Google Pixel Watch 3 Review: A Step Forward

The original Pixel Watch was a hit and a miss upon its release, and while the Pixel Watch 2 brought some necessary changes the following year, they were incremental, to say the least. We now have the third iteration of Google’s wrist wearable, and it seems far more promising than the previous two generations, but can these improvements justify the hefty asking price? So, I’ve been using the 41mm Bluetooth/Wi-Fi version of the Google Pixel Watch 3 for about a week now, and in this review, I’ll answer this question and share my week-long experience with it.

Google Pixel Watch 3: Specs At a Glance

Google Pixel Watch 3: What’s in the Box?

First, let’s quickly take a look at everything you’ll find inside the Pixel Watch 3’s box.

• Pixel Watch 3 (41 mm)
• Active silicon bands (small and large)
• USB Type-C charging cable
• Quick Start Guide

Build and Design: If Looks Could Kill

I have the 41 mm, Obsidian color variant with me and it is as stealthy as it is stylish. The frame is crafted out of aluminum and Google carries on with their unique Pixel Watch design of the past two generations. It is a complete glass design that curves on the edges, giving it a sort of a pebble look. Which makes it seem that it is a pure screen bezel-less display.

Honestly, I’ve had a couple of people approach me, asking about the watch and how cool it looks. At the same time, I also got comments on how this 41 mm model feels a little childlike wrapped over my enormous Shrek wrist. However, the smaller model means that the watch isn’t too hefty to wear, weighing only 31 grams or slightly more than 1 oz.

There is a physical crown on the right side also made of aluminum. It feels pretty good to use, especially thanks to the haptics inside the watch. And another button on the side that brings up the recent menu. It isn’t easy to find as it sits almost flush with the body of the watch. I couldn’t even tell there was a button till I went through the Watch’s tutorial during setup.

The watch is IP68 certified, so you can use it when swimming or in the rain with confidence. The heart rate sensor and magnetic charging pins are located on the back. It would be better if Google also opted for wireless charging like Samsung because it can be a bit tricky to align the puck with the pins on the watch. Finally, the watch comes with two silicon bands—one small and one large.

Display and Speakers: Smooth Like Butter

The display on the Pixel Watch 3 is one of the best I’ve seen on a smartwatch. The 41 mm model features a 1.2-inch LTPO AMOLED display. So Google added LTPO to their smartwatch but not their flagship foldable? Strange, but I’ll overlook it because this allows the watch to drop down to 1 Hz in always-on display mode. The screen is 16% larger, with slimmer bezels which makes the entire glass design feel more immersive. The UI elements take better advantage of the extra space.

It also feels way smoother to use as the refresh rate has been bumped to 60 Hz from Watch 2’s 30 Hz. So as the heading says, navigating through the watch’s UI feels buttery smooth. Honestly, as a seasoned tech reviewer, even I was fooled for a second thinking it might be 90 Hz.

I had the watch on when I went down to Lodi Garden to test the cameras for my Pixel 9 Pro Fold vs Galaxy Z Fold 6 comparison. That’s when I noticed the brightness boost, which can reach up to 2000 nits now. I did not need to cover the screen with my hand to read what was on it. The Pixel Watch 3’s display is undoubtedly a significant upgrade.

As far as the speakers go, they were adequate for watch speakers. So was the mic pickup on the few calls that I took with the watch. But it doesn’t allow music playback from Spotify. So, you will have to connect your headphones to the watch to listen through them.

Google Pixel Watch 3: Software and Performance

The Pixel Watch 3 comes running out of the box with Google’s Wear OS 5 based on Android 14. It’s a pretty clean and minimal interface, which sits well with the watch’s aesthetics. The watch is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm SW5100. It offers pretty good performance, which I would say is on par with an Apple Watch. There is little to no delay when launching apps and navigating through the menus and different widgets.

The engineers at Google have also done a good job syncing the interface with the rotating crown. You’ll get good haptic feedback with every turn when you scroll past a row or an option.

Given it’s a Pixel Watch, it is well integrated with Pixel smartphones and Google devices. First, you can use the watch to control your Pixel’s Camera app. It shows a viewfinder and camera controls for switching between different modes. You can also zoom in and out from the watch. However, I did encounter a bug where the camera viewfinder on the watch started glitching.

