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Look for devices supported by the gadgetbridge 3rd party app (found in android's f-droid store). I have an Amazfit Bip S lite. 45days battery, always on lcd. Cu

by ce4 6y ago

Look for devices supported by the gadgetbridge 3rd party app (found in android's f-droid store). I have an Amazfit Bip S lite. 45days battery, always on lcd. Custom notification filters by gadgetbridge. Great https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge

modeless 6y ago
I assure you, I have evaluated everything on the market. Amazfit devices are >1cm thick (even the ones that claim 9.2mm, it's a lie). They are also larger diameter than the Pebble Time Round, so overall more than twice as big and much less comfortable. The phone software is nowhere near as good, the watch UI is poorly designed, and the watch face/app selection is poor in comparison to Pebble. I haven't tried gadgetbridge yet but on newer Amazfit devices it requires some hacking to get it to work (extracting login tokens or encryption keys or something) and I expect that it will be fragile.
- will0 6y ago
  I know you said you don't want a replaced battery, but if you were interested in doing the (fairly easy) battery replacement yourself, there's a link to where you can purchase a battery on Aliexpress here: https://willow.systems/pebble/#hardware https://willow.systems/pebble/#hardware
- vanous 6y ago
  It is fragile. But, the key can be fetched from their server. No root, no funky hacked app, judt one time effort. Bip is not perfect, but the translucent display and GPS, plus many weeks of life are great. You can even push it for BipOs and write your own apps. Disclosure: I help with Gadgetbridge :)
  - ce4 6y ago
    I can confirm that vanous is helping users :) Hi vanous!
- ce4 6y ago
  Yep, the newer amazfit's server based key-pairing is nuts, but there's a solution and you only need to do it once until you hard reset your watch (hopefully never). The watch dials are rather ugly but functional. The built in dials are also much better battery-wise than custom faces
- ce4 6y ago
  I just measured the Bip S lite: 9.7mm height x 34.8 x 41.6mm rectangle (without lugs + crown).
  - modeless 6y ago
    Did you include the sensor bump? The official specs claim 11.4 mm [1] so it would be strange if it was thinner. The Amazfit GTS 42mm is claimed to be 9.2 mm thick but actually measures >10 even without including the sensor bump. In any case, still much larger overall than the Pebble Time Round. [1] https://www.amazfit.com/en/bips-lite.html https://www.amazfit.com/en/bips-lite.html
    - ce4 6y ago
      No, i excluded the sensor bump deliberately. Its area is too small to have a notable effect - the 8.5x9.2x1mm sensor bump sinks into the wrists skin and raises the watch by a lot less than the nominal 1mm. It probably is measurable, maybe calculate the space of the bump (~80mm³) and virtually redistribute the displacement across the whole 42x35 base plate and assume a calculated effective thickness of less than a tenth of a millimeter (80/42/35=0,054mm)
      - modeless 6y ago
        > Its area is too small to have a notable effect We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Bumps protruding into my skin definitely reduce my comfort wearing a watch all day. Your measurement still doesn't match the official specs and even assuming it's correct and they're all that thin it's still not close to the Pebble Time Round. 30% thicker and 60% more volume.
        ce4 6y ago
        The measured data is for my Bip S lite (which is a bit smaller than the Bip S). A bump of 1mm high with an area of less than 1 square centimeter is not noticable imho. My other watches also have bumps (nato strap seams, the gshock's rear plate is uneven by 1mm easy, and seiko's glass rear window...)
- phs318u 6y ago
  I'm not sure how you evaluated it. I took my Amazfit Bip off my wrist in order to measure it right now. From top glass to bump at bottom surrounding the optical sensor it's 8mm.The diagonal from case edge to case edge,is 47mm. I agree that the phone software could be better. However, I think the watch UI is reasonable given the constraints. As for watch-face selection - there are a couple of dozen - how many do you want for <$100?
  - anilgulecha 6y ago
    Far more than that it you consider the community created ones. Heck I built my own too. https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/ https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/
    - ce4 6y ago
      Isue with those: they're often battery leeches. Especiially when displaying highly dynamic content - the lcd draws almost nothing when the displayed image stays static
  - modeless 6y ago
    Reviewers report 9.5mm, not 8mm [1]. But the original Amazfit Bip is no longer for sale on their store or on Amazon except for overpriced marketplace sellers. They only make later models now which are thicker (they have a dizzying array of different models with similar names which is quite confusing). I did purchase an Amazfit watch, the GTR 42mm which is supposed to be 9.2mm thick but is >11 in reality. "A couple of dozen" faces is laughable compared to what Pebble offered. The community produced an incredibly diverse set of faces and apps for Pebble. I find the quality of the GTR faces to be mostly poor with them all pretty much looking the same with the same features. For example, you can't do this on an Amazfit watch face: https://store-beta.rebble.io/app/57cc2c33be5ad0d9500002cd https://store-beta.rebble.io/app/57cc2c33be5ad0d9500002cd let alone the apps which have no equivalent AFAIK: https://store-beta.rebble.io/apps/most-loved/1 https://store-beta.rebble.io/apps/most-loved/1 [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazfit-bip-review-100-smartwatch-with-integrated-gps-and-45-day-battery-life/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazfit-bip-review-100-smartwa...
- m-p-3 6y ago
  In case it helps with the token https://codeberg.org/vanous/huafetcher https://codeberg.org/vanous/huafetcher
VectorLock 6y ago
Man never heard of this Gadgetbridge thing. Thanks for bringing it up. The awful apps are the worst part about these kind of Chinesium devices.
- ce4 6y ago
  The first setup to get started can be a bit rough, especially with server based key fetch + pairing. Gadgetbridge's issue tracker will help if you get stuck.
  - m-p-3 6y ago
    There's also a bunch of us on the Matrix channel https://app.element.io/#/room/#gadgetbridge:matrix.org https://app.element.io/#/room/#gadgetbridge:matrix.org

by ce4 6y ago

modeless 6y ago

I assure you, I have evaluated everything on the market. Amazfit devices are >1cm thick (even the ones that claim 9.2mm, it's a lie). They are also larger diameter than the Pebble Time Round, so overall more than twice as big and much less comfortable. The phone software is nowhere near as good, the watch UI is poorly designed, and the watch face/app selection is poor in comparison to Pebble. I haven't tried gadgetbridge yet but on newer Amazfit devices it requires some hacking to get it to work (extracting login tokens or encryption keys or something) and I expect that it will be fragile.

