Google fit to fight with its Pixel watch
Tech giant’s latest stylish wearable takes a little friction out of everyday life
Google Pixel Watch From €379
Fitbit’s hugely successful fitness bands have been a great success for that firm. Their newer smartwatches, like the Apple Watch, are finding new customers, many of whom are more mature and focused on health and well-being, rather than just fitness and heavyduty training.
Google now own Fitbit and while it wasn’t a surprise to see a new Google branded watch, it will be interesting to see how it coexists with the Fitbit range.
This week I unpacked my new Pixel Watch, and it’s an impressive, stylish-looking device.
It’s sleek, with a diameter of just 41mm, and its height protruding your wrist is just 12.3mm. It only weighs 36g without the band, and that means it’s light and easy to wear. I
With a circular face, the body has curved edges, so shirt cuffs shouldn’t catch. Also, its dimensions and design make it an ideal unisex device.
There is a nice selection of band upgrades, with woven and leather options and there will soon be metal mesh bands that could transform it in to a dress-style watch.
The model I tested was a matte black stainless steel case with the Obsidian Active band, but there are other versions availI able, including a champagne gold. It has custom
TIME FOR AN UPGRADE?
Corning Gorilla Glass and the 320ppi AMOLED display is bright and easy to read.
There’s a USB-C magnetic charging cable included, and the little cradle is compact and neat for bedside locker use as well as travel.
needed to download the free Pixel Watch app from the Play Store in order to get the watch paired to my phone – a seamless process – and after I selected which language to use I had to select which Google account to use on my phone. This means that I can share some useful information in my Google account, like contacts, with the watch. The benefit of that, is when my phone rings, I can look at my watch and it will use my Google Contacts to display the caller ID.
It’s a useful feature, and for me, contacts and calendar are particularly useful to have access to via my watch.
Also as part of the Google Account pairing you get access to Google Pay on your wrist. The watch is equipped with Bluetooth and WiFi, but also NFC.
That NFC functionality means when you go to a check-out in a shop, you can pay using your watch, by holding it close to the reader.
You could use a debit card and tap and go, or do that tap with your phone, but the Pixel Watch makes it more convenient and takes a little
AS GOOGLE NOW OWN FITBIT IT’LL BE INTERESTING HOW IT CO-EXISTS
HAVING GPS BUILT IN MAKES FOR MUCH BETTER WRIST MAPPING
friction out of everyday life.
The watch also has multi-system GPS, including GLONASS and Galileo. Having GPS built in makes for better mapping of long hikes or cycles. And it also makes for better wrist-based mapping functionality via Google Maps which will provide turn-by-turn directions on your wrist.
Feature-wise, the Pixel Watch has a comprehensive collection of sensors, including compass and altimeter. There are also optical heart-rate and blood oxygen sensors to power some of the health analysis features.
I was a little surprised with the battery life, with Google saying you could get up to 24 hours’ use.
That could be impacted by some features, like GPS and the watch takes a lengthy two-and-a-half hours to charge fully.
However, the Fitbit integration is excellent and that, coupled with good Google account integration, make it worthy of consideration for any Android phone owner.