Google Pixel Watch 5 reviewed: Android’s Watch

Five years in, the Pixel Watch 5 is one of the better wearables an Android owner could hope for, and does for Google what the Apple Watch does for Apple: makes wearables pretty and useful.

Nearly 20 years into the iPhone changing smartphones, many of us now rock a different gadget that can be just as important as the mobile that controls our lives. Worn on your wrist, the watch and band that is in many ways like a phone is another gadget we can’t live without.

It’s not just a clock, but something else. It tracks when we’re awake and when we sleep. It controls music. It takes calls. It’s a second screen for our phones, and may even handle some of the extra bits and bobs, taking away some of the battery woes our phones regularly have.

And while it can be an important part of your life, wearables vary dramatically. Nothing is ever quite as premium as the Apple Watch in the Android camp, and so manufacturers are working to make that change.

Over at Google, its take on the tech might be the closest, with the latest generation Pixel Watch getting everything right about its predecessor, and then making it just that little bit more future-proof.

Design and features

Another soft circular smartwatch, Google’s fifth generation model appears much the same as its predecessor, and that’s not a bad thing.

Much like how a good eleven years of Apple Watch had chased the same softened square design, five generations of Pixel Watch have focused on the circle, the shape of the classic timepiece for your wrist.

The slightly flat dome of the Pixel Watch has been there since the first generation, and it’s here again, with virtually no changes from the Pixel Watch 4.

That’s actually unsurprising, possibly because there’s so much in common between the Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5, and the design is one of those things. In fact, almost everything about the Pixel Watch 5 is shared with its predecessor, making it an unlikely upgrade for anyone with the previous model.

There’s a marginally updated Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 processor (an “Accelerated” edition, compared with the standard model on its predecessor), 64GB storage, support for WiFi, Bluetooth, Near-Field Communication, GPS, Ultra-Wideband radio, and depending on how much you spend, 4G LTE. The health sensors are also the same, covering heart rate, SpO2 blood oxygen, skin conductance for stress and sweat, and temperature tracking at the skin.

It sits under either a 41mm or 45mm watch screen, with support for IP68 water resistance and Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 protecting the display.

In-use

The sensors will be used later on with an update for features such as blood pressure trends and insulin resistance, but they’re coming soon, apparently scheduled for later this month.

Virtually everything else about the Pixel Watch 5 is more or less the same as the Pixel Watch 4 before it, which is to say you’ll have a choice between clock faces, an app menu, notifications, and a neat middle ground between timekeeper and connected wearable.

This is as close as an Android will get to the Apple Watch, and it is about as easy to use, as well.

Swipe down for power controls, and swipe up for your notifications. Swipe left and right for widgets, press the main crown button for your app menu, and the button above that for recent apps.

And if the touchscreen isn’t to your liking, there’s always the crown itself, which can roll up and down to handle the same things as notifications and power controls, or just dial through the assortment of things your exploration of the watch will take you to.

One aspect is definitely worth a look in, with generative AI being used to create watch faces. Simply utter a concept you want it to borrow from or just go with one of the presets, and Google will spin up some AI to create some watch faces that can be uniquely you.

There are limitations to how they look, and this isn’t an overwhelming amount of control, but it’s definitely a way for you to show off your individuality with a watch-face that is almost impossible to recreate twice.

Little else about how you use the Pixel Watch 5 will surprise, beyond say pulling the watch into extreme temperature differences, such as out of a warm shower into a cold morning air, a change that seemed to cause our Pixel Watch 5 to shut down and stay down until a few hours later.

Performance

Beyond hardware, there’s not a lot you really have to think about. The tech here is fast enough for timekeeping, fitness tracking, and generally using the watch.

AI is a part of the package, though it’s difficult to see why. You can call up Gemini and talk to it, but unless you’ve kind of trained yourself to talk to AI agents and talk to your watch, the addition feels largely irrelevant. It’s great if you’re trying to convince people that you’re from the future, or even if you don’t have a lot of friends. Possibly both.

For the most part, you won’t need to think about things. The watch just does what watches do: delivering the apps you need when you need them, and the time at all other times. There are fitness features for the folks who care about those, and it will help keep tabs on your life, as wearables do these days.

It’s not all rosy, though.

Sleep tracking is a bit of a mess, and after a night of arguably not-fantastic sleep, Google’s Pixel Watch 5 will say you’ve still had a “good” night’s sleep. In this reviewer’s case, awarding a score of 84 out of 100, and missing disturbances.

We’re a little reminded of the Galaxy Ring, which would often do the same, and tended to miss major sleep disturbances, simply assuming you were asleep.

Battery

While the tracking is a little hit and miss, the battery life is one of the main reasons to consider the Pixel Watch 5, beating practically every other fullscreen smartwatch in its price point.