Then you can use AI to respond to incoming calls or hold them for you. The watch also works as a remote when used with a Google TV. I couldn’t check if it’s also compatible with Android TVs. If you own a Nest Camera, you can check the camera feed right from the watch itself.

Google Pixel Watch 3: Health Features

To monitor health, the Pixel Watch 3 includes an accelerometer, gyroscope, heart rate monitor, altimeter, compass, SpO2, thermometer, and skin conductance sensor. So it covers all bases to give you the most accurate reading possible. To see these readings, you must set up the Fitbit app on your phone, as the watch relies on Fitbit to display your health information. Thankfully, you don’t need a Fitbit premium subscription to get detailed insights.

The Pixel Watch 3 now includes new running metrics like stride length, step cadence, and vertical ratio for people who enjoy doing a few laps around the block. To be honest, I am more of a couch potato, and intense exercise is not my strong suit. So I stuck with plain old walking, and here’s how it went.

On my regular walk to the metro station from the office, the Watch 3 accurately counted my steps, calories burned, and heart rate. It also shows the intensity of the workout as my heart rate increases. This helps me learn when I am pushing things to a limit and need a break.

The watch quickly paused the workout as I stood momentarily, and resumed once I started walking again. However, my one pet peeve is that the automatic workout detection can take a while to kick in. On multiple occasions, it would detect that I was walking when I had been doing so for the past 10 minutes and nearing the station.

While it did a good job monitoring exercises, I cannot say the same for sleep. The sleep graph was fairly inconsistent, showing me awake on several occasions. I am a deep sleeper, so I know I wasn’t up as much as the watch thought. To confirm my suspicion, I slept with the Galaxy Watch 7 on my other hand. The results were quite drastic as Watch 7 showed me awake for 11 minutes. The Pixel Watch 3 calculated 47 minutes. This might improve over time but this is what I felt in my usage.

The Pixel Watch can also detect skin temperature, variations in breathing, restlessness, and sleeping heart rate. These are good metrics though I wish for snoring detection like on the Galaxy Watch 7.

Another silver lining is that you don’t need Fitbit Premium to know your Readiness score. However, I couldn’t capture it as Fitbit requires a week of your health data before it starts measuring your readiness. All in all, as an exercise tracker, the Pixel Watch 3 is as accurate as smartwatches come. However, a few tweaks might be needed to improve sleep tracking.

Battery Life: Still Room for Improvement

Now Wear OS isn’t known to be battery-friendly, and all this buttery smooth experience on the watch comes at a hefty cost. Google claims the Pixel Watch 3 can last up to 24 hours with always-on-display enabled and 36 hours with battery saver mode. Now I am of the mindset that if I am going to be using a watch, then I should be able to glance at the time even when I’m not directly looking at it. So I had AOD turned on throughout my usage.

With this, I received a battery life of 15 to 16 hours. Usually, I had 8-10% left in the tank by the time I reached home. Even though my regular work day did not include any strenuous workouts (unless you include eating as exercise). As a result, I had to either charge the watch before going to bed or not track my sleep at all, which was a huge bummer. The charging speed isn’t any better; it takes around 30 minutes to charge up to 50% and an hour to fully charge.

Google Pixel Watch 3: Should You Buy It?

Taking everything into account, I have to say that my time with the Pixel Watch 3 was a mixed bag. It looks great and has a pretty functional design with the rotating crown and almost all glass and aluminum body. Plus the performance and the user experience are some of the best that I have ever experienced on an Android smartwatch. The safety features and health tracking are also pretty accurate. And if I have to be honest, this is a proper response from Google to the Apple Watch.

However, the poor battery life, the charging time, and the hefty starting price tag of $349 for the 41 mm with WiFi variant would prevent me from getting one for myself or suggesting it to someone else. Especially when there are better options available from brands like Samsung and OnePlus. While some things can be ironed out with updates, I don’t think the difference would be enough to change my thoughts. But if you are a Pixel enthusiast, then I would recommend waiting for a sale and the price to go down before you grab one.