Google Pixel Watch 3: bigger, brighter, fine-tuned for fitness

For anyone considering buying the Pixel Watch 3, please keep in mind that Pixel Watch 2 has some long-standing issues where the GPS completely cuts out during runs or walks.

Some users believe it to be a hardware issue but it's still unacknowledged by Google and the forum thread where people have been discussing it has just been locked recently. Just mentioning it for awareness and visibility.

- https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Android-App/Google-Pixel-Wat...

- https://support.google.com/googlepixelwatch/thread/242833127...

My Pixel Watch sucks and it's not because the screen isn't big or bright enough. The implementation of notifications is awful. It's actually faster and easier in many cases to whip out my phone to see a notification than to see it on the watch.

Why? Because notifications are not shown by default. The watch vibrates but nothing is there on the screen but the watch face. To trigger a notification to actually show, you need to rotate your wrist down (if it is up) and then up again (impossible if you are carrying something). Then you have to wait for it to recognize the gesture. Then you have to wait for a fade animation to an intermediate screen that shows half of the information about the notification. Then you have to wait for a fade animation to the final screen that actually shows the notification text. And if you lower your wrist at all during or after this process, the notification disappears instantly and won't come back without the use of both hands to activate the touchscreen or crown. And in many cases the information shown is useless, like "so-and-so sent a picture." Show me the goddamn picture then!

It boggles the mind that anyone could think this is a good experience to ship at all, let alone for three generations! Especially when Pebble had it right 10 years ago. You show the notification on the screen first, then you vibrate the watch, then you leave the notification there for at least 30 seconds so it can be read. You show the whole notification at once (as much as possible on the small screen, of course), and you also show a small clock at the top so you can still see the time while the notification is shown. How hard is that?

Of course this isn't the only way the Pixel Watch software sucks. The whole UX is pretty terrible, like they had some ideas and went straight to final implementation, never bothering to iterate based on user feedback. Low information density, low customizability, feature-poor, unresponsive interactions, blocking animations. It's everything bad about modern UI in a tiny frustrating package.

I don't know what is wrong with all the tech reviewers that fail to call Google out on this stuff. Maybe it's better than Samsung or whatever but that doesn't make it good. At least the hardware is nice. Though, like all smartwatches except the Pebble Time Round, far too thick.

Huh, just yesterday I started setting up and getting used to my new (to me) Apple Watch Series 6, after having used a Pixel Watch 2 for several months.

I'm surprised to find myself somewhat disappointed, and preferring my Pixel Watch, though I'm still giving myself some time in case it's just familiarity. But a few things:

* The available watch faces are pretty underwhelming, particularly digital ones. There's only a single one that actually includes the seconds, as far as I can tell. And the only one with lots of complications is Modular, which sticks the time in the corner, and has a big unwieldy complication in the center. My kingdom for Pixel Watch's Utility.

* No watch face store!?

* I can't seem to set up a minimal all-red face for night time, like I had on the Pixel Watch.

* The heart rate complication is just a picture of a heart that I click and it takes me to a widget that measures my heart rate. I had a real time glance on Pixel Watch, right in the complication, always up to date.

* The sleep tracking is weird and confusing. I need to set up schedules and such? On the Pixel Watch, it just tracks my sleep automatically.

* Subjective, but I still like the size and shape (round) of the Pixel Watch more than this Apple Watch, for now.

"all-day battery life"

Ugh, Apple really has lowered expectations. In order to switch from my Garmin, I'd want at least a week.. Even my MS Band from 10 years ago had 48hrs of battery life.

I'm too locked in to the Apple ecosystem to switch, but I really wish they made a round watch. This one looks so good compared to whatever Apple puts out every year. A round watch face just makes so much aesthetic sense.

"fine-tuned for fitness" the product presentation page scrupulously avoids talking about sport and systematically uses "fitness" instead. Anyone who has ever tried to use Fibit + Google Health for their training knows that it's going to be a disaster.

This product seems destined for those who like something big and bright on their wrist.

In principle, this watch has no built-in GPS. One day's autonomy is therefore well below that any entry-level sport watches released in the last 5 years could offer.

Similar to my comment in the phone thread, a focus on "bigger" makes me sad.

Kind of hilarious to pair that with bragging rights on "all-day battery life."

These never have the features I want:

* small/thin/light

* Battery lasts multiple days

* notifications are main feature

Has anyone tried one of the hybrid smart watches like Withings ScanWatch series or Garmin vivoactive?

Maybe they'll sell your heart health data to life insurance companies. You can't trust google and they can't make hardware anyway

I've got a Pixel Watch 2, and it's okay, but the fitness features are all unusable to me; I use a Fitbit Inspire for sleep tracking and wake alarms while my Pixel Watch is on its charger overnight, and Google only lets me turn on fitness tracking on the Pixel Watch if I migrate my fitness tracking from the Fitbit.

I could realistically see myself replacing my phone with a 5g smartwatch. The hardware seems good enough, but tere's a few use cases that make me hesitant. If the ecosystem and support continues to improve I'll probably do that in a couple years.

Doorbell live video integration looks pretty neat.

Looks like one thing Google cannot get right for the third generation in a row is that the smartwatch is the _watch_. Something you wear all day, something looking good, something matching a wide range of looks.

Apple Watch managed to push instantly recognizable rectangular style. Galaxy Watch tries to pass as a regular watch, more or less successfully. And Pixel Watch? It looks either as a children's toy or as a cheap fitness band. It might be smart, might have the best software and hardware, but it just isn't something I'd like to wear, except maybe for a training session.

Looking forward to The Quantified Scientist's [1] review of it. I don't care about any of the mainstream tech reviewers who read the spec sheet. I care about the accuracy of the advertised health features.

Pixel Watch 2 was significantly better than Pixel Watch 1 but still behind an Apple Watch SE2 which is $100 cheaper.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/@TheQuantifiedScientist/videos

I don't understand why anyone would get a Pixel watch or a Samsung watch when Garmin watches have battery life of 1-4 weeks versus 1-3 days.

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/general/how-long-will-my-g...

My pixel watch 2 can't sync the Google workspace calendar.

i personally enjoy the samsung series, better price to performance ratio aswell as the amoled display is awesome

No Afib detection or BP reading?