Who will step up and take Pebble’s place with one of the best smartwatches for Android?
We’ve long considered the Pebble lineup as some of the best smartwatches to attach to a wrist. Much of that love came from the really long battery life that could be squeezed out thanks to its use of e-paper displays.
But, for better or worse, Pebble is dying. Fitbit has bought them out, and they aren’t interested keeping the flag waving. They’ve immediately ceased taking orders, even, and are refunding everyone who has outstanding orders.
So, we can’t, in good faith, consider it one of the best Android smartwatches, because you can no longer buy it (unless you’re hitting up eBay, refurbished deals sites, and the like). As such, it’ll be exiting our list of the best smartwatches for Android this month.
It’s not that it isn’t still a great piece of hardware. It’ll even keep working fully beyond this point, albeit likely without any further updates. It’s that our list serves as a guide for those looking to find the best smartwatch they can buy today, and you can’t buy it anymore.
It’s sad, too, because 2016 hasn’t been nice to smartwatches. For instance, the handful of companies regularly producing Android Wear smartwatches haven’t felt the need to rush any more out this late in the year, so if you were hoping for something on the immediate horizon then we’d advise you not to hold your breath.
That said, things could change by the time CES 2017 rolls around (that’s when new product announcements are made and wearables have long had a solid place of their own at the show), and if you don’t mind giving Samsung a shot, their Gear S3 is great and now works with almost every Android phone. Oh, and that smartwatch is debuting in this month’s list too, by the way. See where it lands and how our current Pebble-less list makes up at the link straight ahead.