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Comment by Jiro | Hacker News Reader

I'm still waiting for someone to create a modern equivalent to the Pebble watch with a color e-ink screen that can stay on all the time. I still use my Pebble, but the battery charge only lasts about a day and a half and I'll have to replace it at some point.

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I'd pay top dollar for a pebble time with smaller bezels and thinner body. Although, the pebble time was super thin compared to today's standards.

Are there any truly thin smart watches? The leaks for the new pixel watch kill all hope in my mind that I'll ever get a smart watch again since they are all thick and heavy. Even fit bits are thick compared to the pebble time.

The Withings watches are pretty slim

Garmin instinct 2 solar has the same black and white screen as the pebble and requires zero charging; battery lasts forever with enough sun.

My Pebble is color, not B&W.

The garmin Phoenix has the same color display as the color pebbles. The instinct however is solar and never needs to be charged, while simultaneously having more features than the pebble.

I still wear a pebble 2 daily, but am going to upgrade when price drops on the garmin

well, then I'm all outta ideas, you're on your own now

I find that turning on Airplane Mode overnight substantially extends my battery life, perhaps from 3 to 5 days. It also prevents me from being awakened by notifications, which seem to come through regardless of DND mode on my iPhone. It's also easy to trigger: just hold the left side button for a couple seconds.

I would pay $75 for someone to replace the battery in my Pebble and maintain water resistance. I don't trust myself to do it, but eventually I may try. My current fallback plan is a Fossil hybrid smartwatch, which is nicer looking, but has a worse UI/UX.

You can buy new ones on eBay for about that. I have been buying them for years and have a stash. Battery and waterproofing practically the same as when they released.

The garmin instinct 2 solar has the same screen tech as the pebble and NEVER needs to be charged. It really is game changing and I am finally ready to upgrade. In fact by you want to buy my in box pebble 2 se I have 3 for 100 usd each!

I'm not familiar with the 2 SE but will take a look. I have a Time Steel, which I like the look/usability of. What's your contact info? Mine is in my profile.

Something like the Amazfit Bip? https://www.amazfit.com/en/bip

> 45-day battery life

Wow, that's probably the first time an always-on electronic device actually surpassed my Nokia 6310's 21-day battery life in the last two decades. It's really hard to imagine a cellphone charge lasting for three weeks today. How far we've come :P

You get 60 days with the much more expensive Vertix 2 and that also has an always on display https://www.coros.com/vertix2

I have the Coros Pace, so can vouch for their battery life claims. I get between one and two weeks between charges, depending how much I use the GPS.

Didn't know about Vertix either. Great!

The garmin instinct 2 solar has the same screen tech as the pebble or an old nokia and NEVER needs to be charged.

Also cool!

I returned my amazfit bip almost immediately. It's too dim with the backlight off and looks like a toy with the backlight on. If you look for photos of real life usage you'll see what I mean. The wyze watch blew me away in terms of looks and battery life (especially considering the price), they must be selling at a loss. However I'm also not a fitness junkie so I don't use the watch heavily and can't report on how useful the watch actually is

Did you have the Bip (which iirc hasn't been sold officially for over a year now) or the Bip U/Bip Pro? The OG Bip screen is much more reflective. Here's an image of my Bip - https://i.imgur.com/DBzoDp5.jpg

That does look better than the display I remember. Though if you check out real life photos of the Wyze Watch I think you might be surprised at the quality

Actually I don't use the Pebble for fitness. I like having the weather, calendar, location, and sunrise/moon phase (though that depends on the watch face).

Not e-ink but most Garmin watches have colour always-on displays and a battery life measured in days/weeks.

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