The Takeaway: Three years after Google announced its acquisition of Fitbit, the company’s first smartwatch is finally here. All eyes had been on the tech giant in anticipation of a true Android alternative to truly rival the Apple Watch. And the beautiful Pixel Watch comes close, being full of the smart features you would expect from Google. But a few first-gen bugs and missing functions hold it back from reaching its full potential.
Pros
- Excellent hardware and design
- Accurate health sensors
- Rich insights from sleep and workout tracking
- WearOS is snappy
Cons
- Always-on display kills battery
- Best Fitbit features require subscription
- Some software annoyances
Classic Stylings With Modern Features
Wrist size and personal taste will vary, but for me this is the best looking smartwatch I’ve worn. Its stainless-steel case and rounded face looks premium for the $349 price. I’ve never been a fan of the rectangular Apple Watch shape–the circle just makes the Pixel Watch feel more like a standard timepiece and less like a wrist computer. Pair it with a metal band and it could almost work with a more formal outfit. But for day-to-day use, the default silicon-like band is comfortable for extensive wear and sleek looking to boot.
On paper, the watch’s giant bezels could take away from the premium look. For the most part, the software hides the edges quite well. Apps that fill the screen tend to look not so great, but the OLED screen and dark design of the majority of apps kept me from noticing the bezels much at all. The haptic feedback is strong while the buttons of the crown are high quality, adding up to create a watch that–to put it simply–just feels nice to use. I do hope Google offers a larger size in the next generation. The 41mm case is a bit small for my wrist, and, though I’ve loved how lightweight and sleek it feels, having the option to size up would help the watch appeal to more people.
WearOS Software Is Snappy But Has Some Kinks
A few years ago, I had the misfortune of testing the Suunto 7, an early attempt to put WearOS on a fitness-focused watch. That early version of the software was a nightmare–buggy, slow, missing features, and a battery killer. The Pixel Watch’s WearOS 3 is significantly better in all those respects.
Starting with the battery, Google says the watch will last 24 hours. This held up in my testing, as I was able to go a full day and night between charges. But the solid battery life ends the second you toggle on the Always-On Display. Even on days where I didn’t use the GPS, the watch couldn’t make it a full 24 hours with the display constantly lit. So if that feature is important to you, either expect to top off the battery at some point during the day or consider the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 with its larger battery capacity.
While tracking a workout, using the GPS and heart rate sensor, I noticed the battery life is about average compared to the competition. I logged a 40-minute run, using the watch to play Spotify on my Pixel Buds. That run knocked a full 25 percent off the battery–meaning the watch wouldn’t get you through a marathon if you were also using it to listen to music. Logging a bike ride without music drained about 20 percent over the course of an hour. Those numbers are fairly in line with Samsung and Apple’s watches, but it’s important to note that a watch like this won’t replace a Garmin or dedicated sport watch for people logging serious training hours.
Despite the watch’s shorter battery life for extensive workouts and the Always-On Display, WearOS 3 is enjoyable and intuitive to use, with an interface that makes it easy to navigate between apps. In addition to using the app drawer, you can quickly control some apps using “tiles” you can access by swiping from the watch face. Think of them like widgets on your phone. They make it quick to set a timer, check the weather, and a bunch of other productivity tasks. But like widgets, tiles are only available if the app developer adds the feature. Spotify doesn’t have one yet, and even some Google apps like Google Home are absent. (Please, Google, add a tile to quickly control Home routines!)
One of the main benefits of having a smartwatch is being able to see notifications on your wrist and keep a distracting phone in your pocket. When you get a text on your phone, the Pixel Watch will vibrate or ring. Just turn your wrist and the message will pop up along with some quick response options. While the screen is definitely too small to precisely type a text, Google’s voice-to-text is amazingly accurate on the watch, with its built-in microphones reliably capturing each word. This gives the Pixel Watch’s Google Assistant a clear advantage over its competition, as it beats Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s Bixby in most cases. And if you’re locked into the Google ecosystem, the watch works seamlessly with Google services like Calendar and Google Maps. My watch was a breeze to set up with my Pixel phone, and my Pixel Buds are easy to switch between my watch and phone. Google is slowly catching up to Apple a bit in this overall ecosystem integration.
Unfortunately, WearOS 3 has some other missing features and bugs. The most glaring for me is the inability to customize the quick settings menu or the order of the app drawer. These seem like some of the most basic customization features on modern smartphones, and I can’t find a good reason to not include them here. The watch also doesn’t automatically detect workouts like Apple Watch users are accustomed to–though a walk or quick bike ride should show up later in the Fitbit app.
My worst experience during testing happened on my first run with the watch, when it froze and then reset after I tried to swap between the Fitbit Exercise app and Spotify. Alas, the watch didn’t recover the run data after rebooting. That was the only instance the Pixel Watch crashed, but it did lag a handful of other times, especially when trying to open third-party apps, which hurt an otherwise smooth experience. And it’ll take a bunch more runs before I’d trust it to record a race or something where I really care about the data not being lost.
Deep Fitness and Sleep Tracking Insights
Having not used a Fitbit in a few years, I was pleasantly surprised with the extensive fitness and sleep tracking integrated into the Pixel Watch for its debut. Android users by now are accustomed to the confusing array of Google services and apps, and using the Pixel Watch is no different. Despite owning Fitbit, Google operates a separate fitness service called Google Fit. Confusing. And using the Pixel Watch requires two apps on your phone–the Pixel Watch app to control some settings and the Fitbit app to see your fitness data. Also confusing. It’s relatively seamless once you get used to the various apps, but I hope Google can merge Fitbit more seamlessly in the future.
On my first bike ride using the Pixel, I was immediately impressed with the sensors on the watch. Benchmarking against my Wahoo Tickr (an accurate, chest heart rate strap), the Pixel Watch was responsive and as accurate. The Tickr was a bit quicker to notice spikes in heart rate, but the Pixel held its own as well as any wrist heart rate sensor I’ve used. The GPS had me on the wrong side of the street in some heavily wooded areas, but location accuracy is at least on par with other smartwatches.
Another real advantage for the Pixel Watch is the outstanding sleep tracking Fitbit offers. It offers detailed insight into sleep stages, heart rate, and your sleep trends. Coming from using a Whoop for a few months, I actually preferred the sleep insight offered by the Pixel Watch and Fitbit. But, as seems to be a theme with this watch, it comes with a caveat. Despite the fact that I wore the watch every night for a week, the Fitbit app never recorded heart rate variability (HRV) data. And HRV is one of the best ways to assess how recovered you are. Lots of users online reported similar issues and were equally frustrated at the seeming lack of a fix.
And all this impressive data that Fitbit offers does come at a cost–$10 per month to be exact. Many of the features I liked best about using Fitbit, like the sleep score, daily readiness score, and the quarterly wellness report, are only available with Fitbit Premium. So to really take advantage of the Fitbit tech Google put into the watch, you have to budget in the monthly subscription.
The Verdict
The Pixel Watch is great for casual use like checking notifications, time, and social feeds throughout the day. But those looking for endurance may want to consider a sportier watch. While there’s a ton to like about the Pixel Watch, it does feel like an imperfect first-generation product. If Google rolls out consistent updates to WearOS to add some missing features and optimize the battery use, the Pixel Watch could become much easier to recommend without all the caveats. And with the strong design foundation and the excellent fitness offered by the Fitbit integration, a second version of the watch should have plenty of potential. But given Google’s long list of killed products and the cutbacks currently hitting the tech industry, we’ll have to wait and see how much Google cares about its smartwatch long-term.
