Google Pixel Watch 3 Review: Bigger, Smarter & Better

At a look

Skilled’s Score

Execs

• Now in a two sizes
• Wonderful design and luxury
• Filled with options
• Higher battery life in massive mannequin

Cons

• Not dual-band GPS
• Costly, and Fitbit Premium prices further

Our Verdict

The Pixel Watch 3 watches are filled with options with out being overwhelming. They excel as a companion to a cell phone, ideally a Pixel however any Android will do. The brand new bigger mannequin presents higher visibility and battery life with out compromising on consolation, and Fitbit integration is more and more good for train. It’s exhausting to complain about something aside from the economics.

Worth When Reviewed

This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined

Greatest Pricing Right this moment

Worth When Reviewed

From $349.99

Greatest Costs Right this moment: Google Pixel Watch 3

The Pixel Watch 3 solutions two widespread complaints that even we had about its predecessor, a small display space, and quick battery life. Now, for the primary time, the watch is available in two sizes: 41- and 45mm fashions with the bigger possibility on take a look at right here.

Google’s smaller mannequin this 12 months prices from £349/$349.99 whereas choosing the larger dimension will set you again not less than £399/$399.99. The query is, can it compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7, Apple Watch Collection 10 and OnePlus Watch 2.

Let’s discover out…

Similar look, however greater

The design is identical because the Pixel Watch 2, with a deliciously rounded glass floor on the high (which is customized 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5) and glossy chrome aluminium on the backside.

You get a cushty, versatile rubber strap and a barely curved underside that provides all of the sensors the fitting contact on the wrist with out it being uncomfortable. It’s glossy, uncluttered and so sometimes Pixel-style.

The bigger dimensions sound like loads, however 45mm is the general diameter of the case, and the design, with no protruding element aside from a crown on the aspect, nonetheless doesn’t make it really feel very huge.

After simply three days with it on my arm, together with sleeping, altering, coaching and showering, I’d virtually forgotten it’s there.

The Pixel Watch 3 remains to be IP68 and 5ATM rated for water resistance making it protected for issues like taking within the bathe and swimming.

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Brighter and longer lasting

The larger display makes for clearer watchface and interface, like typing with the on display keyboard.

Its crisp OLED display with over 300 pixels per inch decision means you may’t discern particular person pixels. And a peak brightness of a whopping 2,000 nits means there’s zero drawback utilizing the Pixel Watch 3 in vivid daylight.

The opposite factor that bigger dimensions imply is that it will probably match a much bigger battery. There’s a 420mAh battery right here, in comparison with 307mAh within the smaller 41mm mannequin and 306mAh within the equally small Pixel Watch 2.

On the similar time, there’s vitality optimisation with the brand new Watch OS 5 and with an improved dual-chip answer that may go extra duties to a low-power aspect processor as a substitute of utilizing the quick Snapdragon W5. It’s not as superior because the OnePlus Watch 2 on this respect, however with the bigger mannequin I examined, the battery life remains to be comparatively good.

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Google nonetheless solely guarantees 24 hours, but it surely does significantly better than that. I get two days of use between costs with default settings – auto brightness and Wi-Fi when the Bluetooth connection to the cellphone is dropped, however with out LTE connection.

If I time it proper, I can get two nights of sleep monitoring on a single cost.

What can hamper battery life are particular person third-party apps, and GPS throughout navigation or train classes.

The GPS is in any other case fast to attach, however sadly doesn’t have twin band performance as you may anticipate at this worth, so the precision can generally sway.

By default, the show is about to always-on, with a dial that illuminates many OLED pixels. If I change it off, the battery lasts for a day of frugal use. It’s clearly higher than different smartwatch opponents just like the Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch, however not greatest in school.

The battery costs shortly with the included magnetic locked charger, taking about an hour and a half to succeed in 100%.

It’s the identical processor and the identical quantity of reminiscence and storage as within the Pixel Watch 2, so it’s not a leap up in efficiency. Nevertheless it was snappy earlier than, and retains up effectively even now; smartwatch apps aren’t usually that demanding.

Wide selection of features

For communication, it’s the most effective smartwatches you may have in your arm, with wonderful notification movement, cellphone management, messaging and electronic mail with the choice to answer in a number of methods, and plenty of watch-customised apps obtainable for social media, electronic mail companies and rather more.

