Google Pixel Watch
by Matthew Nudelman
Month DD, YYYY
This fall, Google joined the smartwatch game with the Pixel
Watch. This is coming after Google finally found its place in
the smartphone market with the Pixel 6, featuring Google's own
Tensor chip and unique design, and then continued down this path
with the Pixel 7 in October. Google has been trying to solidify
its Pixel brand to properly make themselves the “Apple of
Android,” developing both the hardware and software themselves
in order to create the most seamless Android experience
possible. Since they joined in on the wireless earbud craze back
in 2017 with the Pixel Buds, Google continues to expand its
Pixel hardware lineup in order to properly compete with Samsung
and Apple, companies which already have their own wearable
products in the form of the Galaxy Watch and Buds, and the Apple
Watch and AirPods. Google also revealed more details about the
upcoming Pixel Tablet, which aims to function as both a standard
tablet and, with the dock, as a smart home display much like the
Amazon Echo Show and Google's own Nest Hub.
The Pixel Watch has a circular design and is both
water-resistant and scratch-resistant. It has a knob for
scrolling and a side button for opening recently-used apps. The
way different bands are attached is unique as bands can easily
be snapped on and off. The Pixel Watch runs Wear OS 3.5, the
latest release of Wear OS, a version of Android designed
specifically for smartwatches. Samsung's Galaxy Watch has been
using this, and now Google has made their own watch for it. It
works with Google Home to quickly adjust smart home devices such
as adjusting the thermostat and turning off the lights. It also
works with Google Assistant, Google's own voice assistant, so
users can easily give voice commands directly to the watch. Like
most smartwatches, users can check notifications, get directions
with Google Maps, make payments with NFC, and listen to
music.
Another common smartwatch feature present on the Pixel Watch is
the fitness software, which uses Fitbit to essentially make the
Pixel Watch function like a souped-up Fitbit device. It uses an
optical heart rate sensor and on-device machine learning to
provide an accurate heart rate measurement every second.
However, updating the heart rate measurement this frequently can
take a lot out of the already-short battery life of this device.
It charges quickly, but using it as a sleep monitor may require
a fully-charged battery at night that will need to be recharged
immediately in the morning. Users and reviewers have reported
rapidly-decreasing battery life that is difficult to compare to
the battery life of the much more established Galaxy Watch and
Apple Watch, smartwatches which have had much more time to
perfect and optimize power consumption.
Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, and now seems to be taking
advantage of their ownership of the brand and using Fitbit's
capabilities to provide fitness features to their own brand of
wearable devices. It includes 40 different exercise modes and
works with the GPS in the watch for tracking distance. However,
strangely, the Fitbit functionality does not seem to have any
connection to Google Fit, despite both being considered Google
services to achieve the same things. Initially, Google Fit could
not even be downloaded on the Pixel Watch at all, though this
has since been corrected. However, this heavy emphasis on the
Fitbit branding leaves many wondering if Google Fit will
eventually be absorbed into the Fitbit platform, replacing the
Google-branded fitness software with the much-more-popular
Fitbit name.
Google Pixel users will be pleased to know that Android's
convenient Fast Pair feature works with the Watch just like the
Buds. Bring a brand new Pixel Watch next to your Android phone
running Android 8.0 or newer and you will instantly be prompted
to pair the devices and set up your new smartwatch. Anyone
familiar with Apple's AirPods or Apple Watch may recognize this,
as the iPhone can be quickly paired to those devices in the same
way, so it is nice to know that nobody will be left out of these
convenient Bluetooth pairing features. The Pixel Watch is a
promising start to Google's apparent “Hardware Renaissance”, and
many are looking forward to seeing what will happen when Google
is able to finally catch up and become a viable competitor in
the ever-growing market of smart devices.