this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2025
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Because that's the feature people actually want. The biggest use of these watches is having an active heart rate monitor, as evident by even most of the cheaper watches having them.
Pebble is now playing a gambit, whereby they think they will sell more of the premium model to people who will be using it for exercise and health reasons.
Either that, or the hardware chosen specifically separates the heart rate monitor so that vendors strike a better deal with the factories to get specially designed chips.
Either way, someone is getting taken for a ride.
There's an explicit line in their site that says these are not made to be fitness trackers, and that garmin are good for that (or some other brand, can't remember). It would be very odd to say that if it was their target.
Dammit, I wanted to use this as a fitness tracker like garmin
Edit: found this
https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watches/
For fitness its probably decent but Garmin seems to have placebo sleep tracking. In order to get anything remotely accurate the sleep tracking algorithm has to be compared to a lot of polysomnograph data. But because companies don't want to spend any more than they need to sleep tracking is usually just tacked on. Garmin hasn't shown a good track record in this regard.
Seriously, even my $30 PineTime has a heart rate monitor.
I've never once used a compass on my watch, mostly because the phone it's attached to is a much better compass and even has its own barometer built-in. Plus it's a pain to use a compass on a watch because you have to hold your whole arm up.