The Google Pixel Watch has been a very long time coming, and all-in-all, it was well worth the wait. It presents one of many smoothest Put on OS experiences at the moment out there with no model ecosystem-exclusive caveats, plus lots of Fitbit’s prime well being and health monitoring options. That stated, there’s undoubtedly room for enchancment. Its small and minimalist design will not be for everybody and the battery life is painfully brief. For Google’s first flagship wearable, the Pixel Watch is a stable begin and Put on OS smartwatch, nevertheless it falls wanting true greatness.
Like a long-awaited film debut, the highly-anticipated Google Pixel Watch is lastly right here. Having adopted the rumors for years, we lastly have eyes (and palms) on Google’s first smartwatch. Whereas some spoilers panned out, different particulars aren’t fairly what we anticipated. Discover out extra in our Google Pixel Watch review.
About this Google Pixel Watch review: I examined the Google Pixel Watch LTE over a interval of eight days. It was related to a Samsung Galaxy A51 all through the testing interval. The unit was offered to Android Authority by Google for this review.
What that you must know concerning the Google Pixel Watch
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
- Google Pixel Watch (Bluetooth + Wi-Fi): $349.99 / €379 / £349
- Google Pixel Watch (4G LTE): $399.99 / €429 / £379
Google’s first-ever smartwatch has formally hit wrists. Launched on October 6, 2022, the dome-shaped wearable includes a modern construct, a brilliant show, and Put on OS 3.5 — the most recent model of Google’s smartwatch OS. Nonetheless, probably the most outstanding characteristic of the brand new wearable is its Fitbit integration. Marketed as one of the best Fitbit expertise cash should purchase, the Pixel Watch represents the inevitable consequence of Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of the health model again in 2019. With tons of health and well being monitoring parts, the Pixel Watch goals to supply one of the best of Put on OS and Fitbit in a single, well-rounded expertise.
Regardless of its Fitbit affect, that is nonetheless a Google machine, although. Customers will discover all the standard suspects, together with turn-by-turn Google Maps navigation, Gmail and Google Calendar notifications, Google Assistant baked-in, Google Pockets help for NFC funds, and smart home management by way of the Google House app. The Google Play Retailer additionally presents entry to an intensive library of third-party apps. Navigation by way of all of those options relies on at-a-glance Tiles, info-packed knowledge screens, and customizable watch faces.
The Pixel Watch is offered now in two variants: a $349.99 Wi-Fi-only mannequin and a $399.99 4G LTE model. Each fashions are available in one in all three case colours: Champagne Gold, Matte Black, or Polished Silver. In addition they all ship with an Lively band in quite a lot of coloration choices. Every Pixel Watch buy additionally comes with six free months of Fitbit Premium entry in addition to three free months of YouTube Premium entry.
How is the design?
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We’ve had a fairly good thought of what the Pixel Watch would appear to be for a while due to teasers from Google itself. In individual, it’s trendy, modern, and minimalistic, with a domed face and reflective end. It’s additionally very reflective. If this review had been a recreation of I spy, you may most likely discover my face or camera in many of the images.
The watch itself is available in only one 41mm case dimension, which is on the petite aspect in comparison with many available on the market. The case’s diameter measures the identical dimension as a small mannequin of the Apple Watch Collection 8, however with its round design, takes up much less actual property in your wrist. Additionally it is simply 1mm bigger than the small mannequin of the Galaxy Watch 5. Once more although, Google doesn’t provide a second, bigger choice like these two opponents which might give the machine wider attraction. Anybody who prefers a giant watch will seemingly discover the Pixel Watch too dainty.
It includes a rotating digital crown that customers can configure to put on on both aspect of the watch. It additionally includes a again button that blends with the aspect of the case, sloping into the rear curve, which at instances proved laborious to achieve throughout my testing. On the wrist, the machine is tasteful, unobtrusive, and for lack of a greater phrase, easy.
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Sadly, my greatest gripe with the construct can also be an enormous contributor to its clear design. As a way to obtain its virtually futuristic look, the Pixel Watch’s bands join contained in the watch case. It’s an efficient association that completely works for those who by no means wish to change your band. Nonetheless, Google has a ton of substitute bands to buy, together with every part from leather-based to steel mesh, in heaps of colorways.
