The Google Pixel Watch 5 Review: Small Tweaks, Big Impact
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Google’s Pixel Watch 5 is the ideal smartwatch for Android users. It has a brighter screen, zippier performance, fast charging, and excellent health and software features. This is despite several software features not being ready at launch, a $50 price increase, and its visual similarity to its predecessor.
After testing the Amazfit Balance Ultra, a high-end fitness-focused GPS smartwatch, it’s always refreshing to return to everyday wearables. Something for the everyday person interested in steps, heart rate, sleep, and notifications, with battery life that lasts longer than 24 hours. The Google Pixel Watch 5 now starts at $400, or $50 less than last year’s model.
We have the larger 45 mm size, which launched last month with the Pixel 11 phones. And like the latest Google flagship phones, and after the overhaul of its predecessor, this is a refinement year for the Pixel Watch 5. The company added several new software features, enough so that it could potentially feel like a new smartwatch. We’ve been testing Google’s newest smartwatch over several weeks now and wanted to see if it actually did. Here are our thoughts on the Pixel Watch 5 and our review.
As with the Pixel 11 phones, the Pixel Watch 5 is similar to its predecessor in hardware—even down to its domed-glass display. Somehow I got two scratches on the screen in a short amount of time, but thankfully it’s repairable. Anyway, Google sent over the 45 mm size, which offers a 1.4-inch circular OLED display with a variable refresh rate of 1-60 Hz and up to 3,000 nits of peak brightness, dual-frequency GPS, an IP68-rated body, and water resistance up to 164 ft. It also retains its 36.7-gram weight and 0.48-inch thickness, silicone straps, and a crown, side button, and gesture controls. The same goes for its health and fitness sensors, which include skin temperature sensors, optical heart rate, ECG, and red and infrared sensors for SpO2 monitoring, along with a 3-axis accelerometer, altimeter, barometer, compass, gyroscope, and magnetometer.
The newest Pixel Watch brings a familiar design with slightly improved internals.
So what’s new? Inside is a faster Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated processor that Google claims delivers 12% faster CPU performance, 3GB of RAM for a 20% performance boost, and double the storage, up to 64GB from 32GB. Disclaimer: Since I didn’t get a chance to review the Pixel Watch 4, this is all new to me. Compared to the last Google wearable I tested, the Pixel Watch 3, the new chip, Wear OS 7, and more RAM make day-to-day performance noticeably faster.
I am loving the gesture-based navigation, so much so that I rarely use the dial or side button. A wrist turn replaces the back button, and the double-pinch action scrolls down within an app and also accesses At A Glance information. The latter is similar to the widget on Pixel phones, which shows live updates such as active timers, rideshare info, phone calls, music, navigation, and more. The best part is that it doesn’t take long to adapt to everyday use.
After taking a few weeks off from running, this is the perfect time to return while reviewing the Pixel Watch 5. So I spent a few Saturdays running between three and five miles to get back into the swing of things, and I played pickleball with my son on Sundays. Recently, I had to do a lot of walking to my nearby ShopRite and for school drop-offs and pickups with my car in the shop for a few days.
So I took advantage of the more accurate GPS tracking but not so much of the new strength-training modes. I used it to get back into running several miles consistently on Saturdays and playing pickleball with my son on Sundays. I found its tracking of my steps and heart rate to be within range of what the Amazfit wearable tracked. Another good thing about the smartwatch and software is that you can always add it afterwards with its automatic activity detection, in case you do an activity and forget to set it up beforehand.
When it comes to sleep, the Pixel Watch 5 offers improved sleep tracking over its predecessor. It provides a bedtime mode to block notifications to sleep in peace—save for any alarms pending. It tracks your resting heart rate, REM sleep, deep sleep, and overall sleep duration. I didn’t find myself contesting the sleep tracking data and found it to be relatively accurate. Despite the 90% sleep tracking accuracy, there were a few instances where the watch only tracked two hours of sleep, when it was closer to four with an early nap. However, it did track the latter with ease.
Same great software, but with a few new features—with more coming soon.
The newest Pixel Watch gets Google’s Wear OS 7, which offers the company’s latest Material Design with a bold color scheme and widgets instead of tiles, along with Gemini, which can be activated by raising your wrist, and the full suite of Google apps. I found Gemini on a smartwatch to be easy to access, but I’m more of a phone- or laptop-based user of Google’s AI assistant. Gemini also brings proactive suggestions and offline access. Overall, the new software gives it a fresh experience, and this is before you get into the newer customizations, such as crafting your own watch faces and complications via Nano Banana.
For starters, set up Google Health on your paired phone with the Health Coach and/or any goals you have in mind. For the uninitiated, this is Google’s health-tracking software, which the company overhauled last year with a Health Coach AI powered by Gemini. Setting up the tracking watch was simple, as Google offers a vast list of activities to choose from, such as aerobic, archery, badminton, ballet, baseball, Bikram yoga, field hockey, free weights, hiking, Muay Thai, parkour, rollerblading, rucking, weight machines, and Zumba, to name a few.
As with the loss of pulse detection feature at the launch of the Pixel Watch 4, the current Pixel Watch is missing a few software features as well. Namely, the Health Guardian suite of features, which includes sleep breathing quality and blood pressure and insulin trend tracking. For the trend tracking features, it won’t be able to measure your blood pressure or insulin but will utilize various sensors to estimate your levels based on your activity. Also missing is breathing emergency detection, which can detect a drop in oxygen saturation in various emergencies and contact emergency services. While the feature is available at launch in select European countries, we’re still awaiting FDA clearance here in the US. The same applies to its custom workout builder, which is supposed to do what its name suggests. We’ll update this review when the features become available.
The 45mm Pixel Watch 5 has a 465 mAh battery, which Google suggests lasts up to 40 hours with an always-on display on a single charge. So, with some walking, a single running session, playing pickleball, and practicing soccer, I found it lasts about 36 to 40 hours on a single charge. As with any other wearable, how much activity you can do depends on how much battery life you get. Also worth noting: the watch shows a cute animation and says ‘Bye’ when the battery is completely depleted. Now I understand the nearly two-day charge may or may not be the hardware upgrade you were expecting from Google. But the Pixel Watch’s charging puck provides fast charging, delivering 0-to-50% in 15 minutes and 0-to-100% in nearly an hour.
I can't complain about nearly two days of battery with a full charge under an hour.
The Pixel Watch 5 is the ideal smartwatch for Android users, even with the features missing at launch. Similar to the Pixel 11 phones, Google’s smartwatch may seem like an incremental update; the software and user experience make a huge difference. Google’s wearable, combined with the robust Google Health software, helps with the overall user experience. And if you don’t have access, every Pixel Watch 5 purchase ships with three months of Google Health Premium for free.
While the $50 price increase may not be welcome and requires a paid Google Health subscription, the Pixel Watch 5 is still worth every penny—even if you use the free version. However, if you mainly use your smartwatch for steps, sleep, and notifications and are coming from a Pixel Watch 3 or older, the Pixel Watch 4 may be a better upgrade, since it’s often on sale.
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