Google's first smartwatch lives up to the hype
I'm PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home technology, and I've written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I've been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
With a unique design and familiar Wear OS and Fitbit features, Google's Pixel Watch is one of the best Android-compatible smartwatches you can buy.
The Pixel Watch (starting at $349.99) is exciting for a number of reasons. For starters, it's the first smartwatch hardware Google has brought to market, and that alone makes it noteworthy. And aesthetically, it's a breath of fresh air, with a domed face that looks like a puddle of water on your wrist. Pairing Google's Wear OS with a heavy dose of Fitbit (which is owned by Google), it offers all the preinstalled lifestyle and fitness features you expect from a premium smartwatch, including calling/texting, mobile payments, and smart home controls. And with access to the Play Store, you can customize it with a wide range of third-party apps. We faced some minor syncing issues and iffy call quality in testing, but the Pixel Watch otherwise performs well and lives up to Google's claim of 24-hour battery life. Even so, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 costs $70 less and offers similar functionality and performance in a more durable design, retaining our Editors' Choice for Android-compatible smartwatches.
Google's Wear OS software already runs on smartwatches from brands like Fossil, Michael Kors, Montblanc, Samsung, and Skagen, but this is the first time the web giant has built its own wearable, inside and out. Running Wear OS 3.5, the latest version of Google's smartwatch software, the Pixel Watch is compatible with phones running Android 8.0 or newer.
The Pixel Watch's closest competitor is the Galaxy Watch 5, which also runs Wear OS, though with Samsung's One UI Watch 4.5(Opens in a new window) software, meaning it features preinstalled apps from both Google and Samsung.
Neither work with iPhones, but you can pair both with any brand of Android phone. A Google spokesperson tells me that there are no limitations when you pair the Pixel Watch with a non-Pixel Android phone—all of its features will still work. In comparison, some Galaxy Watch 5 features, including electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, work only with Samsung handsets.
The Pixel Watch carries a $50 premium over Fitbit's top-tier model, the $299.95 Sense 2, which I'm in the process of reviewing. The main difference between these two, from a functionality standpoint, is that the Sense 2 runs Fitbit OS.
Google's own wearable operating system offers a lot more than Fitbit OS, namely Assistant, Maps, Wallet, and the Play Store. The Sense 2 doesn't give you access to those Google apps, but it has Amazon Alexa and Fitbit Pay preinstalled, and it works with both Android and iOS.
In terms of design, the Pixel Watch stands on its own. I can tell you that it looks just as nice in person as it does in the photos. Measuring 1.6 inches in diameter, 0.48 inches thick, and weighing 1.3 ounces, the Pixel Watch feels light and comfortable on my wrist. I appreciate the shiny stainless steel case (made from 80% recycled material, in either Champagne Gold, Matte Black, or Polished Silver), which gives it a premium look.
The tactile crown on the right side of the case offers a nice look at the stainless steel on this otherwise bezel-less watch. A physical button is situated above the crown.
A domed three-dimensional piece of Corning Gorilla Glass protects the 320ppi AMOLED color display. Hitting up to 1,000 nits of brightness, it's on par with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 and the Apple Watch Series 8 (though the Apple Watch Ultra tops out at 2,000 nits). The screen is clear and easy to see indoors and outside, though you may want to increase the font size (navigate to Settings > Display > Font Size to adjust).
I like the look of the domed face, but I question its durability. Even with the Gorilla Glass, I'm worried that the curved edges will be marred by scratches over time. After a year of wear, my Apple Watch Series 7, which has much smaller curved edges, has started to show some scratching in this area.
Dust ingress is another concern. The Pixel Watch has a 5ATM rating for water resistance, meaning it's safe when submerged to a depth of 164 feet for 10 minutes, but Google doesn't mention an Ingress Protection (IP) rating for dust resistance. The Galaxy Watch 5, in comparison, features 5ATM, IP68, and MIL-STD-810H ratings, so it's a lot more durable overall.
Still, the Pixel Watch is safe to wear while surfing and swimming, and the Fitbit Exercise app offers tracking options for both. Google says it's "designed to be used in shallow water, and should not be used for activities involving water at high velocity or high temperature."
Some people are making a big deal about the black display border, or digital bezel, on the Pixel Watch. Most smartwatches have a bezel, digital or otherwise, to varying degrees. For reference, look at the prominent display border on the Apple Watch Ultra (scroll down to the siren photo in my review for a good look) and the Galaxy Watch 5.
Google obviously tries to de-emphasize the bezel by giving the stock watch face options a black background. Moreover, for most of the stock watch faces, you can't change the background color (a fairly big annoyance, to be honest). The only exception is the Photos watch face, which lets you select an image from your phone's Photos app to use as the background.
