Personally this has been the most feature rich/open source one I could find, and it's what I ended up going for, there's an opensource app store, direct integration with gadgetbridge, a decent always on display much like the amazfit bip S, which also means a long battery life.
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2023
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That’s the closest thing I’ve found to my dear departed Pebble
This is pretty amazing, I was not expecting it to be such a reasonable price considering the specs. What's the battery life like?
It can get up to 4 weeks, though my experience is closer to 4 days to a couple of weeks, I think it depends heavily on what apps you're using, how much you're moving about and how much stuff you're installing
On the website, it says the battery life's 4 weeks.
Casio with inbuilt calculator
If you can find a Pebble, they still work perfectly and the manufacturer doesn't even exist anymore!
Hmm, fitbit bought most of the company, then Google bought them.
Shit! You just reminded me I have a Pebble Time, sitting in a drawer. I remember it being such a good watch, then I got distracted by the Samsung watch at the time.
Might see if there's any life in it and test it out with GadgetBridge.
Rebble was easier to get working than gadget bridge. just something to consider
Thanks for that. Came across Rebble while searching for answers to problems getting the Pebble working with GB earlier today, so definitely looks like it's worth a go.
no problem! that's what the internet and forums are for :D
Just following up - Rebble is fantastic! Have revived the Pebble Time - will see how the battery goes over the next week or so. Thanks again for the tip!
Hey, you go it!
FYI, you can financially support Rebble and get perks like being able to reply with voice to messages. I don't personally do so but I know people who have had success with it.
For comparison, my Pebble with everything turned off (like health tracking, apps, steps, alarms etc) and only BT on for notifications, I get about a week still
anything that's compatible with Gadgetbridge should be okay. it keeps everything on your phone and doesn't even request a network permission, so the device can't phone home.
incidentally, I've got the Mi Band 7 (connected via Gadgetbridge] and I quite like it.
This. I've been using the Fossil Collider HR with Gadgetbridge for over a year. I love it, and I love that it's keeping my data safe
Pebble is peak smartwatch. Fight me on it, I wont change my mind. Its just smart enough, without being too smart. Battery lasts for days, its waterproof, and side buttons instead if some impossible to use tiny-ass touchscreen. Perfection.
Pebble is a discontinued smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation.
😶
Who got eaten up by Fitbit, who got eaten up by Google. 😭
Garmin does that too if you want to buy something from a company that still exists.
Fossil offers a hybrid smartwatch now to full those shoes. I really liked mine when I had one, but it didn't fit my hands free needs well enough.
I've also used a pinetime running infinitime for the past year, and I agree that it's not exactly feature rich. I like it though.
I've heard that 'bangle.js' is an open source watch as well, with a decent feature set.
I'm in the same boat. The buttons on my Pebble Time Steel are going, and I don't know what I'm going to replace it with.
the Pinetime watch, but it died after 6 months.
Oof, that's a shame. That was on my list of possibilities.
Ive been considering buying a new old stock "backup pebble" for when mine goes. Basically the perfect smartwatch
Yeah, there really is no decent alternative, yet. While I agree the LCD screen smartwatches look better and are more fancy, but I really like the e-Ink -- always on, readable in full sun, and only having to charge it once a month or so. The hybrid idea is a decent alternative, but you lose customizable faces; I'm willing to sacrifice that for long battery life, though, so that's probably where I'll go next.
I don't understand why there isn't more of a market for e-Ink watches, though. I mean, there are a bunch of us, but apparently not enough to sustain a company.
Do consider that if it's never been used, the battery may be so dead that you have to replace it. I have had to do this with a new one I bought, and it seems to be a common issue for new old stock.
I would say amazefit is the better option, check the compatibility with gardggetbride before buying.
I bought an Amazefit bip 3 years ago and am using Master for Amazefit, sadly the developer stopped updating the app. The watch/band supports only step counter, heart rate measure, sleep tracking. So, whatever options the app provides work fine for me.
I need to look for other app options when I upgrade.
Sleep tracking? I'm ootl with smart watches in general so forgive this ignorant comment, but I assume for this to work...you have to sleep with the watch on?
Yes. Have to wear the watch while sleeping.
Cool, thanks for the clarification. Did it take some getting used to and/or are you a pretty heavy sleeper? Interested in the sleep tracker aspect but unsure if it would be useful if it ended up disturbing sleeping more.
I wear my amazfit bip 24/7. It's small and light, it's not a chunky watch.
Battery life of about two to three weeks means it can stay on my wrist without the nightly charging routine.
Been pretty happy with my Garmin Instinct. It has a cloud connection of course but seems pretty decent privacy wise.
I love my Garmin watches but they aren't really known for privacy or security. They had a ransomware attack in 2020 and the Connect service was down. It's speculated that they paid the ransom.
Their support is top-notch as well. My Instinct started having serious battery life issues a few months out of warranty. They still replaced it no questions asked when I reached out to their support and asked if they offer a battery replacement service. That said, the Instinct at least isn't a true smart watch. It doesn't run apps, isn't touchscreen, don't have NFC, etc.
Pinetime by pine64
I'm waiting for the next batch of Watchy's so i can't say if it is any good, but I have high hopes. They have a handy spec comparison chart between Watchy, Pine time, Bangle.js, and the beloved Pebble.
I have a Watchy. It's nice if you'd want to tinker easily, but it's very bulky and cheap in feel even compared to a pinetime.
What happens wit a Garmin watch if you uninstall the app? Mine still processes notifications/etc.
I got two Xiaomi bands, I think it was band 4, but neither work after like two years
Also sleep tracking sucks with gadget bridge, it was better with notify, so at that point it's crap hardware with closed software
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I've mad a MiBand 6 for a while now - seems solid and you could, in theory grab all the data from it and process it yourself (via the Notify app). I don't know exactly how bolted down it is privacy-wise though.
MiBand 6
The latest 7 looks very nice. 16 days battery life, 5 days with always-on apparently.... sadly if you want to pair it with your phone, you need the Xiaomi App and then (as OP asked) you get trapped in privacy Hell and send all your data (Health, Location, User Content, Financial Information, Contact Info and identifiers) to china. At least on iOS as I can read in the App-Store description. Bummer. It looks like a nice watch.
You can just use gadgetbridge after the initial pairing and key generation. You need to install the xiaomi app once in some burner phone with empty contacts, or maybe you can pair it without giving it access to contacts first. Once you have the key (described in the gadgetbridge guide) you can just dump the official app and use GB without using any xiaomi data/servers.
You could always go with an older version - mine's never been on the Xiaomi app and is merrily feeding the data to my Raspberry Pi.
Ah, thats good to know. I also saw a blog post for a way to use it without the App by using a modded App APK on Android were you can extract the auth-Key... but that was way to complicated. I wish there were an open standard for digital watches to enable sync of data with the OS of choice without going through a proprietary app. I will look into the RPI Solution. Thanks.
I imagine the manufacturers would fight that all the way to the courts.
As best as I can tell Notify for Mi Band isn't from Xiaomi, they produce a number of similar apps that give you control over your phone and a key that allows Home Assistant (and I am sure other services) to pull in the data and you are away. Apparently, it's a relatively recent update that means you don't have to do any workarounds - it's straight through the app and should work for all Mi Bands and Amazfits.
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