Google Pixel Watch 2 Review: Is it Actually Better? | Tom's Guide
The Google Pixel Watch 2 is here, and in some ways, it introduces major upgrades over the first Pixel Watch, Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 for the best Android smartwatch title, and even the Apple Watch Series 9 for the best smartwatch crown overall. But in other ways, it doesn't have the improvements I was hoping to see, namely in terms of design. I tested out the Pixel Watch 2's fitness tracking features, wellness monitoring tools carried over from Fitbit, and battery life to see if it's actually a better smartwatch than it was before.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 The Pixel Watch 2 is here with a new heart rate sensor,
00:09 stress detection, safety features, more workout tools,
00:12 a more efficient processor, and improved battery life.
00:15 And while it all sounds like the makeup of a great Android Wear
00:18 OS watch, I think it's important we back up for a minute.
00:22 Compared to Samsung and Apple, Google
00:24 is still a newbie in the smartwatch space.
00:26 Last year was the first year it truly
00:28 threw a hat into the ring with the Google Pixel Watch.
00:31 Now, I spent a lot of time with the first generation Pixel
00:34 Watch, and overall, I walked away impressed.
00:37 More than once, I called it a very good first attempt,
00:39 saying it might not be a perfect smartwatch,
00:42 but it is the smartwatch that Pixel smartphone
00:44 users have been waiting for.
00:46 I specifically recall having a more positive outlook
00:48 on the Pixel Watch than some other reviewers.
00:51 I followed up with specific shortcomings
00:52 that I think Google should have addressed
00:54 with the second generation model,
00:56 especially if the company wanted to target those holdouts
00:59 from the original and justify the $350 price tag.
01:03 And now, here we do have the Pixel Watch 2,
01:06 and it's not exactly what I was hoping for.
01:08 When I first got details about the Pixel Watch 2,
01:11 I'll go as far as to say that I was disappointed.
01:13 That's because there were two key things
01:15 I saw as hurdles to Pixel Watch adoption,
01:18 and both of them had to do with design, and both of them
01:21 seemed like achievable changes.
01:23 First, Google is still only offering
01:24 one size of the Pixel Watch.
01:26 It's 41 millimeters.
01:27 I said it then, and I'll say it now.
01:29 I think for larger wrists, there needs
01:31 to be a bigger size option of the Pixel Watch,
01:34 no doubt about it.
01:35 For some people, it's about preference.
01:37 For some people, it's about comfort.
01:39 For some people, it's just about actually wanting
01:41 to be able to see as much information as possible
01:44 without having to squint or hold your wrist up to your face.
01:47 (upbeat music)
01:48 Seeing as much information as possible
01:50 brings me to my second disappointment,
01:52 and that is the display bezels.
01:53 Compared to the original Pixel Watch,
01:55 it looks virtually unchanged, meaning, once again,
01:57 a large portion of the display on the Pixel Watch
02:00 is basically unusable.
02:01 Of course, I couldn't just write off the Pixel Watch 2
02:04 because of the design, which, for the record,
02:06 isn't really that bad.
02:07 It's a nice, minimalistic-looking smartwatch,
02:10 and Google did make some changes to the chassis.
02:12 It's now 100% recycled titanium,
02:15 the glass is supposed to be more durable,
02:17 and there are also some new bands.
02:19 I really like this Active Sport one,
02:20 even if it's pretty much a copy
02:22 of the Apple Watch Nike Sport band.
02:24 And there definitely are some other silver linings,
02:26 even if they're mostly new features
02:28 that other smartwatches have had for a while,
02:30 like automatic workout tracking, heart rate zones,
02:33 stress detection, and a battery life
02:35 that actually lasts a full day
02:37 with the Always-On Display enabled.
02:39 There's even a new feature
02:40 that isn't on a lot of other smartwatches.
02:42 It's called Safety Check,
02:44 and it now joins the Personal Safety app
02:46 with Emergency SOS and Fall Detection.
02:48 With Safety Check, I can set an activity and timer
02:50 estimating when I might expect to arrive at my location
02:53 or complete the activity.
