Google has been long rumored to be working on a Pixel Watch — for years, in fact. It took a long time for it to eventually come to fruition, and with it comes a lot of Google’s trademark software smarts. While the watch itself has been shrouded in controversy thanks to perceived large bezels, a high price tag, and a poor battery life, I’ve found that Google has still nailed the fundamentals of a decent smartwatch. It’s very much a “first-gen” product, but that was to be expected.
However, having used the Google Pixel Watch now for a little while, I’ve found that it’s a lot better than what many would have given it credit for. It looks a lot better in real life, and the battery life is surprisingly manageable and about in line with what you’d expect from a lot of other smartwatches. It’s still in need of improvement, but I feel like it’s not as big of an issue as I thought it was going to be. My biggest criticism is the price, as it comes in more expensive than a Samsung Galaxy Watch.
If you’re looking for a smartwatch that just works with your Android devices, the Google Pixel Watch is a compelling offering. I wouldn’t necessarily say that it’s the best smartwatch on the market right now, but there are a few things about it that I find it push it up above what Samsung can offer — and that’s namely in software.
- The Google Pixel Watch is the first smartwatch from Google under the Google Pixel branding. It's outdated in some ways but has a lot of charm for what it is.
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Google Pixel Watch: Specifications
| Specification | Pixel Watch |
|---|---|
| Material & Size |
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| Dimensions & Weight |
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| Display | 1.2-inch AMOLED display |
| Processor | Exynos 9110 |
| RAM & Storage |
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| Battery & Charging |
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| Durability | 5ATM water resistance |
| Sensors |
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| OS | Wear OS 3.5 |
| Colors |
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About this review: Google Ireland gave me the Google Pixel Watch for IrishTech on the 7th of October, 2022. While the company provided me with a unit, it had no input into the contents of this review.
Google Pixel Watch: Design
One of the most controversial aspects of this watch, the design is something that has really gotten to some people. Renders don’t often do products justice, and they were particularly unkind to Google’s latest watch offering. It didn’t help that the company quietly adjusted some renders in its press materials to make the bezels actually look right, but to be honest, it looks way better in person anyway.
In fact, I was in a bar the other day and someone I was talking to noticed the watch on me and asked if it was the Pixel Watch. I told them it was, and the first thing they said to me about it was that the bezels don’t actually look as bad as they thought it was going to. They had been considering buying one but were put off by the bezel, but said that they actually didn’t mind how it looked in person. It was interesting because that isn’t the first person I’ve heard saying that about the Pixel Watch, and it was the very same as my own experience, too.
The Google Pixel Watch has a functional design that’s lightweight and comfortable to wear, and for most people, that’s what matters most. I can definitely see how a lack of a properly raised bezel can also be a concern for those who are worried about scratching or cracking their watch when walking, but I love the unique look that it has. It might look a little bit too small on some people’s wrists as well, but for mine, it’s been completely fine.
I love the unique look that the Pixel Watch has
The 384×384 AMOLED display gets surprisingly bright, a lot more than I expected. The auto brightness is also quite good when using it outside, though you can turn it off and crank the brightness up to the maximum if you want to murder your 294 mAh battery. I don’t recommend doing that.
There’s a speaker on the left-hand side that plays audio for notifications and the Assistant, along with anything else that supports it. The crown on the right can be used to scroll up and down, for ECG readings, and for going back home. Double tapping it will also open the wallet app for quick payments, and the button above that is the recent apps button. Finally, the haptics are really good.
The biggest downside in the design is the inclusion of proprietary bands. While the included Active Band looks good, you won’t be able to use any of your other 20mm watch bands on this device. That’s thanks to Google’s band mechanism that it uses to attach bands to the body of it. You may be able to buy a specific band and take it apart in order to attach your own (according to The Verge, anyway), but that’s about it. There’s no guarantee that Google will hang on to this band mechanism for the successor — if there even is one. Hopefully they sell an adapter in the future.
