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Comment by Zetaphor | Hacker News Reader

If you're looking for an alternative to all of this, the BangleJS v2 is both cheaper and more hackable than the Pebble watches. It doesn't tick all of the same boxes, but it's performed well for me over the last 6 months.

Here's what it offers:

* Screen is fully visible under direct sunlight

* With the screen always on the battery lasts me well over a week

* Heart rate monitor

* EXTREMELY hackable, everything can be hacked on with JS, even the launcher you're using for apps

* 108 Euros shipped to the US

* Fully supported by GadgetBridge (open source mobile app)

https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2

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I'm mostly happy with mine as a replacement.

But it is absolutely nowhere near as polished a user experience as Pebble was. I have had constant disconnects for months at a time with Gadgetbridge, loads of edge-case bug-like behavior that is in fact documented but in a weird location that nobody would look at or consider reasonable behavior, three hardware failures in three years (I'm still using one of them with a busted vibration motor), and on-device UX and tap accuracy and freezing that really only works out if you're sold on everything else about the device.

I haven't found anything else I'd recommend for a Pebble fan though, it really is the closest. I'm begrudgingly happy with it because I have no better alternative, not because it's an actually-good product.

Don't remove that little tape that prevents the watch from shocking you with 3 continuous volts of electricity!

I got mine from the Kickstarter, and it didn't came with the little tape. Those connectors are now corroded as f..

I have the BangleJs v2 and built a few small things for it. While I do like the hardware, only having one physical button kinda kills it for me. The software, community, and overall developer experience was pretty nice though.

I also tried Watchy, the eink, esp32 powered smartwatch. I got hardware v2 and I remember struggling a bit with firmware.

I had a Pebble back in the day and I'm currently wearing one from the new batch. It's the best combo of hardware and software in a smartwatch I've personally experienced.

BangleJS is fun but it's not all sunshine and rainbows:

* Hackable - Only using Chrome. I haven't discovered any other method but I'd love to be corrected on this.

* Totally touchscreen based and the touchscreen ain't that good.

* Screen might be visible but any Pebble, past or present, is way better

But it's still super fun.

You need to use the forked custom Gadgetbridge to make the most of it too.

Thanks for posting, I love getting gadgets with niche displays, a 3 bit color sun readable display, how peculiar!

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