02:55 And I can send an alert to my emergency contact
02:57 about my plans.
02:58 So the season has changed.
03:02 It's getting darker earlier now,
03:04 and I have a feeling that by the time I get off the subway
03:07 and start walking home, it's gonna be dark.
03:09 So I'm gonna set a Safety Check.
03:10 I should be home in 30 minutes,
03:13 and if I don't check in within 30 minutes,
03:16 then my emergency contact's gonna get a notification
03:19 saying that I might need help.
03:21 And if there's a situation where I'm unexpectedly
03:27 and urgently concerned for my wellbeing,
03:29 I can just hit Emergency Sharing in the moment.
03:31 I have made it close enough to home, I should say,
03:44 and it's saying that if I don't log my check-in
03:48 within 53, 52 seconds, my Emergency Sharing will kick in
03:53 for the emergency contact I have preset.
03:56 So I'm just gonna go ahead and end this Safety Check.
03:58 I can't even tell you how much peace of mind
04:04 these kind of smartwatch features bring me.
04:06 It's one of the reasons I love the siren feature
04:09 on the Apple Watch Ultra, but this really ups the ante
04:11 for taking personal wellbeing seriously.
04:14 Mental wellbeing is also a greater focus
04:16 on the Pixel Watch 2.
04:17 And the more time I've spent with it,
04:18 I'm feeling more grateful that the skin temperature reader
04:21 and continuous electrodermal activity reader
04:23 from the Fitbit Sense 2 were carried over to this watch.
04:26 I looked back and actually did say one way
04:28 the Pixel Watch 2 could catch up
04:30 would be to get the electrodermal activity readings
04:32 on the Fitbit Sense that can tell when you're stressed,
04:35 adding that the sensor would give you, as a user,
04:37 more thorough health data through Fitbit.
04:39 On my wrist, Fitbit will tell me if it detects I'm stressed
04:42 or experiencing a shift in my mood.
04:44 It then prompts me to log how I'm feeling,
04:46 and depending on my answer,
04:47 give me advice on how to manage it.
04:49 I can view my moods in my weekly summary reports
04:51 that are pretty ubiquitous
04:52 across the entire Fitbit experience,
04:54 including sleep tracking and activity.
04:56 Now, you do still need a Fitbit Premium membership
04:59 to make the most of your Pixel Watch 2.
05:01 And next year, with a new generative AI feature,
05:04 you'll even get to be able to get deeper insights
05:06 into how your different points of health data
05:08 impact how you're feeling and moving.
05:10 So if the question is whether the Pixel Watch 2
05:12 is a more ambitious wellness tracker
05:14 than the original Pixel Watch,
05:16 I have to say yes.
05:17 The Pixel Watch 2 gets some standard workout conveniences
05:21 that I think a lot of people would be surprised to know
05:24 weren't available for the first version.
05:26 For example, the watch now shows you
05:27 your heart rate zones during workouts.
05:29 Your heart rate reading should be more accurate now
05:32 thanks to a new multi-path heart rate sensor.
05:34 You can actually see the different layout
05:36 of the sensors on the new watches.
05:38 Now, I actually thought the heart rate sensor
05:40 on the Pixel Watch was already fantastic,
05:42 so while a 40% claimed accuracy improvement
05:45 seems like a good thing,
05:47 I'm not so sure it needed to be
05:48 as big of a celebrated feature when, again,
05:51 Google already kind of had it right.
05:52 It's currently 11 a.m., I'm at the top of Manhattan,
05:57 and today I'm actually going to walk
05:59 the whole length of the island.
06:01 It's going to take me pretty much the entire day,
06:04 and I'm gonna be tracking it on the Pixel Watch.
06:07 I have 100% battery to start,
06:09 and I'm gonna see how long the watch lasts.
06:13 I'm not optimistic, but maybe it'll prove me wrong.
06:16 What it maybe did not have right,
06:19 but is now introducing on the Pixel Watch 2,
06:21 is the ability to automatically detect,
06:23 pause, and stop certain activities,
06:25 say, in case you forgot to launch a walking workout.
