Ok, so the Google Pixel Watch is here! And it’s actually a nice watch. It looks sharp, the screen brightness is ample, it’s protected with Gorilla Glass 5 and an assortment of recyled materials, It has LTE and WiFi models, and at 41mm it’s the minimum size really that can be considered for most adults. However, as you begin to look past the specs and aesthetics, you realize one big thing… the battery life in woefully inadequate. Google sent me out the Pixel Watch as part of the Team Pixel program, #teampixel, #giftfromgoogle – mandatory FTC tagging…. *sigh*
I have largely enjoyed the watch, which has a rated battery life of 24hrs – this is far too generous. On two of my four days I’ve used the Pixel Watch, the battery didn’t even last 24hrs. The watch made it to about 20hrs, and this didn’t even include having sleep tracking enabled, which is a battery killer at night. Google really should have put a larger battery in the watch, period. Regardless of the shiny features like heart rate tracking, electrocardiogram (ECG), sleep tracking, etc… these features are not going to do you any good if the battery doesn’t last you long enough to use them, much less get you through a complete 24hr period. I’ve seen a mixed bag of battery life reports, but many of these depend largely on usage, screen on time, Always on Display, auto-wake features, sleep tracking, etc… The more features you have enabled, the faster the watch dies. Sure, if you silence notifications, and don’t use your watch all day, I’ll get you to bedtime. But then what’s the point? And if that wasn’t enough, you have an 80 minute recharge time from 0-100%, which means it’s not particularly gifted in the rehcharge department. So, yeah. That’s pretty much it. Other than the poor battery life, largely I like the watch – and you might just like it too. However, make sure wherever you but it from has a good return policy, in case you test it out and find that the battery life is insufficient for your daily needs. Good luck!
TechOdyssey 