A little over a month ago, I wrote about buying a Pixel Watch, a smartwatch, despite the fact that I hate the idea of smartwatches. My two big reasons for going against the grain and buying this smartwatch were 1) years worth of on and off frustration with a variety of fitness tracker devices on my wrist and 2) the great experience I’ve had with (in particular the last two generations of) Pixel phones.
After these first few weeks with the Pixel Watch, I still don’t love smartwatches in general, but I do like the Pixel Watch and have mostly positive thoughts on it. I’ll start by mentioning a couple of negative things about the Pixel Watch experience so far:
The first negative thing is more to do with smartwatches in general; I’m just not a fan of the short battery life and how this leads to stressing about not having the watch run out of juice at the worst possible time.
The second is specific to the Pixel Watch. Over the last week or so, I have found that when I go to look at the Fitbit app at the end of each evening, I get prompted to sign in again, and to choose whether to sign in to my Fitbit or Google account. I’m not going to blame this on the Pixel Watch though - this feels like Google hasn’t got its act together on how this should work seamlessly for users.
Now on to the positive thoughts and the good experience I’ve had with the Pixel Watch in these first few weeks:
For my taste, it’s an attractive device - much nicer looking than any fitness tracker I’ve worn, even the ones that were watch style trackers. It’s also lightweight and comfortable to wear. I’ve seen reports of users having problems with the Pixel Watch band, saying it feels fragile and difficult to work with. I haven’t experienced that at all; it’s been easy to use.
Like the Pixel phones, the Pixel Watch is getting new features when Google includes “feature drops” in its monthly updates. This month it added the “At a Glance” feature which I like on my Pixel 7 Pro, and now I like a lot on the Pixel Watch as well. I am currently using the Utility watch face with At a Glance enabled, like so:
The range of options for the watch faces is great. I’ve currently got Google Assistant sitting prominently in the middle, with step count to the left, active zone minutes (my favorite metric to keep an eye on) on the right, and next appointment below those. I’m sure I’m going to swap these around often though, just because the options are fun and useful. There are so many that I can’t fit them in just a couple of screenshots. Here’s some of them though, just to give an idea:
The Pixel Watch is doing its two primary jobs well. The fitness tracking seems solid, as accurate as any of the fitness trackers I’ve used; and none of them are perfect, all have their shortcomings and goofy moments. It’s also serving well as a plain old watch to keep track of the time with. It’s one of the best devices I’ve used in terms of how easy and small a flick of the wrist is needed to see the time and the rest of what’s on its screen. It’s equally good in bright sunlight as it is in dark rooms.
A lot of mobile device choices can be influenced by the technology ecosystem we have in place. It’s rare to come across friends/acquaintances/colleagues who have a mixture of Windows and Mac PCs, or that use a Mac and a Windows phone (if any are still around). I use an iMac, but I’ve been using only Android phones for many years. Ecosystem wise that means an Apple Watch is not an option for me, and a Pixel Watch is a perfect fit.
Finally, in spite of what I said in my first negative point up above, the Pixel Watch’s battery life has been surprisingly good. That’s good in the context of smartwatches of course. It’s not looking like it will ever last across multiple days. It is pretty easy to manage charging it when I know I’m going to be sedentary for a while during work, for example, and then not worry at all about it lasting overnight, or throughout the rest of a day. The watch also charges quite quickly with its included charger, which makes battery management even easier.
Overall, I’m very happy with the Pixel Watch. I have not had any thoughts of returning it or wanting to switch back to a fitness tracker. Are any of you using a Pixel Watch? If so, I’d love to hear about your experience. If not, I’m also keen to hear your thoughts on which fitness tracker or smartwatch you’re a fan of.
Smart watches have been a hidden point of contention for me as well in recent years. I first got one to keep up with the times.
But then I didn’t wear it.
Got a new model with a nicer band. Didn’t wear it.
So now I have a pretty paper weight yet again.
Missed the Fitbit train. Probably why I’m not fit a single bit.
Cheers!