Google Pixel Watch review: What you need to know before buying
Google’s first ever smartwatch has arrived, bringing precise health and fitness tracking and the biggest Wear OS update yet.
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GOOGLE PIXEL WATCH REVIEW
We’ve been waiting years to see Google’s Pixel Watch become a reality and now it’s finally here.
With so much anticipation comes high expectations, especially given it follows hot on the heels of Samsung’s impressive Galaxy Watch5 – a smartwatch we recently dubbed the best Android option yet.
Launching alongside both the base Google Pixel 7 and the Google Pixel 7 Pro, the Pixel Watch sets itself apart from its competitors with its smooth, dome-shaped design. It also arrives with all of the Google apps you would expect and deep Fitbit integration for easy health and fitness tracking.
Unlike Apple and Samsung watches, it only comes in the one 41mm size. However, it does arrive with two Active band sizes in the box, effectively accommodating wrist sizes ranging from around 130-210mm. There are also two variants: A Bluetooth/Wi-Fi option for $549 and a 4G LTE + Bluetooth/Wi-Fi version for $649, though the latter is currently only via Telstra.
So, is it worth the spend? I spent a week with the watch to find out. A week isn’t enough time to really put it through its paces, but it was enough time to conclude that the watch (mostly) lives up to the hype.
Google Pixel Watch, from $549
Pros
• Comfortable and attractive design
• Reliable health and fitness tracking with Fitbit
• Great range of on-board Google services
• Best representation of Wear OS so far
• Intuitive interface
Cons
• Confusing band switch system
• Blood oxygen sensor not currently available
• One-day battery life
• Not compatible with iOS
DESIGN
Straight off the bat, I really love the design of the Pixel Watch. Similar to the Samsung Galaxy Watch5, it has a circular face which makes it look more like a traditional timepiece than a smartwatch. But that’s where the similarities end.
Instead of a flat glass face, the Pixel Watch arrives with a pebble-like glass design that makes it feel both polished and modern. On the right hand side, there’s a revolving haptic crown to assist navigation and a button to access various apps. On the bottom, there’s a heart rate monitor and other health sensors.
The watch does have quite a thick bezel, though this is largely hidden by the UI which is bright in the centre of the display and then tapers off to complete the ‘domed’ look. While I prefer a larger display, the dead space is barely noticeable up close and the screen is still easy to read, so I didn’t mind this as much as I thought I would. The 1.6-inch AMOLED touch display is also bright and sharp, boasting a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits and a 320ppi pixel density.
The Pixel Watch is constructed from recycled stainless steel (available in three colour options of matte black, silver and champagne gold) and is covered in a custom “3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5.” This Gorilla Glass is thought to be less scratch-resistant than the sapphire glass we saw on the Galaxy Watch5, but it’s also less likely to shatter if it takes a tumble.
While I can’t say I’ve been particularly aggressive with the watch so far, I feel fairly confident that it can survive the bumps and knocks that come with day-to-day wear. If you are concerned though, screen protectors for the Pixel Watch are already available through third-party stores.
Strangely, the Pixel Watch does not have an official IP rating for dust and water resistance, though Google claims it’s water-resistant up to 5 ATM/50 metres. In other words, you can take it in the pool, but not deep sea diving.
Another standout from the design is the omission of lugs, which sets the watch apart from many others on the market and gives it a nice curvature. As someone with smaller wrists than most, I found the exclusion actually helped the watch to sit more comfortably on my wrist.
To accommodate the omission though, Google has used a more unique mechanism to attach the watch straps – and when I saw the footage, I was initially quite impressed. In the first glimpses we got, the band seemed like it would seamlessly slide off the sides of the body and then easily click back into place.
After several attempts at removing my watch band, I can say it isn’t as intuitive as it looks. Getting the band off requires you to push down a button whilst trying to slide the band over the same button you’ve just pushed. While I did get the hang of it eventually, it’s more fiddly than it needs to be – and that’s a problem.