For fun, I downloaded the Facer Watch Faces app via the Play Store and found one that would really showcase the Pixel Watch's digital bezel (pictured above). Its black ring is about the same thickness as the display border on the Galaxy Watch 5, but visible from the side due to the domed face, thus appearing more prominent overall. The Apple Watch Series 8 wins on this front, with the thinnest display border of the three.
Besides the inability to edit the background color, I like the Pixel Watch's stock face options. Google offers both analog and digital choices, for which you can edit the text color, layout, and complications (such as heart rate and weather). Rest assured, there are a multitude of watch face apps available for download in the Play Store if you don't like Google's default options, though some cost money.
The Pixel Watch comes with a fluoroelastomer soft-touch Active band in either Chalk (off-white), Charcoal (light gray), Hazel (dark gray), or Obsidian (black), depending on your case finish choice. For this review, Google sent the silver model with a Chalk strap. The company also sent a Pixel 7 Pro phone to pair with the watch.
The Active band is similar to the one that comes with the Fitbit Sense 2, except it uses a different attachment system and has a classier metal button. Google's new band secure button is located beside the strap. Press that button, then slide the band over the button to get it on and off. When you're sliding it on, you use the edge of the band to press the button.
The watch includes small and large straps in the box to accommodate wrists measuring 5.1 to 8.2 inches, with the latter preinstalled on my test unit. The large size was too big, forcing me to change out one side of the band immediately. I'm sure I'll get better at it with some practice, but changing out the band was a struggle at first.
The band release button on the Fitbit Sense 2, located on the bottom of the case, is much easier to press to swap out your strap, but the Pixel Watch's new mechanism seems a lot more secure.
As a small gripe, I don't really like the gold model paired with the dark gray strap, but I haven't seen the combination in person. I would much rather have an off-white strap with the gold model, but that isn't a stock option. All the other color combinations look nice together.
Google is launching the Pixel Watch alongside a range of compatible accessory straps ($49 to $79, sold separately) in different materials and colors, including woven, stretch, two-tone leather, and crafted leather. Metal mesh and metal link bands are slated to arrive next spring.
A small but really nice detail of the Pixel Watch is the pleasing sound it makes. When you unlock the screen, it makes a satisfying clicking sound, almost like a typewriter key. When you put it on the charger, it makes a beautiful ringing sound. These tones make me happy every time I hear them, but you can always disable them via Settings > Sound if you want.
On the inside, the Pixel Watch sports a Exynos 9110 SoC (which is several years old) and a Cortex M33 co-processor with 2GB of RAM. Google says this dual-processor architecture "is optimized to give you accurate heart rate data while still maintaining all-day battery life." There are, however, much newer chips Google could have used, and its choice here is a little puzzling.
In testing, the Pixel Watch lived up to Google's promise of all-day battery life, lasting 25 hours with the always-on display enabled. At that point, it still had 10% power, but I needed to charge it before bed to track my sleep. Disabling the always-on display gave me an extra 10 hours of power on a charge (35 hours total), or long enough for two nights of sleep tracking.
In comparison, the Galaxy Watch 5 lasted about 30 hours with the always-on display enabled, or 36 hours without. The Apple Watch Series 8 lasted 30.5 hours with the always-on display enabled, and up to 40 hours with light use. The Fitbit Sense 2 offers a major advantage in terms of battery life, lasting around five full days on a charge, but it offers less in the way of smartwatch features.
When the Pixel Watch gets down to 20% power, it gives you the option to enable Battery Saver mode. This mode disables the always-on display and tilt-to-wake feature to extend battery life. You can also enable it at any time via Settings > Battery.
The watch recharges relatively quickly. Google says it takes about 30 minutes to reach a 50% charge, 55 minutes to reach an 80% charge, and 80 minutes to reach a 100% charge.
I ran into some minor frustrations setting up the Pixel Watch, but it otherwise pairs well with the Pixel 7 Pro handset Google sent for testing. After going through the steps of downloading the Pixel Watch app via the Play Store and pairing the watch with the phone, I'm not sure what happened but the watch screen said erasing data, then I had to start again. Fortunately, it worked the second time. This could be due to the pre-release nature of the phone and watch software when I tested it.
The Fitbit setup process is separate. First, you need to download the Fitbit app via the Play Store if you don't already have it (if you do, make sure you have version 3.68 or later), then sign in or create an account. Note that you cannot have two Fitbit devices paired with the app at the same time, so if you already have one you'll need to unpair it to add the Pixel Watch. Rest assured: If you're already a Fitbit user, you won't lose any stats or data by switching to the Pixel Watch.
The Pixel Watch is easy to navigate once you get the hang of it. From the watch face, you can swipe up for notifications, down for quick settings, or left/right to cycle through tiles that show helpful information from your apps. The display is zippy, never lagging in response to swipes and taps.
