In the blog post where I mentioned that I wanted to actively move away from Apple products and services I mentioned that I was interested in picking up a new Pebble watch when they become more widely available.

After making that original post, though, I started thinking a bit more deeply about what I was looking for in a watch that I would wear every single day. On the surface, the Pebble is attractive for a number of reasons that appeal to me: an e-ink screen, a completely open source operating system, a long battery life, and a healthy-ish app ecosystem. But as I thought about it more and more, I ultimately decided that the Pebble watch just isn’t for me.

For one, I don’t like large, bulky watches. I mainly use watches for telling the time (obviously), checking what day it is, seeing notifications, and tracking health and fitness data. Given these use cases, my favorite form factor is more the “sports band” style of watches. It’s a good compromise between size/weight and usability. Anything bigger than that is unnecessary for me.

I also do want the watches I wear to be at least a little fashionable. I don’t need a fancy Rolex, but I don’t want the watch I’m wearing to stick out like a sore thumb during times when I’m ever-so-slightly spiffed up.

Plus, now that energy-efficient, high resolution OLED displays are table stakes for even the cheapest watches, the e-ink display doesn’t hold as much value as it once did. With these OLED displays you can see perfectly in even the most brilliant sunlight, and you get all the lovely colors and deep blacks all the other times.

As someone who is actively trying to get healthier and, to be frank, thinner, a robust set of fitness features and tracking is important. I like being able to track my workout sessions, especially long walks to see how far I’ve traveled and review the paths I’ve taken.

And it has to be said: the Pebble is wildly expensive for what you get. For a relatively cheap, plastic-y case and somewhat outdated tech under the hood, you’re still going to fork out hundreds of dollars.

The more I thought about it, the less a Pebble made sense. Instead, I began to examine the entire market to see what might be a better fit for me. I knew that it would be hard to find a fitness tracker with a month-long battery life and an open source OS, but I was willing to at least settle for a device that supports Gadgetbridge so that if I ever move back to Android (or if something like Gadgetbridge ever comes to iOS) I can control where the data coming out of my watch goes. For the time being, though, every tech company seems equally gross and wanting to hoover up as much personal data as they can. I don’t much care if it’s a US company or an international company hoovering up that data.

After looking at everything available (Garmin, FitBit, Pixel Watches, Amazfit, Mi, and more) I realized that the Mi Band 10 is an ideal watch for me. It has a three-week-long (plus!) battery life, a ton of swappable watch faces, full Gadgetbridge support, a great OLED display, and all the health features I could ask for. It’s the perfect form factor. And to top it all off, you can usually pick one up for around forty bucks.

I’ve now been wearing one around the clock (except for showers) for well over a month, and I absolutely love it. It surpasses my Apple Watch (soon to be sold!) in every single way that I care about. And I don’t regret not getting a Pebble at all (especially in light of the recent drama between Core Devices and Rebble, which ended up leaving both parties looking not-great IMO).

I know the Mi Band is made by a Chinese company and they are probably doing all manner of unspeakable things with the data coming out of the companion app on my smartphone. One day I do hope to be able to liberate it with something akin to Gadgetbridge and keep all the data it generates siloed to an application I have full control over. But for now, in a world where I have to give data to someone in return for the convenience of a smart watch, I feel equally as good giving it to them as I would to Google or Apple.

The Mi Band 10 is a genuinely tremendous watch, especially for forty bucks. 10/10 would recommend!