will0 6y ago
I know you said you don't want a replaced battery, but if you were interested in doing the (fairly easy) battery replacement yourself, there's a link to where you can purchase a battery on Aliexpress here: https://willow.systems/pebble/#hardware https://willow.systems/pebble/#hardware
vanous 6y ago
It is fragile. But, the key can be fetched from their server. No root, no funky hacked app, judt one time effort. Bip is not perfect, but the translucent display and GPS, plus many weeks of life are great. You can even push it for BipOs and write your own apps. Disclosure: I help with Gadgetbridge :)
- ce4 6y ago
  I can confirm that vanous is helping users :) Hi vanous!
ce4 6y ago
Yep, the newer amazfit's server based key-pairing is nuts, but there's a solution and you only need to do it once until you hard reset your watch (hopefully never). The watch dials are rather ugly but functional. The built in dials are also much better battery-wise than custom faces
ce4 6y ago
I just measured the Bip S lite: 9.7mm height x 34.8 x 41.6mm rectangle (without lugs + crown).
- modeless 6y ago
  Did you include the sensor bump? The official specs claim 11.4 mm [1] so it would be strange if it was thinner. The Amazfit GTS 42mm is claimed to be 9.2 mm thick but actually measures >10 even without including the sensor bump. In any case, still much larger overall than the Pebble Time Round. [1] https://www.amazfit.com/en/bips-lite.html https://www.amazfit.com/en/bips-lite.html
  - ce4 6y ago
    No, i excluded the sensor bump deliberately. Its area is too small to have a notable effect - the 8.5x9.2x1mm sensor bump sinks into the wrists skin and raises the watch by a lot less than the nominal 1mm. It probably is measurable, maybe calculate the space of the bump (~80mm³) and virtually redistribute the displacement across the whole 42x35 base plate and assume a calculated effective thickness of less than a tenth of a millimeter (80/42/35=0,054mm)
    - modeless 6y ago
      > Its area is too small to have a notable effect We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. Bumps protruding into my skin definitely reduce my comfort wearing a watch all day. Your measurement still doesn't match the official specs and even assuming it's correct and they're all that thin it's still not close to the Pebble Time Round. 30% thicker and 60% more volume.
      - ce4 6y ago
        The measured data is for my Bip S lite (which is a bit smaller than the Bip S). A bump of 1mm high with an area of less than 1 square centimeter is not noticable imho. My other watches also have bumps (nato strap seams, the gshock's rear plate is uneven by 1mm easy, and seiko's glass rear window...)
phs318u 6y ago
I'm not sure how you evaluated it. I took my Amazfit Bip off my wrist in order to measure it right now. From top glass to bump at bottom surrounding the optical sensor it's 8mm.The diagonal from case edge to case edge,is 47mm. I agree that the phone software could be better. However, I think the watch UI is reasonable given the constraints. As for watch-face selection - there are a couple of dozen - how many do you want for <$100?
- anilgulecha 6y ago
  Far more than that it you consider the community created ones. Heck I built my own too. https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/ https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/
  - ce4 6y ago
    Isue with those: they're often battery leeches. Especiially when displaying highly dynamic content - the lcd draws almost nothing when the displayed image stays static
- modeless 6y ago
  Reviewers report 9.5mm, not 8mm [1]. But the original Amazfit Bip is no longer for sale on their store or on Amazon except for overpriced marketplace sellers. They only make later models now which are thicker (they have a dizzying array of different models with similar names which is quite confusing). I did purchase an Amazfit watch, the GTR 42mm which is supposed to be 9.2mm thick but is >11 in reality. "A couple of dozen" faces is laughable compared to what Pebble offered. The community produced an incredibly diverse set of faces and apps for Pebble. I find the quality of the GTR faces to be mostly poor with them all pretty much looking the same with the same features. For example, you can't do this on an Amazfit watch face: https://store-beta.rebble.io/app/57cc2c33be5ad0d9500002cd https://store-beta.rebble.io/app/57cc2c33be5ad0d9500002cd let alone the apps which have no equivalent AFAIK: https://store-beta.rebble.io/apps/most-loved/1 https://store-beta.rebble.io/apps/most-loved/1 [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazfit-bip-review-100-smartwatch-with-integrated-gps-and-45-day-battery-life/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazfit-bip-review-100-smartwa...
m-p-3 6y ago
In case it helps with the token https://codeberg.org/vanous/huafetcher https://codeberg.org/vanous/huafetcher

VectorLock 6y ago

Man never heard of this Gadgetbridge thing. Thanks for bringing it up. The awful apps are the worst part about these kind of Chinesium devices.

ce4 6y ago
The first setup to get started can be a bit rough, especially with server based key fetch + pairing. Gadgetbridge's issue tracker will help if you get stuck.
- m-p-3 6y ago
  There's also a bunch of us on the Matrix channel https://app.element.io/#/room/#gadgetbridge:matrix.org https://app.element.io/#/room/#gadgetbridge:matrix.org