From the watch face, press the crown button to open the app menu or the side button (located above the crown) to bring up your recently used apps. The app menu is displayed in an alphabetized list, with the following preinstalled: Agenda, Alarm, Assistant, Contacts, Find My Phone, Fitbit Exercise (to track a workout), Fitbit Today (to view your fitness and health stats), Flashlight, Google Wallet, Hand Wash Timer, Maps, Media Controls, Messages, Personal Safety, Phone, Play Store, Settings, Stopwatch, Timer, Weather, and YouTube Music. Any apps you download via the Play Store will also appear here.
The Play Store offers access to many third-party apps including Adidas Running, Amazon Alexa, Calm, iHeart: Music, KakaoTalk, Lifesum, Line, Map My Fitness, Samsung SmartThings, Shazam, Ski Tracks, SoundCloud, Spotify, Strava, and Swim.com. While Wear OS offers a good selection of third-party apps, it's missing some popular titles available via the Apple Watch App Store, including Amazon Music, Facebook Messenger, Pandora, and Telegram.
To go back from apps and tiles, press the crown button or swipe from the left edge of the display. To switch to your last used app, double-press the side button. To quickly access Google Assistant, press and hold the side button. To access Google Wallet, double-press the crown. To restart or turn off the device, or to send an Emergency SOS, press and hold the crown for three seconds.
You can change and customize the watch face from the wearable itself, or via the Pixel Watch app. From the device, press and hold the watch face, swipe left/right to scroll through the various options, then tap the pencil icon to edit the text color, layout, and complications.
After connecting the Pixel Watch to a Pixel 7 Pro phone with a Verizon SIM in it, I was able to call and text via the watch without issue.
Incoming text messages arrive with an audible ding and a vibration (though you can disable these alerts). When sending a text via the watch, you can type out each letter, swipe on the keyboard, tap the microphone icon to speak your message, and add emojis.
To place a call, navigate to the Phone app, then use the dial pad to type a number, or quickly ring someone via your Favorites, Recents, or Contacts. While on a call, you can adjust the speaker volume, and quickly mute your mic from the watch screen.
Call quality on the Pixel Watch is just OK. The speaker doesn't get very loud, even with the volume set to max, so you might have trouble hearing the person on the other end of the line if you're in a loud space. During a five-minute test call, I had a bit of trouble making out what my friend was saying (in addition to the low volume, the audio came through a bit garbled), but they could hear me fine. At times, I had to bring the watch to my ear to hear better. I wouldn't rely on the Pixel Watch for phone calls on the regular, but it's fine in a pinch.
As mentioned, the YouTube Music app is preinstalled on the watch, and other music streaming apps like Spotify are available in the Play Store.
The Pixel Watch comes with three months of YouTube Music Premium for free (normally $9.99 per month). You can play YouTube Music through the Pixel Watch speaker, or listen on a connected Bluetooth device. To connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones, put them in pairing mode, then navigate on the watch to Settings > Connectivity > Bluetooth > Pair new device.
The YouTube Music app lets you easily download songs to the watch (which features 32GB of storage), so you can listen without your phone. I selected one of the recommended workout mixes and it only took a couple of minutes to download the 50-song playlist to the watch. I then easily paired my AirPods Pro with the Pixel Watch via the Bluetooth menu to listen to my downloaded songs.
I also downloaded the Spotify app, which makes it easy to sign in to your account on the Pixel Watch via your phone or another device. After signing in, you can use the Pixel Watch to control Spotify playback.
In testing, Google Pay worked without issue on the watch, letting me check out at stores with a wave of my wrist. The setup process is quick and easy: You scan your card with your phone, then enter the CVV code to add it to your Google Wallet. At the register, double-press the crown button to pull up your card, then move your watch near the reader.
On a disappointing note, the preinstalled Hand Wash Timer is kind of bogus because it doesn't work automatically. You can add this feature as a complication to your watch face for easy access, but you still need to manually start the timer. With dirty hands, nobody is going to go through that trouble, so the app is fairly pointless.
In comparison, the Apple Watch uses motion sensors to detect handwashing movements and a microphone to listen for the sound of running water, then automatically displays a 20-second timer on the screen. In the era of COVID, the automatic handwashing timer is one of my favorite Apple Watch features, and its iteration on the Pixel Watch is a half-hearted knockoff.
Apart perhaps from its design, Fitbit integration is the biggest differentiator between the Pixel Watch and the Galaxy Watch 5, though both platforms offer similar health and fitness tracking features.
Google's wearable uses Fitbit-developed technology to track your daily activity, heart rate, sleep, workouts, and other health metrics. For fitness tracking, the Pixel Watch features 40 workout modes including aerobics, bike, CrossFit, HIIT, pilates, rowing machine, strength training, yoga, and more.
