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Hi!
The funny thing is that I have the opposite experience of using Bangle.js: for me, the user experience is constantly changing for the better, which is surprising, given the limited budget of the project and the number of active developers. Bangle watch is getting better than what it was originally. And here is also a big merit of the community!
I did not have Pebble watch, although I closely followed their fate and regretted when the project was closed. Yes, I know about Rebble and I'm even subscribed to a Discord server (which also has a channel about Bangle.js). Obviously, Bangle.js has disadvantages, but there are also advantages over Pebble (for example, open source code from the very beginning).I will go over the list of claims, although I will note that I am an enthusiast and am ready to put up with some problems, since there are much more advantages for me and I see a clear evolution of the project.
1) Battery life. Without GPS, my B.js 2 watch lives an average of 5-6 days, sometimes less, and this is under load, I like to run timers and stopwatches.
My friend's B.js 2 even lived for about a month, but this is without loads.
By the way, my first Bangle.js model lived about 3 months from a single charge, but the screen was constantly turned off, and I only occasionally checked the charge level.
2) I would like standardized Qi wireless charging in the next model. The wiring is inconvenient, yes.
3) It happened that I lost the data I needed and carefully configured options several times, but serious problems were really rare + then backups appeared.
4) Corrosion is a big drawback and a clear problem, I hope the future samples of Bangle.js 3 will be more carefully checked for such nuances. At this stage, I just resigned myself and took measures to avoid this, and so far there are no problems:
https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/370766/?offset=50#comment16793279:~:text=My%20way%3A%20I%20took%202%20adhesive
5) I knew that the button might have problems, so I decided to use the button to a minimum and it turns out great, after installing additional apps for gestures and some settings:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/199bUfpo4n7YU2YesK6AAHzuo1yLB6Ly1/view?usp=sharingIn general, in the first Bangle.js, the buttons were sometimes useful, but you can live without them perfectly.
6) There are some nuances with downloading apps, for example, the experience is better on Linux and Android, unlike iOS and Windows. But in general, I really like that the apps are tied to GitHub and available for download from the browser, via bluetooth, some new amazing experience. My complaint: for iOS there is no gadgetbridge Bangle version, so there is superiority towards one platform - Android.
However, this moment can theoretically scare off non-technical users, it is necessary to somehow improve stability and add support for iOS.
7) I have no complaints about the strength of the vibration, rather I would like a different TYPE of vibration, like the Taptic Engine, instead of the current one. So that there is no characteristic rattling of the motor, although this is not critical. I don’t know about calls, but I never missed notifications, moreover, I even sometimes turned off bluetooth, because notifications even went through sleep mode on the phone! The duration of the vibro can be adjusted for messages, I set it to the minimum short, it's enough for me. In general, if you put B.js 2 on itself edge on the table, the signal will be super loud, I try to avoid this.
8) It’s the other way around for me: now I constantly wear a watch, at bike rides, on vacation, at work, because they are almost weightless, so you can wear them for a long time without taking them off, keeping track of time and notifications. That is, in addition to smart functions, it is also just a convenient watch.
9) Yes, I would like more interesting integrations, for example, route recording and simple synchronization with Strava. A more perfect experience with maps. Theoretically, everything is possible in the future.
For a very long time, I recorded routes via GPS and manually exported routes for Strava, but this is tedious.I also want to note that I like the technologies on which all this is implemented and the idea itself: JS on microcontrollers. This is an interesting technical challenge with such limitations. Also a great community and the opportunity to participate in a really important and necessary project. This applies to Espruino in general.
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Serj
@JustSomeGuy
Hi all,
I don't mean to bash the watch because I can see it has a lot of potential and Gordon seems to be genuinely dedicated to making it work, but for me I'm calling it quits after about 9 months use.
My reasons are:
Maybe I'm just not the target customer (not a programmer), maybe I got a dodgy unit, maybe I somehow did something to break it. Either way, I was hoping this might eventually become something that I would like as much as my pebble all those years ago, but for the time being I will revert to a new version my previous watch (amazfit bip 3) and keep waiting for a worthy pebble successor.
Farewell to you all, I genuinely hope the community and the brand continues improving, and who knows, maybe I will be persuaded to try a banglejs3 or 4 in the future. Happy to hear why I'm wrong or what I did to have such a poor experience, I'll try to remember to check back if anyone has any questions.