Google’s Pixel Watch is among the most anticipated devices of the 12 months, to the purpose the place even the non-techies in my life received’t cease asking me about it. It’s simple to see why — whereas iPhone and Galaxy cellphone homeowners have lengthy loved smartwatches made particularly for his or her units, these on group Pixel have needed to depend on hit-or-miss third social gathering choices.

The promise of a Pixel smartwatch constructed to work seamlessly together with your Pixel cellphone — supplying you with entry to your messages, notifications and health stats with out you having to carry a finger — is an alluring one, and it’s lastly changing into a actuality. If you throw in the truth that the Pixel Watch can also be successfully a full blown Fitbit health tracker, you’ve got what may very well be probably the greatest smartwatches on the market.

I had an opportunity to go hands-on with the Pixel Watch at Google’s Made by Google occasion in New York, and whereas it’s too early to inform if it’ll be well worth the $349, it’s trying like Pixel followers will lastly have a correct Apple Watch equal to name their very own. Right here’s the whole lot it’s worthwhile to know.

The Google Pixel Watch is accessible for preorder now, and can begin transport subsequent week. The watch begins at $349 for the bottom Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled mannequin, whereas the LTE model — which can be utilized and not using a cellphone close by — will run you $399. Preordering both mannequin will get you 6 months of Fitbit Premium, in addition to three months of YouTube Music Premium.

The watch is available in 4 variations: a Matte Black case with an Obsidian Energetic band, a Polished Silver case with a Charcoal Energetic band, a Polished Silver case with a Chalk Energetic band, and a Champagne Gold case with a Hazel Energetic band. After all, you should purchase a variety of further bands to customise your Pixel Watch’s look and match, together with a $49 Energetic Band and $59 Woven Band.

• Google Pixel Watch with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth ($349 at Finest Purchase)
• Google Pixel Watch with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and LTE ($399 at Finest Purchase)

Easy and modern

The Pixel Watch has a reasonably no-frills design, and that’s not a foul factor. It seems like a hybrid of the Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch, mixing the modern minimalism of the previous and the massive round show of the latter. The watch’s 41mm show is satisfyingly massive and colourful, and appeared nice with the vary of conventional and artsy watch faces I attempted out. As somebody coming from an Apple Watch, it didn’t take me lengthy to get used to navigating the Pixel Watch, whether or not I used to be swiping the display or utilizing the “haptic crown” (which is so much like Apple’s Digital Crown) on the facet of the system.

Weighing simply 36 grams, Google’s watch felt comfy to put on throughout my restricted hands-on time. I discovered the rubbery Energetic Band to really feel the perfect — I additionally tried out the Stretch, Cloth and Leather-based bands, which appeared extra engaging however had been extra coarse to the contact. Google additionally has steel bands coming within the Spring, so that you’ll don’t have any scarcity of customizing the Watch to your liking. Google says you’ll be capable of create “1000’s” of various combos between the bodily watch bands and digital watch faces on provide, whether or not you need one thing that mimics a conventional watch or choose to go loud and colourful.

The Pixel Watch runs on Google’s Put on OS software program, which is identical working system that powers third-party watches just like the Galaxy Watch 5 and Fossil Gen 6. Which means you’ll take pleasure in simple pairing together with your Pixel cellphone, fast entry to Google options like Discover My Machine and Google Assistant, and entry to loads of third-party apps that embrace Spotify, Strava, MyFitnessPal and Calm.

When it comes to battery life, Google says to anticipate 24 hours on a single cost, in addition to the flexibility to get 50% value of juice from a fast 30-minute cost.

As good because the Google Pixel Watch seems and feels, it’s actual killer function is its deep integration with Fitbit — one thing made potential by the truth that Google purchased the health monitoring firm a number of years in the past. Whereas we’ll must put the Pixel Watch’s health options to the take a look at ourselves, the truth that it might probably perform as a full-on Fitbit alone might make it probably the greatest Android smartwatches in the marketplace.

Google’s watch options what the corporate calls “Fitbit’s most correct coronary heart monitoring but,” utilizing quite a lot of sensors and machine studying tech that will help you keep on high of your coronary heart well being. You’ll additionally be capable of make the most of Fitbit’s wealthy suite of sleep monitoring capabilities, which embrace a each day Sleep Rating, a full breakdown of your varied sleep states and data on long run developments. That’s on high of 40 completely different exercise modes and a Day by day Readiness rating, which helps you get a way of how arduous it’s best to push your self on a given day.

The Pixel Watch additionally integrates with Fitbit Premium, which provides greater than 1000 exercises, 400-plus mindfulness session and a deeper take a look at general well being patterns. The watch contains 6 free months of the service — after that, you’ll must pay both $9.99 a month or $79.99 a 12 months.

We’ll must see how the Pixel Watch’s health options maintain up in actual world use, however it’s value noting that the Fitbit Encourage 2 has lengthy been our greatest health tracker decide because of its vary of helpful exercise and sleep monitoring skills. The promise of a extra conventional and strong smartwatch that may additionally be an awesome health tracker definitely has us intrigued.

Should you’re a Pixel cellphone consumer or have been holding out for a smartwatch with actually nice health options, the Google Pixel Watch is value conserving in your radar. It’s one of many nicest-looking Android watches on the market, and its seamless Pixel connectivity (it’ll work with different Android telephones too) and strong Fitbit performance might make it the last word smartwatch and health tracker multi function. We’ll be placing Google’s new watch by our full evaluate remedy quickly, so keep tuned for our ultimate verdict.