If you wish to capitalize on the expansive types out there, the lug design is terrible. Swapping straps includes finding the band launch buttons after which fidgeting and yanking till you’re certain it’s about to interrupt. Briefly, eradicating the Pixel Watch band isn’t simply tough, it’s downright irritating. It additionally will get much more sophisticated for those who go for one in all Google’s costly Crafted Leather-based bands which add lugs to the machine. This adapter makes the Pixel Watch suitable with all 20mm bands. The excellent news is, when you personal a Crafted Leather-based band, you’ll be able to swap into much more reasonably priced third-party choices. The unhealthy information is these straps price $79 for the privilege.
The Pixel Watch’s design is trendy and clear however, sadly, that is largely due to a band mechanism that is lower than superb.
After you have a band in place and the watch in your wrist, it’s light-weight and cozy. The always-on AMOLED show is a lot brilliant even in direct daylight, and it’s adequately protected by Corning Gorilla Glass. I didn’t essentially tough home throughout my review interval, however the watch stood as much as regular day-to-day bumps and scrapes simply nice. That stated, the glass is sort of uncovered, so we’ll have to attend and see the way it holds up over time.
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Beneath the glass, the Pixel Watch includes a acquainted interface with customizable “Tiles” and simple navigation. Swiping left or proper from any watch face cycles by way of tiles, swiping down from the highest opens a fast settings menu, and swiping up accesses notifications. From inside a menu or app, you’ll be able to return to a earlier display with a swipe from the left. A brief press of the button pulls up latest apps, and a fast press of the crown pulls up an alphabetical checklist of all of your apps which might be scrolled by way of with a twist of stated crown.
Navigating the interface is a breeze and interacting with the Pixel Watch could be very satisfying.
An extended press of the button opens Google Assistant, and a protracted press on the digital crown accesses emergency options. Following? If not, simply comprehend it’s a user-friendly setup that can really feel previous hat to Put on OS customers, although maybe much less acquainted particularly to Galaxy Watch house owners used to rotating bodily or digital bezels and Samsung’s One UI Watch-skinned model of Put on OS. Sadly, the button, digital crown, and fast settings panel usually are not customizable.
On the plus aspect, what you’ll undoubtedly discover whereas swiping round is how easily the Pixel Watch runs. That is probably the most responsive Put on OS machine I’ve personally examined, and that’s regardless of operating on a Samsung Exynos chip from 2018 that savvy customers will bear in mind from their Galaxy Watches 1, 2, and three. The Pixel Watch’s efficiency is most certainly helped by its Cortex M33 co-processor and 2GB of RAM — the latter of which is probably the most discovered on any Put on OS watch thus far, and 0.5GB greater than the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5 collection.
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
Again to the watch face, one other design characteristic customers might dislike is the hefty bezel. A considerably stunning quantity of the pebble is used up by a black border, successfully shrinking the machine’s show space. To be sincere, although, your complete interface has a dark-mode aesthetic that makes the bezel all however disappear. From watch faces to menus to third-party apps, on-screen knowledge is straightforward to view. Longer textual content blocks can really feel cramped, however not overwhelmingly so.
Sadly, one exception to that is the Photographs watch face. As you’ll be able to see within the picture above, my seaside snowman’s glamor shot doesn’t cowl as a lot of the machine as you’d count on and actually calls consideration to the Pixel Watch’s bezel.
Fortunately, nonetheless, there are tons of watch faces to select from within the Google Pixel Watch companion app, plus much more third-party choices out there for obtain. With Google Play Retailer on board, customers can entry extra third-party watch faces than any non-Put on OS watch that isn’t made by Apple. A lot of the picks within the Pixel Watch app characteristic pretty muted colours, so it’s good to have bolder and extra distinctive picks only a few faucets away.
Managing watch faces can also be very straightforward inside the app or on the watch itself. I switched up my look excessively, each for the sake of some various images for this review and for private styling, and I not often bothered going again to the app. You may merely lengthy press in your watch face to regulate your look in a number of seconds.
Then again, if you wish to get into the nitty-gritty, it helps to work on a bigger display. You may personalize the small print of many watch faces from each the Pixel Watch app and the watch itself, and in a pinch, (or to cross the time within the grocery line), on-device tinkering works nice. In your cellphone, although, it’s a lot simpler to scroll coloration and complication choices and edit a watch face to your preferences.
How is the battery life?