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

You may simply management media gamers or music streaming in your cellphone, or run a number of standalone ones with direct streaming, make voice and textual content notes with the principally dependable voice interpreter and maintain observe of your calendar, to-do record, Google Maps navigation, funds with Google Pockets, chat with Google Assistant (possibly Gemini sooner or later) and different on a regular basis instruments.

Add to that improvements like UWB (Extremely-wideband) assist, the power to turn out to be a distant management for a Google TV, integration with Nest cameras and new offline mode for Google Maps, and the function set is extra full than ever.

There are few smartwatches that I believe stay as much as the epithet “smartphone on the wrist” however the Pixel Watch 3 comes shut.

An amazing system with a small design flaw

Put on OS 5 doesn’t make a lot of a distinction when it comes to structure and navigation to earlier than. It’s comparatively simple, with customisable “card” widgets on aspect swipes, and fast settings and notifications with up and down swipes.

You will have two buttons, one in all which is the digital crown that can be utilized to scroll by means of apps and messages and so on.

The one drawback is that Google doesn’t actually appear to care that its watch has a spherical display, so Put on OS often feels prefer it was designed for a sq. one. Meaning a bit further scrolling and pointing to see the whole lot in some conditions.

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Mattias Inghe

Like final 12 months’s mannequin, the Pixel Watch 3 has a big set of exercise and well being sensors, from compass, altimeter/barometer, gyro and accelerometer, to coronary heart charge, blood oxygen and echo-meter, floor temperature sensor and ceda sensor to constantly measure physique reactions.

Health monitoring

Well being monitoring and train are dealt with by a separate Fitbit app in your cell phone and as soon as put in, arrange with an account, paired and synced with the watch, you get a extra built-in Fitbit expertise in your wrist.

Separate Fitbit watches have now been relegated to the second tier, subordinate to the Pixel Watch, and Google can construct on the service providing.

It’s nonetheless targeted on well being and on a regular basis train, with wonderful detailed sleep evaluation, step and coronary heart exercise logging. Nevertheless it’s getting higher as an energetic coaching device for numerous focused actions. There aren’t an enormous variety of coaching programmes, however there are actually sufficient so that you can discover one which fits you.

AI-generated working programmes that adapt to your every day health and progress curve, and in addition clarify intimately why it recommends a selected exercise, make it simple to encourage your self to do extra and higher train.

Train classes are logged precisely and the watch is nice at supplying you with a tempo and protecting it. As quickly as I slack (and I slack typically) I get a ping from my wrist about it.

Prior to now, some options of Fitbit have been locked behind a Fitbit Premium pay subscription. That’s nonetheless the case, however one of the vital essential options has now turn out to be free for Pixel Watch 3 homeowners and Fitbit customers, the Day by day Readiness rating. It gathers plenty of totally different well being information, sleep, stress, coronary heart, and provides you an total rating that sums up how prepared you appear to be to tackle a exercise on a given morning.

I’m grateful for that, as I’ve zero management over my physique and might decide upfront what it will probably deal with. Someway Fitbit is aware of that.

Worth & Availability

The 45mm model of the Pixel Watch 3 just isn’t low-cost, it’s a must to pay £399/$399.99 or much more if you would like LTE cellular information through eSIM.

Go for the cheaper 41mm mannequin and it’ll price from £349/$349.99. You should purchase it from Google and numerous retailers together with Amazon, Currys and John Lewis. Head to the likes of BestBuy or Walmart.

That’s a hefty sum, but it surely’s additionally a really full watch, with high quality, performance, fashion and luxury on the high. You get Fitbit Premium for six months, so you will have loads of time to attempt it out if it’s value it.

Try our record of one of the best smartwatches.

Specs

• Mannequin examined: Pixel Watch 3 45 mm LTE
• Communication: 4G (non-compulsory), Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, gps, Galilieo, NFC, UWB
• Show: 1.5-inch spherical oled, 480×480 pixels
• Navigation: Crown with button 1 button, contact display
• Dimension: 45 x 45 x 14.3mm
• Weight (with normal wristband): 68g
• Sensors: Coronary heart charge monitor with SPo2 and ekg, accelerometer, gyro, compass, barometer/altimeter, gentle meter, cEDA, pores and skin temperature
• Different: Microphone, speaker
• Working system: Put on OS 5.0
• System circuit: Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 gen 1 / Cortex M33 co-processor
• Reminiscence: 2GB
• Storage: 32GB
• Battery: 420mAh, about 2-3 days battery life
• Sturdiness: IP68, 5ATM
• Compatibility: Cell with Android 10.0 and above and Google Cell Providers