Google Pixel Watch 4 review: bigger and brighter display, better battery life and improved GPS
Fourth iteration of Google’s answer to Apple Watch is a wearable with boosts to both hardware and software
Google nailed the smartwatch experience last year with Pixel Watch 3 with its compelling blend of smart features, colourful display and insightful health and fitness monitoring.
The wearable was essentially a circular Android equivalent of Apple Watch and now it has been enhanced even further with beefed-up processors, upgraded skin temperature sensor, improved battery life, faster charger and 50 percent brighter Actua360 dome-shaped displays that offer 16 percent more screen real estate thanks to smaller bezels.
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Pixel Watch 4 in everyday use
Pixel Watch 4 is offered in two sizes, 41mm and 45mm and the 41mm matte black model I tested weighs just 31g. There is no ‘ultra’ option this time out. The peak brightness is 3000 nits, incidentally, and the screen is easy to view and read from any angle.
There is also added satellite SOS emergency assistance that does not need cellular coverage. (However, it’s only available in the US, for now.) You get better haptics too, and a slightly louder speaker that is tuned to suit chats with Gemini Live.
The new model runs the latest Wear OS 6.0 and incorporates the firm’s Material 3 Expressive design language from the latest Pixel phones, an array of stylish new watch faces and deep integration with Google’s Gemini AI smarts including the ability to chat with Gemini Live which you can activate just by raising your wrist. It’s impressive in everyday use - it can give context-aware replies to text messages, for example - but at this point there is not yet any integration with the Fitbit app to discuss your health and fitness stats. But that may be on the way soon enough and there’s more on the app below. Navigation of the slick and responsive user interface is by touchscreen or the crown and button on the right side of the unit.
The health and fitness tracking gets boosted by dual frequency GNSS tracking, better activity detection, more accurate sleep tracking and new features such as being able to stream real time cycling metrics to your phone (which works like having a dedicated bike computer). A number of new workout profiles have also been added, such as soccer, rugby, cricket, basketball and badminton. The sleep tracking is top notch and you get a nightly sleep score marked out of 100.
This year’s line-up of bands and straps is more extensive too, giving you the opportunity to customise your look to your own preferences. For example, the Spigen Rugged Armor Pro strap transforms the stylish wearable into a sporty looking adventure watch.
Battery life is enhanced to the point that you can get close to two days and nights from a single charge depending on usage factors such as the amount of GPS tracking. I’d recommend giving the 41mm model I reviewed a power boost before the second night. I love the welcome boost to the battery charging experience. There’s yet another new proprietary magnetic charger but we’ll forgive Google for this change as the new dock gives you an 80 percent boost in just 25 minutes.
You can also replace the battery yourself, along with the display which can be easily swapped out too. Good to see repairability in a mainstream tech product.
As before, you use the Pixel Watch app for settings, watch faces and smart features and the Fitbit app to view all your activity data and customise the tracking options to suit your preferences. The firm said the Fitbit app is undergoing an ongoing revamp that has now begun rolling out in the US with Europe to follow soon. It’s essentially been rebuilt to accommodate Gemini AI insights. You don’t need a Fitbit Premium subscription to access your data, by the way.
The daily automatic workout generation (based on factors such as your Cardio Load and Readiness Score) is excellent and ahead of the competition but in other areas such as data field views you’ll not get the level of options available from the likes of Garmin.
I compared the heart rate monitoring to a number of other watches and straps and found it to be most accurate on Pixel Watch 4. I compared the GPS tracking to other watches too and again was pleased with the results. I’ve read elsewhere that there is a bug in the software that sometimes affects GPS tracking but it hasn’t occurred to me, so far at least.
Other Pixel Watch 4 features
You can download offline maps into the Google Maps app but you can’t do any routing with them. There is 32GB of built-in storage which is useful for offline music playback too. The watch is water resistant up to a depth of 50 metres.
Safety features built-in include loss of pulse detection, fall detection and car crash detection.
You don’t need a Pixel phone to use the watch. It will work largely as well with any Android phone but it is incompatible with iPhone in the same way that Apple Watch does not work with Android handsets. There are some useful extra benefits for Pixel owners such as the camera shutter feature and the ability to unlock your Pixel phone.
Pixel Watch 4 verdict
If you use a Pixel smartphone, then choosing Pixel Watch 4 over any other brand of Android compatible wearable is a no-brainer thanks to its seamless integration with Google’s handsets and other products such as the firm’s smart home kit.
However, I’d recommend this wearable to anyone in the Android phone space as it is one of the best Wear OS watches you can buy. The sports features may not match the likes of Garmin, Coros and Polar yet but Pixel Watch 4 does almost everything else as well or better than the competition.
Pricing and availability
Google Pixel Watch 4 costs €399 for the 41mm model and €449 for the 45mm model. They each come in three different colour options. You can buy from Amazon and for the same prices from Currys Ireland and from Very. The devices are also available direct from Google online.
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