new smart watch.

It’s the ASUS ZenWatch 2, and the rumors were true. ASUS cooked up 2 different sizes, one for those who prefer a little bulk and the more petite option that most women might prefer. The company is still going with a square watch face, though the chassis isn’t without a round nature.

The ZenWatch 2 features a physical dial (which we imagine can be used to navigate the system), an OLED display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, Gorilla Glass 3 and IP67 specification for dust and water resistance. You get a magnetic mechanism for charging the device, which is a great feature as no one wants to have to clasp their smart watch into a bothersome cradle every night.

On the presentation side, there will be a wide range of wrist bands available post-launch — some in rubber, leather and even a special edition Swarovski set featuring actual Swarovski crystyals — though the device comes with stainless steel straps as standard.

For software, you can expect the latest version of Android Wear and improved wellness and remote camera apps, though ASUS didn’t go into detail about what, exactly, was different. We’re not sure if the watch will support Android Wear’s new WiFi support (the initial spec list doesn’t mention one) so we’ll have to dig for more to see if this thing can offer the same level of connectivity as LG’s Watch Urbane.

And that’s about all we know. ASUS didn’t have pricing or availability to mention, which makes us feel as if we won’t be seeing a product ready to buy until late Q3 at best. Let’s hope we’re wrong, though, because the ZenWatch 2 doesn’t look half bad.

Deal: Get 20% off Pebble and Pebble Steel smartwatches through Saturday

Pebble Time might be the hottest e-paper smartwatch on the horizon, but if you don’t mind going with slightly dated alternatives then Pebble has a pretty good deal for you today. You can take up to 20% off the cost of the original Pebble or Pebble Steel, bringing their prices to and 9, respectively.

The Steel variant comes standard with a leather wrist strap, though you can add a steel version for an added if you so wish. There are only 2 catches here:

1. The deal lasts through the end of Saturday only


2. You won’t be able to say you have the latest piece of wrist-dwelling tech on the market (though it’s still a nice piece of kit)

You can head to Pebble’s site to order one right here.