Nearly a year after the first rumors about it came out, the Google Pixel Watch is finally here. It runs Wear OS 3.5, though that version is rarely seen without Samsung’s One UI Watch skin on top. The Pixel Watch is available in two flavors – Wi-Fi and LTE – but only one size 41mm. At least you get a small and a large band in the box (we’ll get to the bands as there are several options that can customize your look).
The watch is equipped with a smallish 1.2”
display, which peaks at 1,000nits of brightness for outdoor visibility and has
an Always-On mode. The Gorilla Glass 5 covering the watch is dome-shaped, the
only physical control is the button on the side. The chassis is made out of
stainless steel, so it should be quite durable. The Pixel Watch has a heart
rate sensor on the bottom as well as an ECG sensor for more detailed heart
readings. Google tapped into the expertise of the Fitbit team to develop more
accurate algorithms for overall health tracking - the watch can even tell you
when it would be best to take a rest and recover. You can also take this watch
swimming at it is rated at 5ATM water resistance (what you often see listed as
“50m”).
Instead of a custom chip like on the
phones, Google picked a standard Exynos 9110, which has been used on Galaxy
Watches as far back as 2018. It has been paired with a decent 2GB of RAM (the
new Watch5 Pro has 1.5GB) and Google believes the battery is enough to last 24
hours. Let’s round things off with the connectivity features. As we already
mentioned, there is an LTE version if you want to use the watch without a
phone. Otherwise you get the usual Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) and Bluetooth (5.0)
connectivity, plus NFC for Google Pay (or other mobile payment services).
In Europe the Pixel Watch (Wi-Fi) will
cost you US$ 350/€S380, while the LTE option can be yours for US$ 400/€ 430. You can
even have it for free, if you pre-order a Pixel 7 Pro. By the way, the Pixel
Watch comes with 6 free months of Fitbit Premium (plus 3 months of YouTube
Premium. Anyway, you get a silicon “Active” band in the box, but you can also
pick up other colors and other styles of bands to customize the look of your
watch. There are Woven bands as well as metal and leather bands.
