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Comment by frik | Hacker News Reader

With an e-ink display the battery could last month (think of Kindle e-ink display).

E-ink doesn't update fast enough or well enough for a watch. Have you ever used a Kindle? The Pebble uses an "E paper"[1] display which doesn't use a backlight and that watch can last a week. Battery life is proportional to how often the display is updated.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper#Wristwatches

Aye. I saw the Moto360 battery Hangouts test results and thought, well, I'm happy I got my Pebble Steel this year. It's an awesome device with fantastic looking always on screen that doesn't try to be too much (I have a smartphone for that!). And battery life is measured in days, not hours.

When my low battery warning comes on at 20%, I've still 4x longer to go than a fully charged Moto360 - given a few notifications on each device.

Pebble Steel looks great. If only it had a round display.

the Pebble does not use e-ink, they use Sharp's "Memory LCD" technology which is a low power black and white LCD.

Eh, those Kindle battery life estimates are based on low daily usage IMO. When I'm reading a lot I can easily run down my Kindle in a week. As a watch you would probably be updating the display far more often than an occasionally used Kindle.

Except that it would have to be (comparatively) much dumber than it currently is, and that it would be constantly flickering with every time change.

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