Google Pixel Watch 3 Review: Bigger is indeed better

Google’s Pixel Watch 3 is an impressive Android smartwatch, especially in the larger 45mm size if you’re after a new smart wearable.

Pros	Cons
Choice of watch sizes	45mm watch size won’t suit some styles or wrist sizes
45mm improves battery life a lot	Existing Pixel Watch owners will need to buy new 45mm bands
Some Fitbit features don’t require subscription	But there’s still a strong push towards Fitbit subscriptions

Score: 4/5

In this review

Pixel Watch 3 Design
Pixel Watch 3 Performance
Pixel Watch 3 Battery
Pixel Watch 3 Conclusion

In its third iteration, Google’s taken what it had already improved from the first generation Pixel Watch and into the Pixel Watch 2 and added a much-needed choice of sizes, battery improvements and an improved display.

For those looking for a fitness watch, there’s a range of features that used to be only available through a Fitbit Premium subscription built into the phone – though the push to get you to pay for Fitbit Premium is still very much present.

All of this adds up into a very pleasant smartwatch, providing good competition to the likes of Samsung in the Android smart wearable space.

Design

While Google hasn’t radically changed its design idea behind the Pixel Watch with the Pixel Watch 3 – we’re still very much in traditional round watch style space here with a side rotating crown/button – it has made some significant improvements.

First and foremost, you now have a choice of sizes. The 41mm size returns, but in a frame with smaller bezels, giving it more screen space than the Pixel Watch 2. New to the range is the 45mm size, which is what Google sent me for review.

The 45mm model sells in three variant colours; Polished Silver Aluminium with a Porcelain Active Band, Matte Hazel Aluminium with a Hazel Active Band or Matte Black Aluminium with an Obsidian Active band, which is the variant I’ve tested with.

This is one nice looking smartwatch (or at least I think so)

You do have to make some colour choices along with your size choices. The Matte Hazel Aluminium version only exists in the 45mm size, while the 41mm variant switches that for a Champagne Gold Aluminium case with a Hazel Active Band, as well as the option for a Polished Silver variant with a Roze Quartz Band. I would prefer case style parity across both sizes, but that’s the way Google has played it.

Smaller bezels are a feature here, but Google has also enhanced the Pixel Watch 3’s display by using one of its variable refresh rate “Actua” displays, capable of shifting as high as 2,000 nits in direct sunlight or down to 1 nit in darkened environments. This works really well, avoiding the issues of having a laser-like blinding experience if you glance at your smartwatch in the middle of the night. Yes, I’ve been there. That variable brightness also matches up to refresh rates that can shift from 1Hz to 60Hz, a nice step to save a little power during the times when you’re not using the Pixel Watch 3 intensively.

Google has retained its clip-on, clip-off band system that’s meant to be easy to adjust and switch out at will. I’ve often had a little trouble with this, and maybe that’s just me, but one aspect to bear in mind is that if you’re shifting up from the 41mm Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2, your existing bands won’t fit at all. The Pixel Watch 3 45mm has the same essential fitting mechanism, but it sits in a wider groove that won’t accommodate the smaller original Pixel Watch Bands.

Performance

The Pixel Watch 3 (in either 41mm or 45mm variants) runs on Qualcomm’s SW5100 Processor, paired up with 32GB of onboard storage and 2GB of RAM. As with most wearables, it’s not really a question of benchmarking “speed” per se, because pretty much all of the Pixel Watch 3’s apps defer back out to their paired Android phone. The Pixel Watch 3 isn’t a smartwatch that’s slow to respond, but then the same was true of the Pixel Watch 2.

As with previous Pixel Watches, this is an Android-only smart wearable – to be fair, Apple does the exact same thing with the Apple Watch – requiring Android 10 at a minimum. For the purposes of this review, I’ve tested it paired up to the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold.

What Google’s mostly done with the Pixel Watch 3 is concentrate on fitness features, including a range of Fitbit features that were previously locked behind a Fitbit Premium subscription.

You can now access a running coach that’s meant to build up your abilities over time based on a very brief questionnaire that then provides daily workouts to help you meet a goal, as well as get a broader view of your performance in the middle of a run.

