The Pebble wasn’t the only smartwatch to launch by way of Kickstarter, however given the financial success of the campaign and the delays that followed — it is the one many seem to remember. Anyway, while shipping delays with the Pebble appear to be coming to an end, there is another smartwatch that has recently appeared on Kickstarter. This latest is called the AGENT and they are coming forward with an expected shipping timeframe of December 2013.
Whether that timeline will happen remains to be seen, however the pledge points will begin at $149. This level will give users an AGENT smartwatch with free shipping for those in the US. Those outside the US will have to add $15 for shipping. There is also an additional pledge level available. The next one up is sitting at $179 and includes the watch and a wireless charger — which brings us to one of the features, the AGENT smartwatch will support the Qi wireless charging standard.
The Qi wireless charging means you will not have to worry about attaching any cables, but perhaps more important for some, it means that it will work with a wide variety of chargers. Some of the supported Qi chargers come from Energizer, JBL, LG, Nexus, Nokia and Panasonic. Taking a step back though, on a basic level, the AGENT smartwatch will provide alerts for incoming calls and other notifications. The AGENT will be compatible with devices running Android 2.3 or later as well as with the iPhone 4S (and newer) and Windows Phone 8.
The watch will pair with your smartphone using Bluetooth 4.0 and while battery life will always be a concern — it looks like quite a bit of thought went into that aspect. The watch will have a smaller secondary processor that will require less power. Having the secondary processor will also allow the main processor to stay in sleep mode when unused. This two processor set-up should help overall battery life.
Other aspects of the AGENT smartwatch includes motion and light sensors and the motion data will be available to the apps. One potential use here will be as a pedometer. The light sensor is actually two sensors and these will work together to “intelligently illuminate the display in dim lighting conditions.”
Another battery life topic comes in when your watch reaches 10 percent. At this point the AGENT goes into a watchface-only mode to conserve the remaining power. Otherwise, the AGENT is said to be able to provide up to 7 days of battery life over Bluetooth and up to 30 days of life in the watchface-only mode.
While there will obviously be some comparison to the Pebble, it looks like the AGENT will be a bit chunkier on the wrist. On the flip side though, judging from these images, it looks like the AGENT will be shipping with a much nicer band. Not to mention, the watch itself appears to be rather nice looking. Finally, for those curious about the final retail pricing. At present the watch by itself is expected to be $249 and a watch/charger combo should ring in at $299.
SOURCE: Kickstarter
Not sure about your assessment of the Pebble band. While it may not be the prettiest band in the world, it is one of the most comfortable bands I have ever worn. I would also disagree with “rather nice looking”. Looks clunky and ugly next to my smooth and sleek Pebble.
I too think it’s ugly.
This thing is crap and i give it -1 for supporting windows phone!