Pebble vs Garmin: Can the Classic Underdog Really Win?
The Pebble founder claims the new Pebble beats every smartwatch on the market including Garmin. After spending time with one, here's the honest verdict.
Day 75: Pebble vs Garmin — Can the Classic Underdog Really Win?
I ordered a Pebble smartwatch. Then it got cancelled when Fitbit acquired the company back in 2016. Now, nearly a decade later, the new Pebble is here — and I finally got mine.
The Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky has been vocal: he believes the new Pebble beats every smartwatch on the market, including Garmin. So after spending time with one, here's the honest verdict.
The good: battery life
The battery life is genuinely impressive. Pebble's e-paper display sips power in a way that colour LCD and AMOLED screens simply can't match. You're looking at weeks of battery life rather than days — and that's not a small thing. For a lot of people, charging a smartwatch every night is a real friction point.
The limitations
But that battery advantage comes at a cost.
Pebble has a heart rate sensor, but you cannot treat this as a health device. The data it tracks is limited — no HRV status, no VO2 Max, no Body Battery, no sleep staging, no stress tracking. It measures your heart rate, and that's largely where it stops.
Workout tracking is minimal. And during testing, the device crashed when trying to save a workout — which is not a great look for a fitness-adjacent product.
There's no onboard GPS. No music storage. The e-paper screen, while charming, can be hard to read in certain lighting conditions without the backlight.
The verdict
Pebble is a fun, nostalgic smartwatch with outstanding battery life and a genuinely passionate community around it. For someone who wants a simple wrist notification device that lasts weeks on a charge, it has real appeal.
But if you're training, tracking health, navigating routes, or monitoring recovery — Garmin is in a completely different league. The Pebble founder's claim doesn't hold up against serious fitness use. Sorry, Eric.
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