“This was a great discovery. I've only had it for a week or so, I can give these as my first impressions.
Although this version 1 of the Bangle has some design flaws, which I'll go into in a minute, the fact that all the software running on it is 100% open-source (as far as I can tell it is truly 100% FOSS) means that there's all the chance to innovate to overcome these problems. I'm pretty sure the hardware is an OS design and easy to access the internals (4 screws and you're in), but I can't say anything on the repairability as yet.
The flaws:
* Charging cable is short and the magnetic cable connection is only OK. I think there's a charging cradle design available, though, and this is not a huge issue.
* The buttons are easy to accidently press, especially if you wear the watch on your left-wrist. This means that trackers can be paused accidently mid-run. Software solutions to this could be implemented, and I'm thinking about rolling my sleeves up to add a lock function, if I can't find one in the existing apps and widgets available.
* No specific cycle app (yet) that I can see. I used the BangleRun app, which has a [therefore superfluous] pedometer. A new app would be easy to knock up, however!
* Dimming settings for the screen causes flickering at lower values. I hoped to have a dim screen to preserve battery, although battery is pretty good at higher display brightness. Possibly an issue with the current firmware and a software fix could help.
* Be prepared to want to spend a lot of time developing for this. There's a lot of opportunity to develop and improve the software around this platform. Having the time is another thing!
There is, of course, the version 2 Bangle due to be available. To be honest, I'm happy with this version and would recommend! My recommendation would be directed to those with a technical leaning, as the ecosystem is not for the less tech literate: but this is a review written for PiHut, so I'd expect this to be that sort of user.
Buy one, have fun!”
