Apple Watch vs Pebble Time Steel

Pop quiz, which of these is the Apple Watch and which is the new Pebble Time Steel? It's kind of hard to tell the difference between the two smartwatches.

Pebble seems to be doing its best impression of the iWatch with the stainless steel model of its plastic Pebble Time. The photo arrangement doesn't seem like a coincidence.

In fact, the sophisticated-looking gold finish on the casing and buckle, the bright red leather strap and the dangling pose of the two smartwatches is mirrored perfectly.

That's not to say there aren't major differences when you examine the April-bound Apple Watch vs the July-set Pebble Time Steel with a jeweler's eye loupe.

Design

The Pebble Time Steel is the most fashionable smartwatch from the Kickstarter darling. With a stainless steel case and strong machined buttons on the sides, it feels and looks solid.

It also comes with both leather and metal straps if you're a backer, meaning it's ready for any occasion with formal attire when the plastic Pebble Time doesn't seem right.

Apple Watch is clearly the more luxurious of the two, bordering on extravagant. There are six pricey 18-karat gold Apple Watch Edition smartwatches among the 34 Apple Watch designs.

It's not just a gold finish, it's gold, so Apple made it twice as hard as the normally material. Apple Watch ups its protective wardrobe with sapphire crystal glass on its face.

Display

Behind the Gorilla Glass that's protecting the Pebble Steel Time, there's an all-new e-paper display that supports 64 different colors and 30 frames per second.

It's always-on color screen is easy to read in sunlight and looks like a major improvement over the black-and-white original Pebble and Pebble Steel.

The more color-rich Apple Watch starts with two sizes, 38mm and 42mm in height, and both of are considered Retina displays with a high pixel density.

Apple's flexible AMOLED touchscreen can distinguish between lip taps and deep presses, but requires a lift-to-wake gesture in order to turn it on in an effort to save precious battery life.

Battery life

That brings us to our next point: the all-important battery life for each smartwatch. Pebble Time Steel aces this test with a 10-day battery per charge, at least on paper.

That makes it the longest-lasting smartwatch on the market, besting its own Pebble Time, Pebble Steel and the original Pebble, which lasted seven days.

While the official Apple Watch battery capacity hasn't been revealed (stay tuned for Monday's press conference), CEO Tim Cook went on the record to say it'll need to be charged daily.

Apple is bound to come up with a bunch of tricks to save that precious battery. But it just can't compare to Pebble's more energy efficient, albeit conservative-looking, color e-ink display.

Software

Google Now-influenced Android Wear has been our steady co-pilot on our wrists for almost a year now, but Pebble and Apple hope to shake things up with their own software.

Pebble Timeline doesn't just have apps, it lays out what the notifications are telling you in a logical "past, present and future" order. These menus are assigned to the three right buttons.

Apple Watch is similarly being driven by app developers with its WatchKit API and makes use of a bunch of different glanceable interfaces as important information is beamed to your wrist.

It also bucks the iOS tradition of using square-ish app tiles in favor of small circular icons. This means it relies on the digital crown to zoom in to the list of apps.

Compatibility

Pebble Time Steel continues the startup's tradition of working with both iOS and Android, giving users the freedom switch phones as easily as they switch 22mm straps.

Apple Watch, of course, only works with an iPhone. In fact, it requires iPhone 5 or later. To continue with that strap comparison, it has switchable straps, but they're proprietary. That trade-off may be that Apple Watch works better because it's deeply integrated with the iPhone and everything that Apple likes to keep to itself.

We're used to being bossed around by limited phone compatibility with Android Wear and Samsung watches, so it's nice to see Pebble continue to work with everything.

Waterproof?

Pebble Time Steel is waterproof enough to take swimming and in the shower with an official rating of 3ATM, close to the original version's 5ATM range. Just like the battery, it leads here.

Is Apple Watch waterproof? That not-so-minor detail hasn't been confirmed yet, but it's been rumored that you can take it in the shower without a problem.

Price

Apple Watch and Pebble Time Steel are going to shake up smartwatches that have been dominated and kind of boring with Android Wear over the last nine months.

Which one is better may likely come down to price. Apple Watch starts at $350, and that's for the Sport version of the watch with strengthened Ion-X glass (not sapphire).

Pebble Time Steel, on the other wrist, isn't as fancy, but carries a $199 retail price with slightly reduced amounts via Kickstarter. It also comes with two straps for backers.

Pebble is almost certainly jabbing Apple with its Apple Watch-styled photo, but can it measure up come July? Only time will tell.