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To be blunt, the Pixel Watch’s battery life isn’t nice. Google’s smartwatch will final you nearly a day if you’re fortunate. Issues had been trying much more dire within the first 4 days of my testing. Out of the field, it’s finest to prep for a number of days of budding friendship along with your new charger. That is largely attributable to updates, calibration, and, most certainly, extreme use as you arrange your new machine. For context, I couldn’t make it to the top of the day with out charging, after which in a single day, I couldn’t make it to the morning even after I went to sleep with a full battery. After a number of days, although, the Pixel Watch begins to degree off to a suitable, however nonetheless disappointing battery schedule.
When you’re coping with regular use, the Pixel Watch will final simply as much as Google’s 24-hour declare. You’ll undoubtedly wish to set up some sort of routine for charging to avoid wasting your self future frustration. I charged mine every morning whereas beginning my work day. I usually topped off earlier than mattress as properly simply to make sure my sleep knowledge was safely recorded every night time. Charging the machine from zero to 100 % took simply shy of 90 minutes — proper in the identical respectable ballpark because the Galaxy Watch 5.
Battery life on the Pixel Watch would not maintain a candle to merchandise within the full Fitbit secure.
The Pixel Watch comes with a proprietary USB-C charging cable that appears like most wi-fi charging pucks. The magnetized puck is curved to accommodate the rounded form of the Pixel Watch case. You will have to seize your personal wall charger although, (straight away, since you’re going to wish it with battery life like this). Sadly, the Pixel Watch isn’t suitable with some other wi-fi chargers. That additionally means you’ll be able to’t prime it off with a flagship Pixel cellphone’s reverse wi-fi charging both. A weird determination, to say the least.
Certain, 24 hours might sound favorable in comparison with the Apple Watch on paper, however in actuality, most Apple Watches — the Watch Collection 8, included — outlast their 18-hour declare to supply a full day of use. Furthermore although, in mild of the significantly better battery specs on different Fitbit units, the Pixel Watch’s battery life is dismal. It’s simply the most important frustration with the first-generation Pixel Watch.
How properly is Fitbit built-in?
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Fitbit integration on the Pixel Watch is without doubt one of the machine’s most anticipated options. To over-simplify, the expertise boils down to a few fundamental apps: Fitbit At the moment, Fitbit Train, and Fitbit ECG. Every app performs a singular position in bringing the Fitbit ecosystem to customers’ wrists. I’ll cowl every briefly beneath, however for extra particulars, try our devoted article which runs by way of each Fitbit characteristic that made it onto the Pixel Watch (and people that are lacking).
Fitbit At the moment
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Like all Fitbit’s units, the Pixel Watch tracks primary stats, together with steps, flooring, and distance, plus Lively Zone Minutes, energy, and coronary heart fee. You may review all of those stats within the Fitbit At the moment app, or in some instances, by swiping to the related tile. If you would like extra particulars on a selected measurable, you’ll be able to faucet to tug up extra data.
For instance, the At the moment app opens with a welcome message instantly adopted by your day by day step rely. You may scroll down for different stats or faucet your step rely to dig into extra knowledge. There you’ll discover a breakdown of your steps all through the day in addition to details about your weekly common.
To view your knowledge on a bigger display, you may as well pop over to the Fitbit app in your paired cellphone. For the file, I discovered step counting to be fairly correct on the Pixel Watch, usually inside 10-15 steps of my Apple Watch SE 2.
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
Fitbit At the moment additionally homes knowledge from Fitbit’s spectacular sleep monitoring platform. I wore the Pixel Watch to sleep every night time through the testing interval, together with my Fitbit Versa 3. The Pixel Watch carried out properly, selecting up REM cycles and nailing after I fell asleep and woke every morning. On one night, after I vividly bear in mind tossing all night time, my knowledge certainly confirmed frequent intervals of wakefulness. Nonetheless, I nonetheless acquired an 84 sleep rating the subsequent morning as a result of Fitbit acknowledged that I used to be capable of hit my purpose for complete time asleep.
Fitbit’s sleep monitoring suite is without doubt one of the model’s greatest promoting factors, however its Sleep Profile program is not out there on the Pixel Watch.