When it comes to smartwatch bands, it’s really important to get it right on the first go so you don’t make previous bands obsolete when you bring out a new watch model. It’s one thing that Apple has done really well with its Apple Watch range – consistently keeping the same easy-to-remove band ever since its first watch launch.
While some online commenters have remarked the Pixel Watch is distinctly ‘feminine’ in design, I personally didn’t get that impression – especially after asking a number of male friends and family members to try it on. Additionally, the watch comes with around 18 customisable watch faces and has a range of different strap options, making it easy to change up the design to something that better fits your style.
Along with the standard silicone Active bands the Pixel Watch arrives with, Google has also created a range of stretch bands, woven bands and leather bands, all of which are available now on the Google Store. I also had a glimpse at some more luxurious metal bands during Google’s briefing, all of which should be available in Australia sometime next year.
PERFORMANCE
The Google Pixel Watch runs Wear OS 3.5, which is a slightly different version of the Wear OS 3 that Google and Samsung co-engineered last year. The new update might be the biggest for Wear OS smartwatches yet, bringing fitness tracking through Fitbit, a new interface, faster app load times, more shortcuts and gesture controls, new watch faces, some auto workout detection and heart rate monitoring once every second. You also get all the additional features you would expect, including GPS, an always-on display and LTE (depending on the model you buy).
The new experience is both fast and fluid, using a tile-based interface that allows you to swipe through to find what you’re looking for. Simply swipe up to see all notifications or swipe down to see your settings, view your remaining battery life or access the built-in flashlight (a nice addition, though not quite bright enough).
You can also swipe left or right to cycle through various tile widgets – and you can customise these to easily find your favourites. Pressing the crown once will meanwhile allow you to scroll through features like maps, contacts, alarms, ECG tracking, Find My Phone, Hand Wash tracking and more.
The Wear OS update also brings a Google Home app to smartwatches for the first time. While it is fairly barebones at the moment, it allows you to access all the rooms you’ve set up in the Google Home app and open device controls for each room. This means you can do things like adjust the volume of connected speakers or control the brightness of connected lights, along with turning connected devices on and off.
Naturally, being a Google device, the Pixel Watch also comes with a number of Google features built-in. This includes Google Wallet, Google Maps, Google Calendar, YouTube Music and the Google Assistant. As one of the best virtual assistants available, having the Google Assistant on your wrist is an incredibly helpful function as you can speak directly to your watch, rather than having to whip out your phone. It also allows you to speak to reply to a message rather than having to respond on the watch, which is much more convenient than responding with the keyboard.
The watch comes with 32GB of on-board storage, allowing plenty of room for apps and music, and allows you to make phone calls too.
Interestingly, the Pixel Watch uses Samsung’s Exynos 9100 processor, which is now slightly outdated. It does, however, juice it up with a custom ARM M33 co-processor to help relieve some of the load. Thankfully, I didn’t feel that the choice impacted my experience with the watch and didn’t have any issues with response time while testing the device.
Similar to the Samsung Watch5, the Google Pixel Watch is compatible with Android 8.0 and higher, which means it is not compatible with iOS. While this isn’t a huge surprise given that Apple Watches have never been compatible with Android phones, most Wear OS watches do work with iPhones, so this is still really disappointing to see.
HEALTH AND FITNESS FEATURES
While there has been some confusion over why Google has focused on Fitbit rather than Google Fit for its first ever smartwatch, I can’t say I found it all that surprising. As one of the most renowned brands on the market, it makes sense Google would want to use Fitbit’s long-tested fitness and health tracking technology after it closed its acquisition of the brand back in January 2021.
Google has even promised the “best Fitbit experience” on the Pixel Watch and has mentioned this Fitbit integration will remain exclusive to the Pixel Watch for the time being. The choice also makes the Pixel Watch ideal for those who are ready to update to a smartwatch but really like the fitness and wellbeing data Fitbit produces.
