The Google Pixel Watch is finally here with a premium $350 price tag
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After ages of leaks, rumors, and official teasers straight from the source, the Pixel Watch is finally here. At its hardware event in Brooklyn today, Google took the remaining wraps off its new wearable. There weren’t a lot of surprises about the new watch — but we did learn that, like the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, it’s available for pre-order starting today.
Google’s watch announcements today, for the most part, confirm details we’ve been hearing from unofficial sources for months. The Pixel Watch comes in four colorways: Matte black with an Obsidian (black) band, polished silver with either a Chalk (white) or Charcoal (gray) band, and champagne gold with a Hazel band. Each matches a Pixel 7 or Pixel 7 Pro colorway, though the Lemongrass band that matches the smaller Pixel 7 color of the same name is a separate purchase. The watch’s case is made of stainless steel, which is weightier and more durable than aluminum, and the default bands arethe Active style we saw this week.
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We’ve waited for Google to make a watch for over a decade, and the Google Pixel Watch has finally arrived. The first Android smartwatch with Fitbit health tracking, the Pixel Watch aims to help you stay fit or get fit easily. Plus, Wear OS 3.5 brings us Google’s vision for a wearable UI and exclusive Wear OS apps for Google services, like Google Home.
The Google Pixel Watch comes with Wear OS 3.5 in tow, tying it for most up-to-date Wear OS device on the market right now with Samsung’s latest crop of watches. It’ll have all the normal Wear OS features, including access to the Play Store and, of course, compatibility with Google’s services like Maps and Wallet — and thenew wearable version of the Google Home app. The watch also has tight Fitbit integration, complete with features Fitbit users are accustomed to, like Active Zone Minutes, a Daily Readiness Score, and continuous heart rate tracking.
We’ve been hearing since May that the Pixel Watch could bepowered by an older Samsung chipset, and that’s turned out to be true — it’s packing an Exynos 9110, which made its debut in the first-generation Samsung Galaxy Watch in 2018. But Google also included a Cortex-M33 co-processor, which should lessen the strain on the aging Samsung silicon for certain tasks. Other specs are more impressive: the Pixel Watch has two full gigs of RAM, plus 32GB of storage space — for comparison’s sake, theSamsung Galaxy Watch 5lineup features 1.5GB RAM and 16GB storage.
Battery life is going to be a sore spot for many, especially Fitbit loyalists looking to try a more fulsome smartwatch experience. Google quotes the Pixel Watch’s battery life at “up to 24 hours” with health-tracking features enabled, which we hope is a conservative estimate. Competing smartwatches from the likes of Samsung and Apple have Google beat handily there, to say nothing of Fitbit watches like the new Sense 2, which can last up to three days on a charge with the always-on display active. The Pixel Watch can charge up to 50 percent in a half hour with the included charging puck (which, thankfully, has a USB-C connector at the other end), and a full charge takes about an hour and 20 minutes.
Both Bluetooth/Wi-Fi and LTE versions are available, and Google says Fi subscribers can add the LTE model “without additional line fees on most plans.” The Bluetooth/Wi-Fi version will go for $350 in the US, and the LTE model will cost $400. Pre-orders begin today, with general availability in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Japan, Australia, and Taiwan starting October 13.
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