Google Pixel Watch: Battery
Addressing the elephant in the room, the Google Pixel Watch has a pretty terrible battery life, and there’s no skirting around the issue. You’ll likely find yourself babying it at times throughout the day, and using an always-on display will mean that you’re going to have to charge up twice a day at least. It’s bad, it’s inexcusable, and it nearly undoes all of the rest of the good that Google gets right here.
The Google Pixel Watch, having said all of that, is convenient for my use case, and I can live with (note: I am not saying it’s okay) the fact that I need to charge it that frequently. I often sit at my computer anyway, and I have a USB-C port built into my computer’s case. I can plug in my watch in the morning when I sign on for work for a few minutes, and if I need to, when I’m playing games or whatever in the evening, I can stick it on a charge again.
The problem is that if I wanted to stay out overnight somewhere, charging it will become an issue. Depending on where I am, be it a party or otherwise, a charger might not come quickly. I can put it in battery saver mode, but assuming I’ve already used it throughout the day, the battery is very unlikely to last me much longer. Keep in mind, Google advertises up to 24 hours of battery life. That’s the maximum. If you unplug it at 9 am one day, it’s not surviving much longer than 9 am the next, no matter how much you try. Maybe you’ll stretch out an additional hour or two under extreme conditions, but that’s about it.
If the Pixel Watch is struggling now, how will it fare in three years' time?
That’s the biggest, number one issue with the Google Pixel Watch. Most people can probably look past the rest for a sleek-looking device that integrates nicely with basically any Android smartphone, but a struggling battery is alarming when batteries obviously deteriorate over time as well. If it’s struggling now, how will it fare in three years’ time?
And then there’s the issue of wireless charging. Google says it’s not supported, but in the sense of “it might work in some places, it might not, you may have issues, it may work fine”, and there’s seemingly no additional clarity. Your mileage will vary, but not even Google can tell you by how much. You’d best stick to the official wireless charging puck, though that costs $30 and is sold out on the Google store at the time of writing.
For what it’s worth, it charges fast. I can charge up the Pixel Watch from 0% to 50% in half an hour, which is fine when I’m just at my PC. From 0% to 100% it takes a bit over an hour, though I tend not to run it down that low anyway. Still, that’s paltry given how terrible the battery life is in the first place.
In short, the battery issue is pretty much enough for me to recommend against buying this smartwatch. I can accept all of the other quirks and weird aspects of this smartwatch, but at an asking price of $350, why would you buy this?
Google Pixel Watch: Software
On the bright side, the Google Pixel Watch has some excellent software, though with some weirdness that I’ll get into later.
It comes preloaded with Wear OS 3.5 based on Android 11 and given we’re on Android 13 currently, that in itself is a bit odd. It’s the only smartwatch outside of Samsung’s ecosystem to have Wear OS 3, and it looks pretty good. There are useful features, it’s very smooth, it’s fast, and it’s one of the best smartwatch interfaces that I’ve used.
The app ecosystem on Wear OS is decent, and a lot of apps have Wear OS companions that can be used alongside a smartphone. Case in point: in Ireland, I use an app called “Next Train Ireland” for keeping track of train times and when the next train is due at my local station. I can add my local station as a favorite on my phone, and this will be reflected on the watch. I can use my watch to view my favorite stations and view real-time departures and arrivals. It’s incredibly useful, and something I can’t do on other, non-Android smartwatches.
I’m also a major fan of the preloaded watch faces, and my favorite is actually the default (Utility). I can have the time, a step counter, media controls, a heart rate monitor, and my upcoming calendar events all on my watch face. It’s really, really useful, and helps me keep on top of the work that I need to do. There are other watch faces too, but it’s my favorite by far.
As well, you get a number of proprietary Fitbit-based apps, such as the Fitbit ECG app. It works exactly as it sounds, and conducts a single-point ECG test by getting you to place your finger on the crown of the watch and sit still for thirty seconds. It can detect Atrial Fibrillation (AFib) and that’s about it. There’s no support for detecting abnormal heart rhythms or anything like that, despite those features being commonplace on devices such as the Apple Watch and even across Fitbit’s own portfolio.