If you are familiar with Fitbit already, none of the tracking features on the Pixel Watch should come as a surprise. If you haven’t used its tracking before, you should find it fairly simple to get the hang of.
There are more than 40 preset workouts to choose from and, as I mentioned earlier, it includes some automatic activity tracking, which is incredibly handy if you want to exercise without your phone. The function allows you to track steps, calories, GPS data and more with activity types like running, weightlifiting or tennis.
The Fitbit app also handles all your health metrics, including sleep tracking and all-day activity tracking. Google is including six months of free Fitbit Premium membership with the purchase of the Pixel Watch too, though you will have to pay for the service after that if you want to access things like personalised insights, sleep stage breakdowns, daily readiness score, wellness reports based on your Fitbit stats and your monthly sleep profile.
While this is definitely frustrating, there should be enough tracking metrics included with the free version of the app to satisfy most users. It has to be said though that some of the locked features, like the Daily Readiness Score, are incredibly useful to have, making it harder to shy away from the dreaded subscription model.
The Pixel Watch also includes a heart rate sensor and machine-learning based algorithm, which Google claims produces a more accurate heart rate reading. While I wasn’t able to test the accuracy in the week I had the device, I have had an issue with past smartwatches showing my heart rate as alarmingly high. The Pixel Watch, however, consistently showed a lower heart rate – and this new rate is around what I would have expected for my age, health and fitness levels.
The watch can also take ECG readings and blood oxygen readings, though the latter feature isn’t available just yet. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy Watch5, there is no skin temperature sensor on the Pixel Watch, and it’s unclear whether this is a feature we’ll be seeing in the future.
However, the Pixel Watch does include other standard Fitbit features such as on-wrist goal celebrations and reminders to move – though these seem to be less frequent than some other smartwatches I’ve tested.
BATTERY LIFE
Okay, let’s talk about battery life. The Pixel Watch arrives with a 294mAh battery, which is significantly smaller than the Galaxy Watch5’s 410mAh battery. It’s also much smaller than most other Wear OS watches.
While Google claims the Pixel Watch has a battery life of “up to 24-hours,” that’s only achievable if you keep the always-on display switched off and don’t go hard on the GPS. Using either will drain your battery life fairly quickly, giving you around 20 per cent less battery life per hour.
On the plus side, the Pixel Watch juices up fairly quickly, with a full charge only taking around an hour. You can also get it back to around 50 per cent battery in about 30 minutes with the included USB-C charger, which is ideal for those who want to use the sleep tracking metrics.
While it isn’t uncommon to see a smartwatch with a day-long battery life (Samsung’s Galaxy Watch5 wasn’t much better here in our testing), it will be difficult to get used to if you’re coming from a standard Fibit device.
It’s also something we’re hoping to see Google fix for its second-gen model – especially as its biggest competitors start to get significant battery upgrades.
SHOULD YOU BUY IT?
Not only is the Google Pixel Watch one of the most attractive smartwatches around, but its amalgamation of precise Fitbit health-tracking and helpful Google apps, for the most part, lives up to its high promises. It also benefits from the best representation of Wear OS yet.
Of course, this is a first-generation product and that naturally comes with a few quirks like a fiddly band-switching method and a lacklustre battery life. It would also be nice to see Google bring in two size options for the second-generation.
Despite this, my overall experience with the watch was fairly seamless, making the Pixel Watch one of the best smartwatches we’ve seen so far this year – and certainly the one Pixel users have been waiting for, making it better late than never.
Overall rating: 4/5
Price: The Google Pixel Watch is priced at $549 for the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi version and at $649 for the 4G LTE + Bluetooth/Wi-Fi version. Right now, Telstra is the only available carrier for the LTE version.
Where to buy: The Google Pixel Watch is available to buy now from Harvey Norman, the Google Store and Officeworks.
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