IDK about Coros or Suunto, but the only Garmins with a battery life approaching 30 days cost ~$1,000. This could be competition for AWU, but wouldn't communicate that there is demand for a more basic/long-lasting Apple Watch.
The baseline for watches is changing the battery every 3-5 YEARS! This modernity of charging watches daily is a pox on humanity brought on by Apple.
Pebble (and Fitbit, and others) were always in the "week-plus" timeframe for charging. Meeting the "minimum bar" of 14-17 days battery life (of the OG pebbles) is successful. Shooting for "30 days" is definitively best-in-class performance for smart-watches!
> I don't see why you are defining success as 30 days of battery life when the baseline is charging your watch every day.
Up until about 10 years ago, no one would have considered the baseline to be charging your watch every day. Even today, most watches/wrist-worn step counters don't require daily charging.
I wouldn't define 30 days as success, but I do want to start out at 2+ weeks. Battery life gets worse over time, and watches aren't meant to last for just a little while. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on something that will require charging more than once a week within a year or two.
Appreciate the links, but I'm guessing these are estimates with AOD disabled? That's another benefit of the Pebble (AOD doesn't reduce battery life).
30 days is asking a lot of any reasonably sized smartwatch, but if you set your sights a bit lower then a $250 Coros Pace 4 will do ~3 weeks with AOD off, ~1 week with AOD on, and 30-40 hours of continuous GPS recording. That's still a lot longer than any Apple Watch even if it's not hitting the 30 day milestone.
My Coros Pace 2 was my solution to my desire for a less smart watch. It cost $200 when I got it 3 years ago. I run a ton and the exercise features of the Pebble just didn’t do it for me (and I don’t want to keep swapping watches based on what I’m doing). I easily get 2+ weeks with 7-8 exercises with GPS on. The screen is some variation of those transflective LCDs or MIPs LCDs.
I can never go back to a 2 day battery life for a watch, even if my 5 year old iPhone technically can’t make it through half a day of use….
Yeah, I’m not sure if I like that choice from them. I really like the look of their non OLED displays. This has been my favorite running watch, and I’ve used it the longest out of all the different watches I’ve had. Although if I want them to keep existing as a company I should consider buying another.
Yeah I don't need 30 days, but starting out at a week with AOD puts a pretty low ceiling on future battery life. Appreciate the pointer though.
In thinking further, I realized that the buttons are actually a pretty good moat against the big tech company competitors. Their UIs are all about touchscreens, so they'll never have as many/useful buttons as Pebbles do.
Didn't realize Garmin made monochrome solar watches. It is much cheaper. However, looks like an absolute tank, which would not fit under many shirtsleeves...
