Google Pixel Watch: an elegant timepiece with Google smarts
Google Pixel Watch. Picture: Google.
The Google Pixel Watch has been long anticipated and it’s now available to buy. Finally, Google has an answer to Apple's Apple Watch, but is it any good and is it worth your hard-earned cash?
The Pixel Watch has adopted a circular design which is more typical on analogue watches and in contrast to others including the world's best-selling watch from Apple.
It looks stylish and sleek with gorgeous rounded edges that make the watch — sans watch strap — look like a polished pebble. The elegant design language flows through to the watch strap which uses a clever mechanism that makes it easy to swap out straps. Google says the mechanism design was inspired by how a camera lens attaches to a camera body.
At first, I didn’t like how small it looked on my wrist but that’s partly down to the fact that I’m used to wearing larger watches. A smaller form factor has many benefits and the shape makes it less likely to snag on clothes and other things.
The case has a large crown that serves as both a power button and a selector as well as quick access to your apps. Above the crown, is a back button as well that launches the most recently used apps.
The watch is designed to comply with a water protection rating of 5ATM. However, it’s not waterproof and can’t be used for things like swimming.
The 30mm display is a stunning AMOLED with near-infinite contrast encased in a 41mm body with a large black bezel surrounding it. Everything looks great on this display which has a resolution of 450 x 450px and a peak brightness of 1000nits making it easy to read inside or outdoors in strong sunlight.
I’ve been wearing the Pixel Watch for over a month and haven’t scratched it thanks to the Gorilla Glass 5 that protects it.
The always-on display is optional and will drain more precious battery life if used. I was easily able to manage a full day of normal use, even with it on. However, on days when I would track my sleep and then go for a walk or a cycle with GPS tracking enabled, I was lucky to see it through the day without reaching for the charger that night. Google say you should get up to 24 hours with sleep tracking.
Charging can only be done via the supplied magnetic charging puck since Pixel Watch doesn't support Qi or any other wireless charging protocols. Charging takes about 30 minutes to 50%, 55 minutes to 80%, and 80 minutes to 100%.
For context, compared to Apple Watch Series 8, the Pixel Watch had 25% less battery on average at the end of a day of doing the same things. You can improve battery life by using battery save mode which will turn off the always-on display and tilt-to-wake features.
The Pixel Watch has many of the advanced sensors we’ve come to expect on a smartwatch in this premium price category. It can take electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements. These readings show whether or not your heartbeat appears to be in atrial fibrillation (A-fib) which indicates that your heart rate is erratic and if so you should consult a medical professional.
It’s also equipped with a blood oxygen sensor that determines your blood's oxygen saturation, but unfortunately, this feature hasn’t been enabled yet. Additional sensors include a compass, altimeter, gyroscope and of course, a heart rate sensor.
The Pixel Watch can’t automatically recognise workouts — you have to start an exercise manually. It does sleep tracking automatically and you can assist with this by turning on bedtime mode which turns off the always-on display, tilt-to-wake and touch.
The Pixel Watch does have a speaker and mic that makes it possible for calls but I found the speaker is only good if you’re in a quiet environment.
One of my favourite features of the Pixel Watch is that it supports Google Pay which makes contactless payments easier and more secure than using a debit card. A double tap on the dial pops up your card on the display and ready to pay.
It only takes ten minutes to setup the Pixel Watch with an Android phone, but you will need to download the Watch app and have a Google account. During the installation, It will ask you to download the Fitbit Today app to monitor your health data. The free version does an adequate job but does contain in-app purchases and needs a Fitbit account. Otherwise, it will integrate into Google’s free Fit app, and I recommend most users try that first. You do get six months of Fitbit Premium free, which is enough time to see if it’s worth paying the monthly subscription of €8.99 or €79.99 for an annual membership.
Once setup with Pixel Watch you can use Google Assistant by tilt-to-wake, then saying “hey Google” or pressing and holding the side button for a second. You can use it to start workouts or exercises as well as all the typical things you’d ask Google for. Of course, you’ll need to have your phone close and be connected to the internet for it to work.
Essentially, this is a cutdown version of Android on your wrist and so it works well with Android on your phone. You can ask for directions on the watch and it will launch Google Maps on your phone while also displaying a mini-map of your route on the watch. This is ideal when you’re on foot trying to find an address in a big city where you don’t want to be holding your phone out in front of you all the time.
You can also control smart devices from the watch using Google Assistant or the Google Home app. This comes in handy when you don’t have your phone with you.
You can receive and respond to messages using the Gboard keyboard, quick reply, or the mic to dictate a message. I found the latter much easier than using the tiny keyboard but thanks to the swipe-to-type feature, it isn’t as daunting as you’d expect and generally works fine.
The Google Pixel Watch is an elegant smartwatch with stylish colour options including black, gold and silver. It works well for casual and fashion watch users but the battery life isn’t good enough for more serious fitness tracking.
Wear OS 3.5 is intuitive and easy to use with powerful features and good app support.
Fitness and wellness can be a little confusing since you can use both Fitbit and Google Fit. The latter offers more basic tracking but if you want all the bells and whistles then you’ll have to pay a subscription for Fitbit Premium.
The Pixel Watch is a great smartwatch with lots of things to love in both the hardware and software experience but it’s not inexpensive and there’s lots of competition in this space now.
Google Pixel Watch €379 Google Store
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