Smartwatches have always been a vital part of my everyday work. After switching to iPhone last year, the Apple Watch replaced my Galaxy Watch of nearly three years and gave me a new perspective on how important integration is to a hardware ecosystem. If there’s one device that determines the effectiveness of this integration, it’s the smartwatch and how seamlessly it interacts with everything else—especially your phone.
Having tested several smartwatches over the past several years, I’ve rarely found the same level of integration as I experienced with my Apple Watch and iPhone. I was particularly looking forward to testing Google’s latest offering, the Pixel Watch 3. After spending time with it, I can confidently say that Google has come very close to creating the perfect smartwatch, when it comes to Android.
Price and availability
The Pixel Watch 3 is available in the US and Europe. The Watch is available at most major online retailers including Best Buy, Amazon and directly at the Google Store for $349.99 for the 41mm and $399.99 for the 45mm. The device has 32GB of storage standard and is available in polished silver, champagne gold and matte black aluminum casings with various active band pairings.
No difference in design
The Pixel Watch 3 isn’t much different in design from its previous model, but the story has been the same for many major smartwatch makers over the past few years. At first glance, you’d be hard-pressed to tell the difference between this model and last year’s Pixel Watch 2.
The design remains sleek and minimal. The 41mm model fits comfortably on the wrist, but it’s a little smaller than the 45mm Apple Watch. Google offers casings in polished silver or gold aluminum or matte black finishes, both of which look great.
The Pixel Watch 3 also retains its IP68 rating and 5ATM water resistance, which means you can take it swimming or working out without worry.
I’m a big fan of the domed display glass as it gives the impression that the watch isn’t just a 2D screen. It looks great with the always-on display as the components extend to the edges. It also helps that the screen now comes with a 16% smaller bezel, giving more screen real estate to work with, especially at this small size.
The display can now go up to 2000 nits, making the screen easy to read even in direct sunlight, and it’s very useful as a small flashlight. I took the watch out for a walk in the middle of the day and had no issues viewing my maps on the screen.
Coming from an Apple Watch, I was surprised to see Google’s rendition of the Digital Crown, and like the OnePlus Watch—which has no functionality in its twistable crown other than clicking buttons—this crown allows you to interact with the software by twisting it.
I think it works well for the most part, but it misses the subtleties of the Apple Watch. For one thing, the haptics aren’t as precise, and the tolerance for twist is lower, which doesn’t mesh as effectively with the software.
You can only tell this if you’re coming from an Apple Watch, and even then, it’ll only be noticeable if you’re comparing the two directly. Still, it shows the small difference in polish in integrating hardware and software that I often find missing from the Android side of things for smartwatches.
One area that hasn’t changed much—and I wish Google had reconsidered—is the charging system. The Pixel Watch 3 still uses a pin-based charger like the Pixel Watch 2, which, despite being functional and offering fast charging, feels somewhat outdated in an era where wireless charging is becoming the standard.