Google Pixel Watch 1 Review

Introduction

As you can probably tell from my previous review of the Garmin Venu SQ Music smart watch, I was not happy with that product. So I gifted the watch to my wife and then bought a Google Pixel Watch, first edition, because it had gone on sale. So here is my review, and from time to time I will compare and contrast these two smart watches. Note that my watch is the version that does not have 4G LTE or other cell service.

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HARDWARE COMPONENTS	EXPERIENCE	NOTES
Connectivity: BlueTooth, WiFi, NFC	Works	I'm not using NFC to pay with watch. BlueTooth and WiFi work.
GPS	Didn't try	I'm not interested in the watch as a GPS right now.
Display: 320 ppi w/ 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5	Works	I'm worried about scratches.
Watch Band system	Works	I like it, it is comfortable.
Battery: 294 mAH up to 24 hours	Works	Google underestimated the life of the battery, sort of.
Exynos 9110 SoC / Cortex M33 co-processor	Works	Reasonably powered
Storage: 32 GB	Works	No access to the watch as a drive.
Controls: side button, haptic crown	Works	Tolerable
Body sensors for fit bit	Work	Decent but I'm not that interested in FitBit
USB-C Magnetic Charging Cable	Works	Did not come with a "wall wart," which is not acceptable.
FEATURES / SOFTWARE	EXPERIENCE	NOTES
Fit Bit	Works	I'm not as interested; premium account not required.
Google Maps	Works	I'm not interested.
Google Wallet	Did not try.	I'm not interested.
Messages and notifications	Works	Very satisfied.
Google Assistant	Works	I don't use it often.
YouTube Music	Works	This could use a lot of improvement.
Always On Display	WOrks	I disabled it to save battery.

Unboxing

So it came smartly packaged, as is typical with Google's commitment to plastic-free packaging. No plastics, and the paper was set up inside so the device was protected well. No complaints there. It came just as advertised.

My main complaint was that it did not include a charging "wall wart" or Wall Charger. Just the magnetic charging cable. This isn't very nice, though the Venu I bought also didn't come with one. I'm confused as to why this is a trend.

Initial Setup

As typical with Google's products, the initial setup was very easy. The Watch app installed on my Pixel 7 phone easily, and walked me through the process. Later on, when I set up the FitBit parts that I had skipped the day before, that also worked relatively smoothly. Google is very good with their ease of setup.

Using the Smart Watch

To be fair, the Google Watch app froze a few times when trying to save watch faces to the phone. Twice. I could select a watch face using the phone, but the Watch app on my phone definitely disappointed in this regard. All other features of the Watch app on my phone worked fine, except this.

I then set up specific tiles I wanted on the phone. I sort of did something silly in that I initially deleted all the body metric tiles. Adding them back on the watch settings was very easy, almost too easy because it was very intuitive.

The controls took a slight bit of getting used to. I like the crown button on the watch, however, as it's rather intuitive once you get used to it.

Unlike the Venu, where you must choose and/or edit the stored replies you are allowed, the Google Watch has a full keyboard for replying to text messages, if you're so inclined. Looking at the keyboard, honestly I didn't think it would be possible to type out a reply, but nevertheless it worked! I still try to use the stored quick replies rather than type, but it's possibe to type.

Navigating the watch is relatively easy, though at first I had to get used to it. Being able to synchronize the Google account to the watch means that many of my settings, such as my home wireless password, were just transferred to my watch, so I didn't have to try to type the WiFi password from the phone.

Getting Protectors