 Two years ago, Pebble introduced what would eventually become the modern idea of the smartwatch. The first Pebble was a watch that worked with both iPhone and Android, and mostly let you see notifications on your wrist. It was also super plasticky and felt as cheap as it looked. Now Pebble's launching the Pebble Time, its most refined smartwatch yet. Mostly it's just a better Pebble, but the Time does have a couple new tricks up its sleeve. The biggest and most obvious difference between the $199 Pebble Time and the models that came before it is its new color display. It's not a brilliant, vibrant screen, instead it displays only very few colors and it's pretty muted. It's not particularly bright or readable indoors, and it's fairly low res, so pixels are easily visible. But it is always on, and it's perfectly readable outdoors because it reflects the sun back at you. Going from black and white to color sounds like a pretty big deal, but it doesn't really change the Pebble experience all that much. The Time's design is also significantly more refined than the first Pebble or the Pebble Steel that came out last year. It's light and slim with a slight curve to better hug your wrist. It's comfortable to wear and it's reasonably small so it doesn't look like a giant computer on the average sized arm. There's a steel frame surrounding the display, but the Time is mostly plastic and it can be a bit creaky feeling. You're either going to love or hate the Time's digital, retro techy aesthetic, but I don't think it's a look for me. There are four buttons on the Time, one on the left and three on the right, along with a microphone for voice recording. The Time is impressively water resistant, the company says it can go as deep as 30 meters underwater, but I didn't test it beyond wearing it in the shower. It takes standard 22mm straps and the included rubber strap comes with quick release pins to make changing them a snap. The charging port has been moved from the side of the watch to the back and it now supports data transfer. That's potentially a big deal, as Pebble says other accessory makers could fabricate straps that take advantage of this new port. But it's still just unfulfilled potential at this point. Pebble isn't making these so-called smart straps and you can't yet buy any from other companies. Aside from the freshly designed hardware, the Time is running an all new software interface. Gone is that utilitarian means to an end software of the earlier Pebbles. Instead the Time software is full of personality, with whimsical animations and fun little touches. It's built around what's called the Timeline, a running track of everything in your life, from the recent past to the near future. At the center of the Timeline is your watch face, of which there are thousands to choose from but only a handful support the Time's color display. Press up and you can see the past 36 hours of events, sports scores, weather information and more. Press down and you can see what's coming up next on your agenda, what's hot on TV tonight or what tomorrow's weather will be like. It's designed to give you a lot of useful information at a glance, without burdening you down with navigating a grid of apps and waiting for loading screens. For the most part it works, but for it to really be brilliant Pebble's going to need a lot of third party apps to plug data into it, and right now only a handful do. Notifications on the Time are no different than they've been on older Pebbles, they just have a little more color to them. You can get alerts whether you're using an iPhone or an Android phone, but Android users have the ability to send quick message replies or take actions on their email. Alerts from the iPhone can only be dismissed from the Pebble, which is a bummer if you're hoping to manage incoming email without touching your phone. Also exclusive to Android is the ability to dictate voice replies to incoming messages, which works just as well as it does on Android Wear or the Apple Watch. But you can't use your voice for anything else, like launching apps or searching the web, which is a little bit of a bummer. Compared to older Pebbles, the Time is fast and snappy and its battery life is just as great. I was able to go 4 days without charging the Time, which isn't quite the 7 days the company claims but it's still far more than the Apple Watch or Android Wear smartwatches. Despite all these improvements, the core purpose of the Pebble doesn't really change with the Time. The best function is still getting smartphone alerts on your wrist, which is something you either really want or want no part of. The Pebble Time is mostly just a better Pebble, which is great if you're a fan of the first Pebbles. But if you haven't bought into the idea of a Pebble yet, or you're just on the fence about smartwatches in general, the Time isn't likely to change your mind.
 Two years ago, Pebble introduced what would eventually become the modern idea of the smartwatch.
 The first Pebble was a watch that worked with both iPhone and Android, and mostly let you
 see notifications on your wrist.
