After months of rumors, here is Google Pixel Watch: official, but not yet for us. The Pixel family is enriched with a new device that joins the Pixel Buds true wireless headphones and above all smartphones: in addition to the new Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, the Mountain View giant officially presented Google Pixel Watch, the first smartwatch of the house.
Apple has released watchOS 9.0.2. with fixes for microphone bugs, Spotify, etc.
The device, characterized by a design with a circular case and a version of Wear OS customized to bring the Pixel Experience also on the wrist, contains all the know-how absorbed by Google following the acquisition of Fitbit. Let’s discover all the secrets of this new smartwatch, a new part of an increasingly complete ecosystem, which in Italy, unfortunately, will take some time to wait.
Google Pixel Watch is the first Made by Google smartwatch
As anticipated at the beginning, Google Pixel Watch is finally official, after being shown in preview on the occasion of the opening keynote of the Google I / O 2022 and after the infinite amount of rumors of which it was the protagonist.
For better or for worse, the rumors have taken us, taking away a little from us the pleasure of discovering what is in effect the first smartwatch made by Google starting from a white sheet, although the influences of an important partner like Samsung (especially in the hardware and in the development of Wear OS) and the fruits of the acquisition of Fitbit are all to be seen.
The design of the Google Pixel Watch: the keyword is minimalism
Starting from the basics, Google has chosen to go down the path of minimalism to create its first smartwatch, leaning towards the creation of a circular-shaped watch.
The new Google Pixel Watch has a circular stainless steel case, available in the three colors Polished Silver, Matte Black and Champagne Gold, characterized by a fairly clean design along the edges, net of a hole for the microphone, a grille for the speaker and a digital crown (which also acts as a physical key) that protrudes clearly. For the upper part and the lower part, the choice of material fell on Gorilla Glass: below, it is placed to protect the sensors (which we will discuss later); above it is curved, serves to protect the display and merges with the case.
By the way, the smartwatch houses a 1.2-inch OLED display, very resolute (450 x 450 pixels) and very bright but surrounded, unfortunately, by a rather evident frame; there is support for the Always-on Display.
As for the straps, however, Big G has really made many, both as regards the materials and the colors (further on, you can find a paragraph dedicated to them): in the presentation phase, Isabelle Olsson of Google he joked that replacing a strap on the Pixel Watch is as easy as replacing a lens on a camera.
A dated SoC but the rest is not to be discussed
After the design talks have been filed, let’s move on to the analysis of the hardware equipment of the new Google Pixel Watch, starting with the SoC which is the Exynos 9110 (produced at 10 nm), the same SoC that was present on the 2018 Samsung Galaxy Watch.
Ok, this is undoubtedly a dated SoC; however, it would not be correct to make hasty judgments: in this case, as always, it is right that the facts speak for themselves and therefore it is better to postpone the judgment on the possible goodness (or not) of the choice to a later moment, giving the smartwatch time to actually arrive on the market and to be extensively tested; also because, as the first Made by Google smartwatch, it may need to mature a little (through firmware and software updates) that could bring out the best.
Net of this, the SoC is assisted by a custom Cortex M33 coprocessor, which reduces the operations carried out by the SoC itself; then, we find 2 GB of RAM (highest figure ever found on a smartwatch) and 32 GB of internal memory: in general, therefore, the situation could be better than it may seem.
As for connectivity, the smartwatch offers a rather complete compartment between Wi-Fi (albeit only 2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0 for pairing with smartphones and other devices (such as headphones), NFC for payments, GPS for navigation and even 4G cellular connectivity via eSIM, exclusive, however, of the specific and more expensive variant. In addition to a speaker and a microphone, inside the smartwatch there is a haptic vibration motor that Big G defines as “premium” and which transmits feedback even when the crown is turned.
Google Pixel Watch houses a 294 mAh battery that guarantees about 24 hours of autonomy with a single charge: in this regard, the smartwatch is recharged via a magnetic circular charging base, in white color, which attaches to the bottom of the device; on the other end, it has a USB-C connector. To get an idea of the charging times, using an 18 W charger, the smartwatch will recharge from 0 to 50% in 30 minutes and from 0 to 100% in 80 minutes.
