I tried one at Maker Faire. I was worried that the press photos were overselling the legibility of the screen, but in person it looks just as good as in the photos, and the animations are cool. I've been using a Moto 360 since release, so here are my thoughts:
* Pebble Time can't match the saturated colors of the Moto 360's screen indoors; however always-on and sunlight readability are far more important. I definitely prefer the Pebble Time screen for a watch.
* 7 day battery life: Don't care. I don't sleep with my watch on and with wireless or magnetic charging it's not a hassle to charge nightly.
* The Moto 360 touchscreen is slow and unreliable. I much prefer the Pebble's physical buttons.
* I prefer the Pebble's vibration motor to the Moto 360's.
* I find the Moto 360's voice commands to be mostly useless. My phone has always-on voice activation and it's faster and more reliable to talk directly to my phone even while it's still in my pocket. I wouldn't miss this feature switching to Pebble Time.
* I still prefer the Moto 360's design over any other smartwatch including Pebble Time. Most people assume it's an Apple Watch. That said, I think the Pebble Time looks reasonably good. Certainly better than any of the square Android Wear watches.
Have you owned an original Pebble, and if so can you comment on the vibration motor in the new Pebble compared to the old one?
I owned an original Pebble for a while, and the vibration motor was absolutely awful. It felt bad on the wrist, and it was very audible. In quiet meetings, people would hear it and it would make me look like an idiot with a childish toy. I stopped using the Pebble after a week or two for a number of reasons, but this was the main one.
This is my question as well; I do enjoy my original Pebble but end up turning notifications off half the times because it's WAY too audible so everyone near me hears each notification I get (and with work using Google Hangouts sometimes I get far, far too many notifications in quick succession).
If the Pebble Time has a better, lighter vibration (or better yet adjustable; the original Pebble's vibration as an alarm clock is perfect but not at all for notifications). then I may be tempted to pick one up.
> 7 day battery life: Don't care. I don't sleep with my watch on and with wireless or magnetic charging it's not a hassle to charge nightly.
For me, that's actually a pretty big selling point for a variety of reasons (namely that charging isn't always going to be a possibility - i.e. if I'm out hiking/camping or otherwise "off the grid").
I have the Moto 360 as well, and on most of your points I agree.
On the 7 day battery life though... The Moto 360 battery life sucks. I can't make it from sun-up until bed time without the Moto 360 dying if I try to actually use it for anything useful such as using the music streaming or even the stopwatch when I'm at the gym.
I have had to revert to using my iPod for music at the gym and an old fashioned stop watch.
As the health aspects of the Moto 360 were the primary selling points to me; it's really been a waste of money.
Have you received latest updates. I would say I'm on the higher end of usage with all notifications from personal and work emails, messaging services, calendar updates.. and mine easily lasts a day and half. I don't need always on, as its really pointless for me to have it on, if I'm not actively looking at it.
With only the notifications you mention the Moto 360 will last about a day and a half.
Music streaming over bluetooth from the watch or the screen being continuously on will chow through the battery in less than 2 hours. So if I get up in the morning and work out for an hour, using the watch to play music and time my set and rest intervals the watch will be at around 33% life when I'm done at the gym. This is not enough remaining battery life to get through the work day.
If I go to the gym after work then the watch will die 20 minutes into my workout.
* Pebble Time can't match the saturated colors of the Moto 360's screen indoors; however always-on and sunlight readability are far more important. I definitely prefer the Pebble Time screen for a watch.
* 7 day battery life: Don't care. I don't sleep with my watch on and with wireless or magnetic charging it's not a hassle to charge nightly.
* The Moto 360 touchscreen is slow and unreliable. I much prefer the Pebble's physical buttons.
* I prefer the Pebble's vibration motor to the Moto 360's.
* I find the Moto 360's voice commands to be mostly useless. My phone has always-on voice activation and it's faster and more reliable to talk directly to my phone even while it's still in my pocket. I wouldn't miss this feature switching to Pebble Time.
* I still prefer the Moto 360's design over any other smartwatch including Pebble Time. Most people assume it's an Apple Watch. That said, I think the Pebble Time looks reasonably good. Certainly better than any of the square Android Wear watches.