 It was also super plasticky and felt as cheap as it looked.
 Now Pebble's launching the Pebble Time, its most refined smartwatch yet.
 Mostly it's just a better Pebble, but the Time does have a couple new tricks up its
 sleeve.
 The biggest and most obvious difference between the $199 Pebble Time and the models that came
 before it is its new color display.
 It's not a brilliant, vibrant screen, instead it displays only very few colors and it's
 pretty muted.
 It's not particularly bright or readable indoors, and it's fairly low res, so pixels
 are easily visible.
 But it is always on, and it's perfectly readable outdoors because it reflects the
 sun back at you.
 Going from black and white to color sounds like a pretty big deal, but it doesn't really
 change the Pebble experience all that much.
 The Time's design is also significantly more refined than the first Pebble or the Pebble
 Steel that came out last year.
 It's light and slim with a slight curve to better hug your wrist.
 It's comfortable to wear and it's reasonably small so it doesn't look like a giant computer
 on the average sized arm.
 There's a steel frame surrounding the display, but the Time is mostly plastic and it can
 be a bit creaky feeling.
 You're either going to love or hate the Time's digital, retro techy aesthetic, but
 I don't think it's a look for me.
 There are four buttons on the Time, one on the left and three on the right, along with
 a microphone for voice recording.
 The Time is impressively water resistant, the company says it can go as deep as 30 meters
 underwater, but I didn't test it beyond wearing it in the shower.
 It takes standard 22mm straps and the included rubber strap comes with quick release pins
 to make changing them a snap.
 The charging port has been moved from the side of the watch to the back and it now supports
 data transfer.
 That's potentially a big deal, as Pebble says other accessory makers could fabricate
 straps that take advantage of this new port.
 But it's still just unfulfilled potential at this point.
 Pebble isn't making these so-called smart straps and you can't yet buy any from other
 companies.
 Aside from the freshly designed hardware, the Time is running an all new software interface.
 Gone is that utilitarian means to an end software of the earlier Pebbles.
 Instead the Time software is full of personality, with whimsical animations and fun little touches.
 It's built around what's called the Timeline, a running track of everything in your life,
 from the recent past to the near future.
 At the center of the Timeline is your watch face, of which there are thousands to choose
 from but only a handful support the Time's color display.
 Press up and you can see the past 36 hours of events, sports scores, weather information
 and more.
 Press down and you can see what's coming up next on your agenda, what's hot on TV
 tonight or what tomorrow's weather will be like.
 It's designed to give you a lot of useful information at a glance, without burdening
 you down with navigating a grid of apps and waiting for loading screens.
 For the most part it works, but for it to really be brilliant Pebble's going to need
 a lot of third party apps to plug data into it, and right now only a handful do.
 Notifications on the Time are no different than they've been on older Pebbles, they
 just have a little more color to them.
 You can get alerts whether you're using an iPhone or an Android phone, but Android
 users have the ability to send quick message replies or take actions on their email.
 Alerts from the iPhone can only be dismissed from the Pebble, which is a bummer if you're
 hoping to manage incoming email without touching your phone.
 Also exclusive to Android is the ability to dictate voice replies to incoming messages,
 which works just as well as it does on Android Wear or the Apple Watch.
 But you can't use your voice for anything else, like launching apps or searching the
 web, which is a little bit of a bummer.
 Compared to older Pebbles, the Time is fast and snappy and its battery life is just as
 great.
 I was able to go 4 days without charging the Time, which isn't quite the 7 days the company
 claims but it's still far more than the Apple Watch or Android Wear smartwatches.
 Despite all these improvements, the core purpose of the Pebble doesn't really change with
 the Time.
 The best function is still getting smartphone alerts on your wrist, which is something you
 either really want or want no part of.
 The Pebble Time is mostly just a better Pebble, which is great if you're a fan of the first
 Pebbles.
 But if you haven't bought into the idea of a Pebble yet, or you're just on the fence
 about smartwatches in general, the Time isn't likely to change your mind.