Fitbit is without doubt one of the trade leaders in terms of monitoring and analyzing sleep, so it’s thrilling to see a Google smartwatch leverage the platform. Nonetheless, I used to be dissatisfied to seek out Pixel Watch customers can’t entry Fitbit’s Sleep Profile program, and never solely as a result of I like to seek out out what animal I sleep like every month. That is one of some cases the place the Pixel Watch doesn’t appear to get complete Fitbit integration like many had been hoping it will.
Fitbit Train
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The Fitbit Train app is the place you can begin exercises and think about/handle real-time health knowledge. Inside the app, you’ll discover 40 exercise modes starting from conventional choices like operating and biking to extra area of interest hobbies like canoeing. You can even personalize which knowledge fields are prominently displayed throughout your exercise.
To check the GPS and coronary heart fee sensor, I took the Pixel Watch on walks, runs, and bike rides, however I additionally examined a number of of the atypical exercise modes as properly. Newly obsessive about paddleboarding, I used to be excited to see that what I think about “leisure time within the solar” counts as a exercise. To be sincere, my arm and ab muscle tissue agree.
The Pixel Watch’s Fitbit ecosystem is finest suited for many who wish to casually observe their exercise journey.
Then again, many health trackers provide much more sport modes, (as in dozens extra), together with funds wearables the sub-$100 Xiaomi Mi Band 7. You can also’t design interval exercises on the Pixel Watch like on different Fitbit units, such because the entry-level Encourage 3. Most surprisingly, the watch doesn’t characteristic automated exercise detection. It would acknowledge a exercise after you’ve accomplished it and share the info within the Fitbit app, however you gained’t discover auto-start performance in your wrist.
Total, the Train app could be very primary. Usually talking, the Fitbit platform is finest for these with an off-the-cuff relationship with understanding. It’s particularly useful for anybody new to monitoring or simply beginning on a health journey. Within the Fitbit app, customers can set weekly objectives for the variety of days they train and review exercises tracked over time. For deeper insights, you’ll seemingly wish to obtain a third-party health app.
Fitbit ECG
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The Pixel Watch options an always-on, optical coronary heart fee sensor that each Google and Fitbit declare is their finest sensor out there. It additionally options the Fitbit ECG app, which can look acquainted for those who already personal a Cost 5, Fitbit Sense, or Fitbit Sense 2. The app permits customers to take on-demand ECG readings and assesses for indicators of atrial fibrillation (AFib).
Utilizing the app could be very straightforward. You merely observe the onscreen prompts, resting one finger on the digital crown till the thirty-second countdown is full. Nonetheless, I can’t emphasize sufficient that you have to be sitting through the recording and stay nonetheless. I acquired inconclusive outcomes many instances whereas testing this app’s performance.
Fortuitously, the watch may also inform you why your outcomes had been most certainly inconclusive. A couple of instances, my coronary heart fee was too excessive, and different instances, it said {that a} good studying wasn’t doable (seemingly attributable to motion). In case your coronary heart fee is just too low, that may additionally result in inconclusive outcomes.
This app has potential nevertheless it wants some tweaking. For somebody hoping to maintain tabs on their coronary heart, a finicky ECG isn’t going to be particularly comforting. Sadly, the Pixel Watch additionally doesn’t provide excessive/low coronary heart fee notifications. Whereas not a licensed medical machine, the omission of coronary heart fee notifications calls into query whether or not it will be one of the best decide for anybody who needs to maintain a passing eye on their coronary heart well being.
Fitbit Premium
Proper now, the Pixel Watch comes with six months of Fitbit Premium membership out of the field. Customers can faucet into the next options with Premium entry:
- Day by day Readiness
- Respiratory fee
- Coronary heart Fee Variability (HRV)
- Sleep Restoration
- Stress Administration Rating
- Well being Metric
- Detailed Sleep Rating breakdown
- Further exercises from Fitbit trainers and accomplice manufacturers within the Fitbit app
- Video games and challenges within the Fitbit app
- Mindfulness Periods within the Fitbit app
A subscription price associated to a flagship wearable is unlucky, however not extraordinary both. Oura Ring requires a subscription for its newest mannequin and Apple requires a subscription for its Apple Health Plus service. Nonetheless, the Pixel Watch is not at all an affordable machine and lots of of those paywalled options are commonplace on different units. For instance, Day by day Readiness is a helpful metric that provides a collective overview of your power. Garmin presents very comparable perception at no cost with its Physique Battery characteristic. Likewise, Garmin, Withings, and others present HRV, stress administration, and detailed sleep insights with out a subscription as properly.