Testing of the Pixel Watch 5 45mm consistently delivered roughly two full days on its battery, with a little bit of life into the third day, though we’d definitely say you’d want a charge then. That’s without going to the power saving mode, and was roughly normal usage. Use the GPS more, lean on the screen more often, or maybe spin up some of those generative AI watch faces to impress the kids, and you can expect the battery life to drop some more.

While smartwatch battery life could always be better and two days isn’t staggering, it’s still a full day more than both the Apple Watch Series 11 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch9, and only one of those works on Android.

There aren’t many full-screen smartwatches that deliver battery life beyond a day, so the fact that this does is pretty great.

Charging is easy enough, too, with the same charging plug as the previous generation, and a surprisingly quick charge period, too. You simply slot it in and within a good half hour to an hour, you should see plenty of life return to your wearable, to the tune of a full battery in under an hour. Even if the battery life was bad — and it’s not — that’s a great recharge cycle.

Value

The price has seen a bit of a jump, with the 41mm model starting from $649 instead of last year’s $579, while the 45mm seems a less noticeable, bumping from $679 last year to $699 this year. We suspect AI is playing a part (and maybe the cost of living rises), but it basically leaves you in the same spot: a roughly $700 price point for the Android-friendly wearable. It’s not much of a change.

The problem with this update is that if you go by Google’s comparison details, nothing has changed between the models. The Pixel Watch 5 is the Pixel Watch 4, but with a marginally faster processor, more memory, more storage, fast charging, and a little more in terms of support.

The bump in specs could be to account for AI, something that tends to like more memory, and given the change, the price is about fair. This is about the norm for smartwatches, particularly all-screen models like the Pixel Watch.

What needs work?

There are bugs at times, such as apps seemingly not going through, and there’s even the possibility of changes in heat severely affecting how you use the watch.

Beyond this, it’s really the lack of changes that prevents the Pixel Watch 5 from being truly better because it is really just more of the same. That’s not always a bad thing, and here in the Pixel Watch 5, it’s not even a big deal. It’s more of a dot release.

The Pixel Watch 4 is an excellent watch, delivering time and apps and calls and such, and the Pixel Watch 5 continues that.

But not much has changed, with a marginally faster and slightly newer processor, and that’s about it. You could potentially save money by finding one of the older Pixel Watch 4 variations, which is practically identical.

There’s not only no reason to upgrade, there’s also ample reason to look for the Pixel Watch 5’s predecessor. It is so close, it may as well be the same.

What we love

While not a lot has changed in the grand scheme of things, it may not matter for most people. Yes, this beats much the same drum as its predecessor, but the Pixel Watch 4 was a wearable this reviewer loved.

When he uses Android phones, it was the model he’d typically switch to. It’s just so good looking and long-lasting.

Here in the Pixel Watch 5, very little has changed in looks, and even in the feature set. So little, in fact, that the Pixel Watch 5 can feel like a release for simply the sake of releasing a new model. That means it won’t be an upgrade path for owners of the previous model, or even probably the Pixel Watch 3.

But if you live in the Android camp and want a wearable that’s sleek and stylish, and does what last year’s can do, albeit with a little more future-proofing, this is definitely a watch to, well, watch out for.

Pixel Watch 5 vs the competition

It’s not the only wearable you may want to consider, though it is the only smartwatch that really feels as close to what Apple is trying to deliver in the Apple Watch. We’re at Series 12 of those, while the Pixel Watch is only at version five. That’s not a bad effort.

Despite this comparison, the Apple Watch is incompatible with Android, so you won’t be using it here.

You can use other devices, though, such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 range, which its latest model is good, but possibly not as much of a performer as the Pixel Watch 5.

However, there are more fitness-focused models from the likes of Garmin and Amazfit, not to mention watches that last a good two weeks of battery life from Withings. And that’s before mentioning the Huawei equivalent, which isn’t bad either.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

While there are definite competitors, nothing else really captures the benchmark level expectation of “what” a smartwatch should be like the Apple Watch. You can also use other wearables on an iPhone, as long as they don’t run Google’s Wear OS. But the Apple Watch is the benchmark, and there’s no getting around it.

The Pixel Watch 5 paints a similar picture here in the world of Android. It’s one that even Samsung’s long-running Galaxy Watch just can’t match. Between the lovely design and excellent integration, not to mention the fact that you don’t need just one specific phone maker to get the best out of it, the Pixel Watch 5 is that device.

The Pixel Watch 5 is Android’s Apple Watch. It is more or less the equivalent, and Android’s Watch. It’s about the best all-screen wearable for any Droid. You would be hard-pressed complaining. And frankly, it’s the model this reviewer will use when he’s on Android. Recommended.