It supports Fitbit's popular heart rate-based Active Zone Minutes metric, which aims to help you meet the American Heart Association's recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity weekly. It also features an ECG app, which lets you check your heart rhythm for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) on demand.
The Pixel Watch comes with six months of Fitbit Premium (normally $9.99 monthly or $79.99 yearly), which gives you access to a library of more than 1,000 workouts and 400 mindfulness sessions, including meditations with Deepak Chopra. Premium members also get a Daily Readiness Score, which can help you gauge your recovery level, plus 90-day trend data for health metrics(Opens in a new window) like breathing rate, heart rate variability, and resting heart rate.
In testing, I had some initial trouble with Fitbit integration. In the first few days I wore the Pixel Watch, I needed to reconnect it to the Fitbit app multiple times, which was annoying. Moreover, it wouldn't sync my sleep and workout data despite numerous attempts to refresh. Once, I closed out of the Fitbit app on the phone and when I returned to the app my Pixel Watch was no longer listed as a paired device. Fortunately, I easily reconnected the watch to the Fitbit app and didn't lose any previously tracked data. I encountered a similar issue when attempting to use the Fitbit Today app on the Pixel Watch itself. These issues occurred over several days, though they cleared up eventually.
To test the accuracy of its health and fitness metrics, I tracked several workouts with the Pixel Watch on one wrist and the Galaxy Watch 5 on the other. For a 30-minute run, the Pixel Watch said I had average and maximum heart rates of 148bpm and 164bpm, respectively, and burned 325 calories. The Galaxy Watch 5 offered a similar heart rate result, saying I had average and maximum pulses of 149bpm and 168bpm, respectively, but burned about 100 fewer calories.
For outdoor runs, the Pixel Watch also tracks your distance, pace, and route (even if you leave your phone behind, thanks to its built-in GPS), as well as your step count, splits, and elevation. The heart rate section of your workout summary shows how much time you spent in each heart rate zone (below zone, fat burn, cardio, and peak), and how many Active Zone Minutes you accrued for the workout.
The Galaxy Watch 5 and the Apple Watch Series 8 offer more insights for outdoor runners, including graphs of your ground contact time and vertical oscillation, metrics you don't get from the Pixel Watch.
To evaluate its sleep metrics, I wore the Pixel Watch on my wrist to bed along with the Oura (Gen 3) ring on my finger. After a restful slumber, the Pixel Watch said I slept for 8 hours, 43 minutes and gave me a sleep score of 88/100 (good). For that same night, the Oura gave me nearly identical results, saying I slept for 8 hours, 35 minutes, earning a sleep score of 87/100 (optimal).
Overnight, the Pixel Watch also tracks your sleep stages (awake, light, deep, and REM), resting heart rate, restlessness (tosses and turns), and Estimated Oxygen Variation (a metric based on your blood oxygen saturation, or SpO2), which could help uncover breathing issues during sleep. The Pixel Watch doesn't provide any actual SpO2 data at this time, but that could change in the future.
"The Google Pixel Watch does have a red/infrared sensor that helps inform the Fitbit sleep experience," a spokesperson told us. "We hope to expand the use of this sensor to share more data with users in the future, including SpO2 data."
The Fitbit Sense 2 offers all the health and fitness features of the Pixel Watch, and then some, including SpO2 and skin temperature tracking, high/low heart rate notifications, and irregular heart rhythm notifications. The Sense 2 also puts a greater focus on stress management, with an EDA Scan app(Opens in a new window) and guided breathing sessions.
With Google hardware and software, the $349.99 Pixel Watch is an exciting entry in the smartwatch market, and it largely lives up to our expectations. Its domed face gives it a unique look, and its Wear OS software offers access to all the Google standbys. The Pixel Watch also has deep Fitbit integration, making it a good alternative to a dedicated fitness tracker. Ultimately, the $279.99 Galaxy Watch 5 has a slight edge thanks to its lower price, better battery life, and increased durability, so it remains our Editors' Choice winner. But the Pixel Watch is an excellent first attempt at smartwatch hardware from Google, standing alongside the Galaxy Watch 5 as one of the top Android-compatible smartwatches on the market.
With a unique design and familiar Wear OS and Fitbit features, Google's Pixel Watch is one of the best Android-compatible smartwatches you can buy.
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I'm PCMag's expert on fitness and smart home technology, and I've written more than 6,000 articles and reviews in the 10-plus years I've been here. I unbox, set up, test, and review a wide range of consumer tech products from my home in Florida, often with the help of my pitbull Bradley. I'm also a yoga instructor, and have been actively teaching group and private classes for nearly a decade.
Before becoming an analyst in 2020, I spent eight years as a reporter covering consumer tech news. Prior to joining PCMag, I was a reporter for SC Magazine, focusing on hackers and computer security. I earned a BS in journalism from West Virginia University, and started my career writing for newspapers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
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