06:28 Finally, there's now pace training for running,
06:30 which is a feature that is relatively newer
06:32 in the wide world of smartwatches
06:33 compared to auto detection,
06:35 so kudos to Google for that, I suppose.
06:37 I'm finally able to take advantage
06:39 of the new heart rate zones feature on the Pixel Watch 2.
06:42 I'm on a walk, but we are walking pretty much directly.
06:45 Uphill, I know I can hear it in my voice
06:48 that it is more strenuous than a regular walk,
06:51 and now I'm in more of a moderate heart rate range
06:54 for my activity.
06:56 Speaking of running, a big issue I ran into
06:58 while testing the first Pixel Watch
07:00 was battery life drain caused by workouts.
07:02 One hour check-in, it's just afternoon,
07:05 and the Pixel Watch 2 battery life
07:07 has drained from 100% to about 90%,
07:11 and on that same time with the original Pixel Watch,
07:13 the battery life dropped 20% with continuous GPS use,
07:18 so we're already off to a much stronger start,
07:20 and I'm feeling more optimistic.
07:22 I also could only get the original Pixel Watch
07:25 to last 24 hours with the Always-On Display turned off.
07:29 Now Google says you can leave the Always-On Display enabled
07:31 and still get a day's worth of juice.
07:33 This is likely because of the switch
07:35 to the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 processor,
07:38 which not only makes for a more responsive
07:40 Wear OS 4 experience, but is more power efficient
07:43 than what the Pixel Watch had before.
07:45 It is now about 5.30.
07:48 I've just walked 14 miles, over 14 miles,
07:52 from the top of Manhattan to the bottom of Manhattan
07:54 with the Pixel Watch 2,
07:56 and after continuous GPS tracking for over six hours now,
08:01 my battery life has gone from 100% to 35%.
08:06 That's still about a 10% decrease per hour,
08:09 so it is a huge improvement over the original Pixel Watch.
08:13 I'm very pleasantly surprised,
08:14 and I have to say that was one of the things
08:17 I was hoping for with this next-gen model,
08:19 and Google delivered.
08:20 The Google Pixel Watch 2 isn't exactly the smartwatch
08:30 I was expecting to see.
08:31 I really had to weigh the pros and cons,
08:33 and since Google did have this past year
08:36 to learn from initial feedback and make changes,
08:38 I felt inclined to be a bit tougher on this version 2.0.
08:42 On one hand, the watch is a big improvement
08:44 for wellness tracking.
08:45 It actually feels a lot more like a Fitbit in some ways,
08:48 and that convergence is probably for the best.
08:51 The safety features are a big plus as well,
08:53 and it's important to know that it'll have
08:55 Wear OS 4 exclusivity for a while,
08:57 getting the newly optimized Google Calendar and Gmail apps.
09:01 Then, on the other hand, a lot of people, including me,
09:04 have complained about the limitations
09:06 of the size and the bezels,
09:07 and it's kind of weird to say,
09:08 but it feels like those concerns weren't heard.
09:11 However, thinking in terms of the future,
09:13 it's become pretty clear to me
09:14 that this is a half-stepping stone
09:16 to grab the attention of the first-gen holdouts.
09:19 And if I had to guess,
09:20 I think next year will be the year
09:23 Google solidifies Pixel Watch as the Android smartwatch,
09:27 with the types of upgrades
09:28 that directly challenge the Galaxy Watch
09:30 and maybe even the Apple Watch.
09:32 I'd love to answer some of your Pixel Watch 2 questions,
09:35 so if you subscribe and leave a comment,
09:36 I'll be sure to get back to you.
09:38 Otherwise, you can find me showing off smartwatches
09:40 on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok @tomsguide.
09:44 As always, this has been @KateKozich.
09:46 Thanks for watching.
09:47 I'll catch you next time.
09:48 (upbeat music)
09:51 (upbeat music)
09:53 [MUSIC]