Finally, the lower part houses all those sensors that are used to monitor health: these are used to monitor a series of parameters such as heart rate (continuous detection, at 1 second intervals) or sleep, measure oxygen saturation in the blood (SpO2) and take readings from an ECG (electrocardiogram, can detect atrial fibrillation); it is curious to note that the arrangement closely resembles the one we find on Fitbit trackers and in fact, according to Google, on board the smartwatch there is the “most accurate heart rate monitoring of Fitbit”.
The operating system is Wear OS 3.5 but Fitbit’s know-how feels it all
Having concluded the analysis on the hardware sector, we come to another aspect that makes the difference on a device, namely the software. In this case there are no surprises, and the Google Pixel Watch software is obviously Wear OS 3.5, a further evolution of Wear OS 3, the operating system that revolutionized the Android experience on the wrist thanks to the union of intentions between Google and Samsung.
The Pixel Watch has a great level of customization (19 customizable dials) features such as notification support, call and message support, new Google Photo dials, smart home controls via Google Home, camera control for remote shooting, payments via NFC with Google Wallet, turn by turn navigation with Google Maps, as well as bringing all the possibilities of Google Assistant and the new SOS Emergency mode for emergency calls to your wrist. There is also support for the Google Fast Pair quick coupling mechanism.
Added to this is all the know-how deriving from the acquisition of Fitbit: Google Pixel Watch offers support for a wide range of functions for fitness tracking and arrives with the Fitbit app pre-installed, allowing users to access to all the possibilities offered by a more than tested service (and moreover, the purchase of the smartwatch includes 6 months of the Fitbit Premium service).
According to what promised by Google itself, the Pixel Watch will receive 3 years of software support: this means that the smartwatch will receive updates until October 2025 but that both operating system updates and security patches are included in this time frame. (unlike smartphones in the Pixel range which receive 3 years of Android operating system updates and 5 years of updates related to security patches).
Google Pixel Watch is probably the piece that was missing from an increasingly complex ecosystem consisting of devices connected at 360 °, including smartphones and more and more devices for the smart home of all types. We also underline that Google has already added the Google Pixel Watch app to the Play Store, a tool that allows you to configure and manage the smartwatch directly from a smartphone running Android 8.0 Oreo and later versions.
Google Pixel Watch full tech specs
- Case: 41 mm (diameter) in stainless steel
- Thickness: 12.3 mm
- Weight: 36 grams (without strap)
- Display: 1.2-inch AMOLED with 450 x 450 pixel resolution (320 ppi density)
- Refresh rate: 60Hz
- Peak brightness: 1000 nit
- Color space: DCI-P3
- Always-on Display support
- Protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (custom 3D)
- SoC: Samsung Exynos 9110 (10 nm) with Mali-T720 GPU and Cortex M33 co-processor
- RAM memory: 2 GB
- Internal memory: 32GB (eMMC)
- Audio: speaker (single) and microphone
- Mobile networks: 4G / 3G via eSIM (Wi-Fi + LTE version only)
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 11 b / g / n (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, GALILEO), NFC
- Sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, compass, ambient brightness, Sp02, heart rate
- Interaction: touchscreen, side physical button, digital crown, haptic vibration motor
- Certification: IP68 (resistance to dust and water up to 5 ATM or 50 m)
- Battery: 294mAh unit with Qi wireless charging
- Operating system: Wear OS 3.5
- Supports Android Smart Unlock feature
- Fast connection thanks to Fast Pair
- International emergency call
- Google Wallet
- Google Maps
- Google Assistant
- YouTube Music (with 6 months of Premium included)
- Messages and notifications
- Compatibility with Android 8.0 and above
- Functionality:
- Fitbit health and fitness (with 6 months of Fitbit Premium included)
- Sleep monitoring
- Heart rate monitoring
- SpO2 monitoring
- ECG functionality (certified device)
- Monitoring of sports activities
- Package contents:
- Google Pixel Watch
- S and L straps
- Magnetic base for wireless charging (without power supply, USB-C cable only)
- Quick manuals
