Really happy with it, it looks great. The leather strap is nice, but the metal band for me is the clear winner. Pebble didn't include a "tool" in the box to replace the straps or resize the metal band, instead there was a slip of paper in the box that said the recommend taking it to a watch store instead. So I did (I probably would have anyway). I have a guy right by my office I take my watches to and he was very interested in the Pebble, he remembered my Kickstarter plastic one and commented how much nicer the Steel looks. He examined it very carefully and was impressed with the overall design, he thought they got the size "right", the thickness for a "tech watch" was fine, and he was very impressed with the quality of the metal strap, especially since it was included. However he said the links were very difficult to remove and he wouldn't recommend anyone doing this themselves without the correct tools.
Another comment he made was Pebble should have included some smaller "half links" for adjustment, since there is no pin adjustment within the clasp. All the links are the same size. I have small wrists and we had to remove 5 links to get it to fit, and even then its still a little looser than I normally wear my watches, but if we'd removed one more link it would have been very tight.
Phil mentioned on the last podcast that the watch crystal (is it still considered a "crystal" if its made from Gorilla Glass?
) on his Pebble wasn't flush with the case and that Pebble had told him that is a "defect". My watch is the same, the glass is slightly below the edges of the case, but my watch guy said that's by design to protect the crystal and was very surprised anyone considers that a manufacturing defect. He said he would have actually preferred to see the case raised slightly more than it currently is, but it was "OK as it is". Anyway, when we'd finished with the band my watch guy had me give him the information on where to get a Pebble Steel; after seeing the notifications pop up as he was working on it, seeing the different watch faces, playing with controlling Google Music, he was completely sold! His suggestions for Pebble going forward was to integrate a solar cell behind the watch face like Seiko and Casio do for their watches (no need to worry about recharging!), and maybe make the next model out of aluminum or titanium to make it just that extra bit lighter. He also was interested in a model with a heart monitor (I let him know about the Samsung Gears), as he is an avid cyclist.
I thought those were really good suggestions for Pebble. Mine are more along the lines of a higher resolution display and possibly a slightly longer, larger face - but not too much bigger. I hadn't worn my Kickstarter plastic Pebble in a long time so I was a little shocked at how small the Steel seemed compared to my Qualcomm Toq and Martian watches, but after wearing it now a day and a half the Pebble actually seems to be sized more appropriately, its easy to forget you have it on.
So its here and I'm glad I have it. Yes, the new Pebble 2.0 app for Android is clunky as hell, but they'll get that fixed and its nice having a single integrated app to go find apps and watch faces. I think Jerry's comment that he wouldn't recommend the Pebble because of the 2.0 app is pretty harsh, you only use it for configuration, its not like you live in the thing. The notification for the "default email" application is kinda lame, but I just switched over to using Light Flow for my extra notifications (since I already have it set up for the ones I deem important enough to have the LED flash for) and included the email app there, problem solved. Now I'm really just interested to see if the black finish holds up; I'm notorious for banging the clasps on desks and wearing off the finish.
If you have a plastic Pebble and wish it was "nicer looking", I wouldn't hesitate to recommend picking up a Pebble Steel - it has really exceeded expectations.
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