I may not like the Pixel Watch 3 telling me I need to run faster to meet my goals, but I can’t deny it’s been accurate enough doing so. It’s also done very nicely in picking up exercise when I forget to; every single time I walk for a second more than 10 minutes, it’s asked me if I’d like to log it as a workout, regular as clockwork.

The Fitbit integration is great if you’re already in the Fitbit world, but there is still a consistent push towards that Fitbit Premium subscription nagging at you. I can’t say I’m a big fan of that approach.

Watch faces don’t have to include complications (but where’s the fun in that?)

Other new specific controls revolve around other Google products, and here the Pixel Watch 3 really does present itself as the ecosystem play that it is.

As an example If you’ve got Nest cameras (a Google brand) then you can use the Pixel Watch 3 to view them remotely, though it does note that this will affect your battery life.

This is a photo of the Pixel Watch 3 watching my Nest camera watch my carport… while I’m in it.

Do I need to peer at the spotlight camera in my carport at all hours of the day or night? No, not really, but the 45mm display does do a good job of showing it off if I want to check whether a motion alert is a courier or just the local wildlife wandering past.

You can download local Google Maps for offline navigation to the Pixel Watch 3 – here I do feel the larger 45mm display has some distinct advantages – and if you’ve got a Google Chromecast (or shortly, the new Google TV streamer) you can also use the Pixel Watch 3 as an ad-hoc TV remote.

The TV remote functionality works, but it’s no replacement for a physical remote; when I tested it with a couple of Google Chromecasts – the HD and 4K models respectively – I could quickly connect to them, but actual navigation was a slow chore. If the remote’s gone into the darkest and most impenetrable recesses of who-knows-where, it would do in a pinch, I guess.

The Pixel Watch 3 will also do sleep tracking, but like most smartwatches, I find it near impossible to sleep with a watch on for an extended period of time, so I can’t entirely comment on its efficacy versus the older models – it’s just not something that I do all that much.

The Pixel Watch 3 comes in either a straight Bluetooth connected variant, or optionally with LTE if you want to go phone-free while you’re out and about. The LTE variant of either size watch will run you an additional $170, plus whatever fees your carrier charges for smartwatch LTE functions.

Battery

The 45mm Pixel Watch 3 has a 420mAh battery within its casing, the largest of any Pixel Watch to date. That’s one of the clear benefits of having a larger casing, because it gives you more space to pack in the battery cells.

Comparatively, the 41mm version has a 306mAh battery, the same as the Pixel Watch 2. The obvious caveat I have to put on that testing is that I’ve only been able to test out the 45mm size; it’s reasonable to expect that the smaller 41mm model would have slightly different battery capabilities and endurance.

For the 45mm model, I was pleasantly surprised with its battery endurance. I noted with the Pixel Watch 2 that I could get that device through to a second day of battery life most of the time, and the Pixel Watch 3 extends that out, with a fairly easy day and a half or more of battery life.

Leave the Pixel Watch 3 on a log in the forest, and it’ll run for quite some time (presuming it doesn’t get stolen)

This isn’t just a question of the bigger battery (though that clearly helps) but also the variable screen refresh rate and brightness levels helping it make the most out of the battery. The one very small downside I’ve noticed here is that from time to time if I want to watch the screen for a little longer than usual, I’ll notice the brightness dipping down before my eyes.

Recharging is via a pogo pin connected puck included in the box with the Pixel Watch 3, though there’s no actual in-box wall charger included.

I’m not a big fan of custom charging solutions like this, because it means you’ve got to take the charging puck with you wherever you go. Qi would be a real upgrade here if it’s technically feasible Google – and it’s not as though there’s any particular third party Pixel Watch charging stands or similar to choose from anyway.

Google Pixel Watch 3: Alex’s Verdict

The Pixel Watch 3 45mm is a really nice smartwatch, and a strong contender for being the best consumer-centric Android wearable out there. Yes, I’m still a big fan of Samsung’s rotating dial on its Galaxy Wear watches, but the tick-tock cadence of it releasing one of those every couple of years actively annoys me, and that leaves the field rather more wide open.

Not all of the Pixel Watch’s integrations work quite as smoothly as I might like, and there’s not a huge reason to “upgrade” from an existing Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2 here unless you really want that bigger 45mm display. If you’re in the more general market for an Android smart wearable though, this is recommended.