There’s little doubt Fitbit Premium is a considerable service with so much to supply customers. $10 additional a month to entry all of the instruments of your $350 buy is only a powerful capsule to swallow. On the very least, customers may give the service a whirl with six free months after which determine if paying the month-to-month fee sooner or later is value it.
How is the health monitoring?
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So, we’ve established that native exercise performance is comparatively primary on the Pixel Watch. Nonetheless, with entry to an abundance of third-party apps, there’s loads of supplementation out there for extra superior health monitoring, if that’s your factor. With that in thoughts, the accuracy of the watch’s GPS and the reliability of its coronary heart fee sensor stay vital areas the place Google wanted to ship.
GPS monitoring on the Pixel Watch is satisfactory, however not fairly on par with units from Apple or Garmin. On primary neighborhood runs, it traced my route pretty precisely and recorded acceptable complete distances. It additionally locks on in a short time firstly of a exercise which is a big plus.
Granted, it’s not spot-on. You may see within the knowledge above the place the watch recorded my route simply barely off sufficient to run by way of a number of folks’s yards, or alongside the alternative aspect of the street than I truly hugged. That stated, total, it was respectable.
In the meantime, the guts fee sensor on the Pixel Watch lives as much as Google’s guarantees. It outperforms older Fitbit units and retains up with comparable wearables. It didn’t match my Polar strap completely completely, however most wrist-based wearables don’t.
In reality, it carefully mirrored knowledge recorded by my Apple Watch SE 2, which boasts a really dependable coronary heart fee sensor. Within the knowledge above, you’ll be able to see moments when the Google Pixel Watch drops off, like across the 33-minute mark, for instance. Nonetheless, that’s a fairly handsome graph when it comes to maintaining with a chest strap.
Throughout your exercise, the Pixel Watch additionally natively presents real-time, coronary heart rate-focused knowledge by way of color-coordinated coronary heart fee zones. As soon as you start a exercise, the watch will routinely convert your energetic coronary heart fee into at-a-glance actionable knowledge. Relying on what zone you might be in, be it fats burn, cardio, or peak, progress arcs will seem in yellow, orange, and purple, respectively. These coronary heart fee zones straight relate to Fitbit’s Lively Zone Minutes.
After you full your exercise, you’ll see a nice congratulatory display adopted by particulars about your Lively Zone Minutes achieved, plus common stats. You can even review this data within the Fitbit app. If you’re curious about deeper evaluation, you’ll be able to allow integration with third-party health apps. As talked about although, you gained’t nonetheless have the ability to entry coronary heart fee variability knowledge with out a Fitbit Premium subscription. HRV evaluation helps severe athletes asses their restoration and relaxation when planning coaching every day.
How are the smartwatch options?
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Smartwatch options — and extra particularly, Put on OS options — are the place the Pixel Watch differentiates itself from Fitbit’s secure. Clearly, headlining instruments embrace one of the best of Google’s choices. Google Assistant voice activation is responsive and dependable. For on-the-go funds, Google Pockets is handy, although solely in supported areas. The Google House app can be helpful for those who personal suitable sensible units that you simply depend on often. Google Maps presents turn-by-turn navigation and on-device maps, a stable characteristic for anybody who will get misplaced incessantly. Lastly, Pixel Watch customers can queue up new playlists on YouTube Music. Google consists of three months of YouTube Premium membership to the service with every Pixel Watch.
Further smartwatch options pre-loaded on the Pixel Watch cowl the fundamentals, together with Calendar and Gmail notifications, a day by day climate app with the present UV index, and Discover My Telephone help. There may be additionally a compass on board, in addition to a flashlight.
On the Pixel Watch’s revamped Put on OS, customers may also create a prolonged app drawer with third-party instruments. Meaning you’ll be able to increase your machine with well being staples like MyFitnessPal, Strava, Calm, and far more. However it goes far past health monitoring; if there are options of the Pixel Watch which you could’t discover natively, the Google Play Retailer presents the possibility to bulk up your expertise.
Personally, I like to increase my questionable music style to all my units and recognize the help for Spotify playlists. I additionally downloaded the favored health app Seven to see how the Pixel Watch would deal with the app’s animated exercise options. Regardless of a considerably undersized show house, the app had loads of room to stretch out efficiently.