In fact, that’s another issue — there’s a lot lacking here that, if you want a Fitbit, makes this a worse product than most of the company’s own offerings. Google left out a ton of features, and I’d wager that the reason is out of concern for the battery. It’s one thing to collect heart rate data every second (thanks to the dedicated low-power Cortex M55 onboard), but it’s another to process that data. The Google Pixel Watch lacks:
- Auto start, stop, and pause of exercises
- Swim stroke tracking
- Abnormal heart rhythm detection
- Guided breathing
- Silent/SmartAwake alarms
- Bloody oxygen nightly average, range, and trends over time
- No skin temperature monitor
So, for $350, why wouldn’t you just pick up a Fitbit Sense 2 instead? The Google Pixel Watch feels like it’s caught in between two lanes — Wear OS, and Fitbit. It could double down on one, or it could just try to combine both. The problem is that it’s limited not just by its own battery, but by the Exynos W920 chipset in tow, too. It’s a four-year-old chipset that was in the Samsung Galaxy Active 2, and it’s definitely showing its age.
Google Pixel Watch: Fitbit app
If you’ve ever used a Fitbit, then you’ll already know what the Fitbit app is like. It’s the same as ever with the Google Pixel Watch and there’s nothing new to expect. It has sleep tracking, calorie tracking, food and water intake logging, health metrics, and a whole lot more.
Here’s the problem: while all of these features are great and very useful, some of them are actually locked behind Fitbit premium. You get six months of it for free when you first get the Pixel Watch, but after that, you’ll need to pay for it separately. Features locked behind Fitbit premium include:
- Guided programs and workouts
- Daily Readiness Score
- Stress management
- Long-term health reports
- Detailed sleep analysis
The Fitbit app is pretty intuitive to use
What’s more, if you buy a Google Pixel Watch and avail of the Fitbit Premium trial, make sure to cancel it before it automatically renews in case you don’t want it anymore. Otherwise, it will auto-renew at a later date.
The Fitbit app is pretty intuitive to use, but I feel like in order to be a true Apple Watch competitor, some of the paywalled features should have been made available to all users. Detailed sleep analysis should not be a Fitbit premium-only feature, as it’s something that a lot of cheaper watches can do nowadays.
Should you buy the Google Pixel Watch?
No matter what, despite all of the negative I have to say about the Google Pixel Watch, it has a ton of charm. It feels good, it looks good, and the software is excellent despite the drawbacks. It also works across all Android devices, and while the Galaxy Watch 5 can too, it also requires a modded APK to work on non-Samsung devices.
The battery is the biggest concern of all, and given that I’ve been able to make it work for my uses, I think that I could recommend it to some people who are similar to me. However, as already mentioned, you’ll then be limited in using it whenever you go out and stay the night away. Why bother worrying about all of that anyway though?
If your prerogative is fitness and health, there are better Fitbit devices. If you want a Wear OS watch, then yes, there are also better Wear OS watches. The only reason you’d have to buy this is if you want something that combines Fitbit specifically with Wear OS, but the problem is, this watch doesn’t really do either of them exceptionally well — and does them at much higher costs.
Buy the Google Pixel Watch if:
- You really want a Google-branded smartwatch.
- You don’t want to deal with modded APKs.
- You want the fastest and smoothest Wear OS experience.
- You can get a good deal.
Don’t buy the Google Pixel Watch if:
- You’re money conscious and want good value.
- You want the best of the best and are ready to spend for it.
- You have battery anxiety.
- The Google Pixel Watch is the first smartwatch from Google under the Google Pixel branding. It's outdated in some ways but has a lot of charm for what it is.
The post Google Pixel Watch review: An overpriced beauty that’s half Wear OS, half Fitbit appeared first on XDA.
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