Google releases its first smartwatch – Canadian Running Magazine

It took 10 years for Google to finally release the GPS smartwatch Android users have been waiting for. Boasting an eye-catching design and easy-to-use software, the Google Pixel Watch has tons of potential at first glance. Google has struggled to establish itself in the fitness tracking market, but with their 2021 acquisition of Fitbit, they’ve incorporated Fitbit’s health tracking capabilities and addressed the shortcomings of previous watches with this new model.

The design

The Google Pixel Watch display is simple and beautiful. The dial is a simple, round, traditional dial with what appears to be a thick bezel base holding the curved wide-glass screen. The Google Pixel Watch catches the light at some angles in a way that makes it look elegant and jewelry-like.

I found the watch very light on my wrist when exercising. When I first took it out of the box, I couldn’t get over the smooth, glossy finish of the screen and how simple yet luxurious it looks. Since I’ve been testing the watch, I’ve gotten a lot of questions while running and walking: “What kind of watch is this?”

Unfortunately, the Google Pixel only comes in one size – 41mm. I have a smaller wrist but some might find the display looks small.

battery life and performance

Before the watch launched, Google promised 24-hour battery life in smartwatch mode, but I’ve found that I get low-power warnings after 18-20 hours of use, including a 40-minute GPS-tracked run. This would be fine for someone who doesn’t use it to track their sleep, or casual runners who run once or twice a week. However, it takes less than an hour to charge from zero to full, which is great.

Run and fitness tracking

Syncing the watch to Fitbit was a game changer for Google. Fitbit became one of the world’s most popular fitness trackers in the mid-2010s, offering a watch that synced to your mobile device via Bluetooth to record your fitness activities and set daily and weekly goals for steps, calories burned and burned, and distance traveled.

Fitbit is one of the few companies in the industry that makes sure to include rest and recovery, giving you a readiness score based on your sleep and stress levels. As a pioneer in the fitness tracker industry, Fitbit has deep knowledge of how to translate user behavior and heart rate information into useful insights and features.

What struck me on my first run with the watch was the accuracy of the heart rate readings based on my perceived exertion and experience. The Google Pixel Watch exceeds expectations in this area. It does an excellent job when it comes to sleep tracking, stress and recovery. It can also take an electrocardiogram, which is a great feature for health monitoring.

But while the Google Pixel Watch benefits from Fitbit’s expertise, it also suffers from the syncing issues that have plagued the company’s older devices. Although you can see the distance and steps, I found the run to take several hours to sync from the watch to the app.

Although Fitbit is one of the most user-friendly fitness apps out there, Google has put paywalls on many of its features. A Fitbit Premium subscription costs $105 per year and gives you access to challenges and adventures, personal insights, customized programs, advanced sleep tools, and thousands of unique workouts. It also allows you to view the details of the health metrics dashboard, which shows you your resting heart rate and heart rate variability.

my judgement

I like the Pixel watch, but I would recommend it mostly for casual or beginner runners due to the lack of training data and relatively short battery life. The watch has a shiny look and is a perfectly capable smartwatch to do normal things that modern smartwatches do now, but it’s only the recovery and sleep tracking data that stands out to me. I’m not sure how you’re supposed to collect sleep data from a watch that only has 24 hours of battery life. When to charge it?

The Pixel Watch is designed to appeal to the widest possible market in terms of looks, size, strap styles, features and price. At $350, the Pixel Watch is relatively affordable and accessible to those who need a basic running watch that looks good and generally does a great job of health and fitness tracking.