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The Pixel Watch additionally presents help for on-wrist cellphone calls and messaging. With a Wi-Fi-only mannequin, customers might want to maintain their paired cellphone close by to obtain calls and texts. If you buy an LTE mannequin, you’ll be able to depart your cellphone at residence.
Although not sometimes one to conduct cellphone calls on speaker, I examined the watch by calling long-distance family. Voice readability by way of the machine’s built-in speaker is ample, and members of the family on the opposite finish stated they may hear me nice as properly. I then needed to clarify that the cellphone name was for work functions, which it seems is the right strategy to reduce off chatty siblings.
Anything?
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
- Google Pixel Watch app: Customers can handle watch faces, tiles, and primary settings within the new Google Pixel Watch app. You will have to obtain this companion app to initially pair your machine.
- Voice-to-text: Whereas the Pixel Watch does provide a keyboard, it’s too small to depend on completely. Fortuitously, voice-to-text enter is extraordinarily dependable. From querying Google Assistant to looking out the Google Play Retailer, the watch constantly interprets appropriately.
- Touchscreen Lock: From the management panel, the Pixel Watch presents a lock setting for disabling the touchscreen. Customers may also discover Sleep Mode in the identical menu, in addition to Theater Mode, Airplane Mode, and Do Not Disturb.
- No on-wrist cycle monitoring: Contemplating the market push to enhance feminine well being monitoring throughout the board, it’s a giant shock to not discover any cycle monitoring options on the Pixel Watch. Individuals who menstruate can nonetheless log intervals and signs within the Fitbit app on their paired cellphone, however there’s nothing on the Pixel Watch itself to help cycle monitoring.
- No SpO2 monitoring (but): In contrast to many units at this value level, the Pixel Watch doesn’t provide SpO2 monitoring. The machine does in reality characteristic an SpO2 sensor, however its performance isn’t but enabled.
Google Pixel Watch specs
| Google Pixel Watch | Specs |
|---|---|
|
Show |
Diameter: 41mm |
|
Supplies and finishes |
Case: 80% recycled stainless-steel
Lively band: Fluoroelastomer with soft-touch coating |
|
Dimensions and weight |
Diameter: 41mm |
|
Chip |
Exynos 9110 |
|
Storage and reminiscence |
32GB eMMC flash |
|
Energy |
294mAh (typical) As much as 24 hours USB-C magnetic charging cable Promised charging velocity: |
|
Software program |
Put on OS 3.5 |
|
Sensors |
Compass |
|
Interplay |
Aspect button |
|
Audio |
Constructed-in microphone |
|
Options |
-Fitbit well being and health |
|
Sturdiness |
5ATM water resistance |
|
Connectivity |
4G LTE and UMTS |
|
Compatibility |
Android 8.0 or newer |
|
Band Dimension |
Lively band: |
|
What’s within the Field |
Google Pixel Watch |
|
Guarantee |
US, CA, JP, TW, UK: 1 12 months EU, AU: |
|
Colours |
-Matte Black Stainless Metal case / Obsidian Lively band |
Worth and competitors
Google Pixel Watch
Put on OS 3 • Fitbit integration • Tons of apps
The Pixel Watch is the primary wearable with the Huge G.
The Google Pixel Watch is a Put on OS-powered wearable that is aiming to be the smartwatch for everybody. It has a strong app library, loads of Fitbit-based health-tracking options, and a cultured design.
The Pixel Watch isn’t excellent, nevertheless it has a lot to supply anybody in search of a clear, slim, and trendy Put on OS watch. The presence of Google’s full and untarnished software program suite, plus (most of) Fitbit’s main health options, is a price that’s laborious to disregard. Put on OS continues to enhance throughout the board, and Play Retailer’s third-party app help permits customers to spherical out their expertise with private favorites. Then again, the Pixel Watch’s battery life undoubtedly leaves so much to be desired. It’s additionally priced larger than maybe its characteristic set warrants, although the price is supposedly offset by six months of Fitbit Premium entry.
