Even before the official announcement of the Pixel Watch, we knew almost everything about the watch. The Google company itself does not like to keep intrigue, so it officially published both images of the device and videos. Therefore, there was no need to count on surprises, but Google representatives still told more details about their first smart watch during the presentation, showing it together with new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
Pixel Watch received a relatively compact body measuring 41 mm and 12.3 mm thick, so it was not very heavy, only 36 grams without a band. The design of the final version of the watch has not changed, it is available in three colors (black, silver and gold), and also has many branded bands that allow you to adjust the look of the watch to your style.
The Pixel Watch has a 5ATM water resistance and stainless steel body, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 display, which bends a lot at the edges, so it’s hard to say how well it will withstand side impacts.
Although the watch is presented in only one size, the bands for it can be of different lengths: “large” (for wrists with a diameter of 162-210 mm) and “small” (130-175 mm). In the box with the Pixel Watch comes the Active band, which is made of fluoroelastomer with a soft-touch coating, in two sizes. Google’s own design band fastening system will not allow the use of regular bands, and it is unlikely that there will be a large selection of third-party solutions for the first time, as it is now for the Apple Watch.
The watch display is completely round, the manufacturer does not reveal its diagonal. Google engineers used an OLED matrix with a pixel density of 320 per inch. Even earlier, in the photo of the watch, large frames were seen around its screen, and indeed, they are quite large.
However, the OLED matrix with the black background of the interface perfectly masks them, so it is unlikely to greatly affect the perception of the design.
As a platform for the Pixel Watch, the company chose a rather old system on a chip – the Samsung Exynos 9110. This is a 10 nanometer processor with two Cortex A53 cores and a Mali T720 MP1 graphics accelerator. Google supplemented it with an additional Cortex M33 chip, which is used for basic tasks, such as displaying the watch face, and does not require much power. However, in general, the Exynos 9110 is a processor from 2018 and was used in the original Galaxy Watch. It is very surprising that despite the partnership and close cooperation with Samsung, Google did not or could not use the newer 5-nanometer Exynos W920 chip that is installed in the Galaxy Watch 5. But the Pixel Watch has a record 2 GB of RAM for a WearOS watch. In addition, the built-in eMMC storage reaches a size of 32 GB.
Other features of the Pixel Watch platform include sensors such as an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a light sensor, and an optical heart rate sensor.
The watch is also offered by the manufacturer in versions with an LTE module and simply with Wi-Fi. In addition, there is Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz and NFC. GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo satellite systems are used for positioning.
The Pixel Watch’s compact size will appeal to users with smaller wrists, but it also means Google has had a battery size limitation. It is at 294 mAh and, according to the company, provides up to 24 hours of battery life. At the same time, Google notes that they allegedly obtained such a result under the following conditions: 240 messages, 280 screen activations, 50 minutes of navigation, 45 minutes of training when connected via LTE with active GPS and listening to locally stored YouTube Music, as well as with a 5-minute phone call via LTE. Accordingly, when the AOD (always on screen) function is activated, or with longer training sessions with GPS, the battery life of the watch will be shorter.
However, Google added fast charging via a USB Type-C cable to the Pixel Watch. Therefore, the watch is charged to 50% in 30 minutes, and a full charge will take about 80 minutes.
The Pixel Watch runs on the Wear OS 3.5 operating system and has a completely different interface than Samsung watches. Google’s version of Wear OS has a slightly different navigation logic and includes dedicated watch faces for the Pixel Watch, as well as a set of branded apps. Which, by the way, unlike Samsung, will not be exclusive only to Google watches.
However, all of the health tracking features through Pixel Watch will work through Fitbit. Each watch comes with a six-month Fitbit Premium membership, which includes access to coach-led workouts, advanced sleep tracking, daily activity tracking and meditation sessions. With the Pixel Watch, the user can monitor heart rate, blood oxygen saturation and take an EKG for non-medical use.
The Pixel Watch is now available for pre-order in the US and should appear in Google stores on October 13. The standard version will cost $349.99, and the version with LTE – $399.99.
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