Pixel Watch 3 vs Pixel Watch 2: Is It Better?

Google’s attempt at Wear OS watches has been pretty successful with the Pixel Watch and the Pixel Watch 2. With the resurrection of Wear OS and healthy competition, Google has launched the Pixel Watch 3 alongside the Pixel 9 series at the Made by Google event. It brings a few improvements over its predecessor, but is it worth shelling out the extra premium? Here’s our Pixel Watch 3 vs Pixel Watch 2 comparison to help you decide.

Pixel Watch 3 vs Watch 2: Build and Design

The overall dimensions of the Pixel Watch 3 are similar to the Pixel Watch 2’s. It retains the circular pebble-like design with rounded corners. The casing of the Watch 3 is built from aluminum, similar to the Watch 2. It features the same button and rotating crown on the right, a band mechanism, and a sensor array at the bottom.

One of the major changes is that the Pixel Watch 3 comes in a 45mm variant with a 36 x 36 mm chassis. It has a bigger display but retains the 20mm strap size of regular Pixel Watch 3 and 2. The size of the 41mm Pixel Watch 3 is 32 x 32 mm.

Overall, there aren’t any significant changes in the design apart from an option to choose a bigger variant if 41mm is too small, which is great.

Pixel Watch 3 vs Watch 2: Display

The display department is where we see our first change. Pixel Watch 3’s display is now brighter and has slimmer bezels. The bezels are down to 4.5mm from 5.5mm on the Watch 2. As a result, the resolution has seen a slight improvement. The size of the display remains the same, i.e., 1.2-inch while the 45mm variant gets a 1.4-inch display.

The 41mm Pixel Watch 3 features a 408 x 408 pixel display, whereas the 45mm features a 456 x 456 pixels resolution. Both are OLED displays and are capable of reaching a peak brightness of 2,000 nits, which is double that of the Pixel Watch 2.

Health Features and Sensors

There are no additional sensors on the Pixel Watch 3. But Fitbit gets a few new features such as Personal Best, Cardio Load, and Advanced Running Metrics. There’s a Morning Brief feature which shows Readiness Score. We’re sure all these features will eventually make their way to the Pixel Watch 2 as well, since they’re not tied to the hardware.

One major addition to the Pixel Watch 3 series is the addition of Ultra-wideband, which should help your Watch be precisely located or locate other devices and be a part of the Google Find My Device network. Ultra Wideband support was planned for Pixel Watch 2 but was later dropped due to unknown reasons.

Hardware and Battery

Both the Pixel Watch 3 and Watch 2 feature Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 5100. It’s a quad-core SoC with 4 x Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz. The Pixel Watch 2 performs well and the Pixel Watch 3 should as well.

The battery on the Watch 3 is a 310 mAh cell, a measly 4 mAh increase from the Pixel Watch 2’s 306 mAh cell. However, the 45mm variant features a 420 mAh unit which should help the watch last much longer. Google claims 24 hours of battery life on both.

The charging time and connector remain the same, although Google weirdly claims the Pixel Watch 3 charges 20% faster; however, the comparison is not between the previous-gen Pixel Watch but its bigger variant with a bigger battery. What are you doing, Google?

Pixel Watch 3 vs Watch 2: Software

Both the Pixel watches boast Wear OS 4.0 out of the box, and Google promises 3 years of major Wear OS updates. The Pixel Watch 2 hasn’t even started exhausting its update quota, so it should be supported until the Pixel Watch 3 is supported.

Color Variants and Pricing

The 41mm Pixel Watch 3 comes in four color combinations – Silver chassis/Rose Quartz Band, Black/Obsidian, Gold/Hazel, and Silver/Porcelain. The 45mm variant comes in – Hazel/Hazel, Black/Obsidian, and Silver/Porcelain.

The Pixel Watch 2 on the other hand came in four variants – Silver/Bay, Black/Obsidian, Gold/Hazel, and Silver/Porcelain. I like the Bay colorway of the Pixel Watch 2 more than any other colorway, but I could be biased because blue is my favorite color. The Rose Quartz and Hazel variants look pretty good as well.

As for the pricing, the Pixel Watch 2 cost $349 during its launch but the Pixel Watch 3 costs the same for the 41mm Wi-Fi-only variant, i.e., $349 ($449 for LTE). Similarly, the 45mm variant costs $399 and $499 for the Wi-Fi-only and LTE models, respectively.

For what we call pretty minor overall improvements, the Pixel Watch 3 is not worth upgrading to. Hence, we’d recommend sticking to the Pixel Watch 2 if you already own one.

If you want to buy a Pixel Watch, the Watch 2 will probably be discounted, and we recommend getting it instead. If you want the 45mm version that costs $399, we suggest you skip the Pixel Watch and get the Galaxy Watch 7 or other best Wear OS watches that are less expensive and a tad bit more feature-rich.

What are your thoughts on Pixel Watch 3 pricing? Let us know in the comments.