All that stated, the Pixel Watch is designed to have huge attraction. Anybody in search of a extra tailor-made expertise will seemingly wish to store round. For starters, the watch doesn’t provide everything of Fitbit’s platform and completely doesn’t compete with any devoted Fitbit machine’s battery life. People particularly searching for a Fitbit expertise are higher off trying into the Fitbit Sense ($178.95 at Amazon). It’s not as succesful as a smartwatch, nevertheless it offers you one of the best of Fitbit for a less expensive value. And sure, we imply the Sense, not the Sense 2 — the second-gen mannequin has some tough edges, to say the least. Alternatively, for those who’re glad to go for a health tracker kind issue, the Fitbit Cost 5 ($129.04 at Amazon) stays one of the best you may get.
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Likewise, anybody packing a Samsung cellphone can be higher suited with the Galaxy Watch 5 ($279.99 at Samsung). Just like the Pixel Watch, the Galaxy Watch 5 runs the most recent model of Put on OS and presents primary well being and health monitoring, although Galaxy cellphone customers get further software program perks. For a extra superior exercise expertise, Garmin presents the Venu 2 Plus ($449.99 at Amazon) with detailed health monitoring, an SpO2 sensor, and significantly better battery life, although the “sensible” aspect of the smartwatch is a bit more missing on the app entrance.
It additionally goes with out saying that iOS customers ought to avoid the Pixel Watch. The Apple Watch outshines Google’s providing in primarily each division, and the Pixel Watch isn’t suitable with iPhones anyway. Value-wise, the Apple Watch Collection 8 ($399 at Amazon) is probably the most comparable machine from Apple. When it comes to an total expertise, the Pixel Watch is probably extra just like the even cheaper Apple Watch SE 2 ($249 at Finest Purchase).
Google Pixel Watch review: The decision
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
In plenty of methods, the Pixel Watch is like that movie you’ll be able to’t wait to see since you actually beloved the e-book. We’ve gotten teasers and trailers for months (years, actually), and it’s lastly time to see the full-length characteristic. Whereas the essential plot is precisely what we anticipated — a Google/Fitbit mash-up on a robust wrist-based wearable — the top consequence isn’t fairly what some might have imagined. In actuality, we’ve been studying about Google’s smartwatch enterprise for therefore lengthy that expectations couldn’t have been larger.
That’s to not say that is merely a case of extreme hype, nonetheless. With out query, the Pixel Watch might and needs to be considerably higher. The show could possibly be larger and the bezel could possibly be smaller. The Fitbit integration could possibly be extra intensive and the battery life completely shouldn’t be so disappointing. Nonetheless, it’s value remembering that it is a first-generation product. Certain, Google’s been engaged on it seemingly ceaselessly, nevertheless it’s nonetheless the corporate’s debut into the smartwatch enviornment. With that perspective, evaluating the Pixel Watch to the Apple Watch Collection 8 or Galaxy Watch 5 collection could also be truthful contemplating how excessive Google has set the asking value, nevertheless it doesn’t inform us the entire story.
Google’s first smartwatch won’t be every part we hoped for, nevertheless it’s a really promising begin.
it for what it’s, the Pixel Watch is a flawed, however promising begin. A wearable with each Google’s device package and Fitbit’s monitoring suite is a wearable with so much to love and much more potential. So long as Google continues to help the Pixel Watch, it’s very more likely to see software program updates that proceed to enhance the consumer expertise. What’s extra, ought to the corporate produce a sequel subsequent 12 months, this premier try presents a powerful basis.
After so a few years of ready, it’s solely pure that many customers have so much to say concerning the Pixel Watch, each constructive and adverse. At this level, our hope is that Google is listening carefully to the constructive criticism so it may possibly ship a blockbuster sequel.
High Google Pixel Watch questions and solutions
Is the Google Pixel Watch waterproof?
The Google Pixel Watch has a water resistance ranking of 5ATM.
Is the Google Pixel Watch suitable with iPhones?
The Google Pixel Watch isn’t suitable with iOS. The Pixel Watch is just suitable with telephones operating Android 8.0 or larger.
The place is the Google Pixel Watch out there?
The Google Pixel Watch is offered within the US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan.
How lengthy will the Google Pixel Watch be supported?
Google has dedicated to at the least three years of Android updates on the Google Pixel Watch.
Does the Pixel Watch have Fall Detection?
In line with Google, Fall Detection will arrive on the Pixel Watch someday in 2023.
Do I want a cellphone to make use of the Google Pixel Watch?
Sure. To pair and arrange your Google Pixel Watch, you’ll need an Android cellphone.
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