Google Pixel Watch 2 Preview

Thanks to a curiously generous Pixel 8 Pro preorder promotion, I’ll be getting a free Pixel Watch 2 with my new smartphone. Granted, this is something I might have tested regardless, given my positive experiences with the original Pixel Watch.

Which I ended up returning because my Fitbit Charge 5 meets my needs nicely and gets several days of battery life, not just one day. But like everything in life, it’s a bit more nuanced than that. In the pro column, the original Pixel Watch surprised me by being a reasonable Android-centric alternative to the Apple Watch. And in the con column, Pixel Watch was curiously incomplete as a Fitbit. Does the Pixel Watch 2 move the needle on any of that?

Yes and no. (I told you it was nuanced.)

As I’m sure you know, Google announced the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro, and Pixel Watch 2 at its Made by Google event yesterday alongside a “refreshed” Pixel Buds Pro that consists of a few new features and two new colors. Each straddles the line between being a major and minor upgrade, depending on your view of such things. But I think each offers a big enough improvement to qualify for the former. Which is why I preordered the Pixel 8 Pro. And chose a black Pixel Watch 2 with Wi-Fi (not LTE).

From a distance, Pixel Watch 2 doesn’t look like much of an upgrade: It has the same form factor, still comes in the same size, is compatible with previous generation bands, and it costs the same $350. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find some worthy advances. (And you’ll also get a reasonable $150 trade-in value on your first-generation Pixel Watch, which might tilt the scales for early adopters.)

First up is the move to aluminum in the body, which makes Pixel Watch 2 about 10 percent lighter than its predecessor. That doesn’t sound like much, but I bet it makes a big difference in a device this small, especially when you’re sleeping. Tied to this are some small physical changes that could also matter, like the larger, smoother, and flush digital crown.

One issue with Pixel Watch is that the device is non-repairable. If you damage the screen, the whole thing needs to be replaced. And you can see why that can be a problem for a device you’re meant to wear all day long. For Pixel Watch 2, this condition persists, but its face is at least protected by 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 now, which should help at least somewhat. I’m clumsy enough that I scratched my Apple Watch Series 8 several times, so this is something I do worry about. (I don’t care about mucking up a Fitbit charger because those things are so much less expensive.)

And then there’s performance: The original Pixel Watch inexplicably shipped with a years-old processor, but the new version uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 SoC, which is much more modern, powerful, and energy efficient. That latter bit didn’t help Pixel Watch 2 achieve more than a day of battery life, sadly, nor did it’s slightly bigger battery, but it should still offer at least modest improvements. And it does charge more quickly too.

I mentioned up top that the original Pixel Watch offered an incomplete Fitbit experience, and that’s because it lacked key features like SpO2 monitoring, a full range of automatic exercise tracking, and other things that Fitbit tracker users (like me) enjoy. For Pixel Watch 2, it seems like Google has addressed this shortcoming. It offers Body Response stress detection (from Fitbit Sense 2) courtesy of a new continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) sensor. It improves sleep tracking with a new skin temperature sensor. It offers better heart rate sensing (like the new Fitbit Charge 6) via a third new sensor, with Heart Rate Zone Coaching and Pace Training features for keeping better track of your fitness goals. And new AI-based fitness capabilities are coming in the near future (because of course they are).

There are new safety features too: Pixel Watch 2 offers fall detection and emergency SOS like its predecessor, but adds proactive safety features like Medical ID, Emergency sharing, and Safety check. You can display your medical information on the device when it’s locked, share that information with (some) emergency responders, and utilize a new $9.99 Medical ID Tag band add-on that also displays medical information (for all responders).

Pixel Watch 2 also comes with Google’s Wear OS 4 system, and the marketing here is interesting: Google says that it’s the only device to offer all Wear OS features. I’ll need to figure out what that means exactly, but at the very least this suggests that Pixel Watch 2 will have features that are not available on the original and on other Wear OS 4-based devices, like those from Samsung.

Like the Fitbit Charge 6, Pixel Watch 2 comes with 6 months of Fitbit Premium for free. I found that I didn’t miss its features enough to pay for this service, but 6 months is 6 months.

And of course there are the Pixel ecosystem integration features, which include such things as audio switching, Find My Phone, automatic call screen right on the watch, Google Assistant, and so on.

And … we’ll see. I realize that doubling the battery life is unrealistic, but I do wonder if that kind of improvement would put this over the top. But I spent several months charging my Apple Watch daily without much of an issue, and those who don’t need sleep tracking will find such a thing even easier. I do want sleep tracking, but I also want accurate sleep tracking, and this has been a sore spot for me on Fitbit for years. Perhaps this will at least be better.

Overall, this is a decent mix of upgrades with a few remaining niggles. But that’s before I’ve seen the thing in real life. I’m curious if the improvements are enough to put it over the top. You never know.