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Comment by metadat | Hacker News Reader

Thanks, I almost bought it since it is only $40USD. Yet another sad case of you get what you pay for.

You saved me from disappointment!

I too was interested in that watch. The software looks a bit fancier than my PineTime. It turns out that the PineTime is actually amazing based on battery life alone. It currently costs ~US$27. It's slightly less chunky (37.5mm x 40mm x 11mm) and a bit better looking. Has BLE, heartrate, 3-axis tilt sensor and haptics but no speaker. Battery life has been consistently 8 days between recharges for the last year or so.

Software is okay although I occasionally get annoyed by Bluetooth connectivity issues using Gadgetbridge. But part of the reason I bought it is that it's hackable, so the software is totally replaceable.

I think sometimes you get more than what you pay for. And sometimes you're paying for shareholder dividends and outrageous CEO salaries.

I had no idea Pine64 had a smartwatch (and earbuds?!)

I have a Fitbit Versa that's really starting to show its age, I might have to check the PineTime out. I also have a Bangle.js which was a fun Kickstarter buy, but it's a little too chunky (I see they now have a v2 of it now which looks slicker)

Their blog is a hilarious adventure through all the Pine* items they've released, their eInk venture and the earbuds are particularly interesting to me...

I have the Bangle.js V2 and can confirm, it is a slimmer and slicker overall design, feeling more like a Fitbit Versa. Honestly, it's been a boredom breaker since it's relatively easy to dump new code on to it. My only complaint is the vibrating motor is almost too weak for me to feel when sleep, and as such, is not a reliable silent alarm, so I swap back to my OG Pebble at night.

I also forgot to mention that it's quite ugly and looks very cheap. I personally wouldn't wear it even if it did have good battery life.

Got a galaxy 5 watch a few months ago, which was a much better purchase.

I picked up a galaxy watch 4 on a whim and I gotta say wearos is a trainwreck. Half the value is getting notifications to your wrist but you have to have corresponding linked apps on both the watch and phone. And typing on a watch is a nightmare -- you're paired to my phone! Why aren't I using that keyboard!?

Honestly the Pebble was not that high of a bar. Keep the screen on and send me my notifications and I'm happy.

Pebble was peak smarthwatch experience for me. Simple, straightforward, e-ink display. Super bummed that Fitbit bought them out. My Fitbit Versa is _almost_ as good as the Pebble but it's still trying too hard.

> Half the value is getting notifications to your wrist but you have to have corresponding linked apps on both the watch and phone

At least with my experience with Wear OS 3.5 and 4, this isn't the case. You can get notifications from any app and don't need two apps to do so.

I must be doing something wrong then. I wasn't getting any useful notifications on my watch until I installed all the corresponding watch apps to the phone apps. The watch runs WearOS 3.5. But either way: getting a decent experience should not be this hard.

I've got it the way I like it now but it was a lot of installing software and playing with settings. Which is fun! But it means I would never recommend WearOS to somebody who isn't geeky about Android.

How's that one been re battery life?

Somewhere around 2 full days. I usually stick it on the charger when I sit down at my desk, and less than 30 minutes is plenty to get it back to 100%. 0 to 100 might take around an hour.

You can get a Mi Band for about that price, and it's a good smartwatch with great battery life (admittedly the software isn't the best).

What issues with the software have you had? I’ve got one and really haven’t had any problems using it in combination with my iPhone.

Occasionally it won't sync a workout when I ask it to. There was a confusion of which app to use and which accounts you need to sign up for (Zepp versus whatever the other thing), and it seemed to ask for a bunch of info. Up until the 7 you couldn't turn it off. Mostly it just feels clunky. It does the job but it's not what I'd call delightful to use.

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