11 ms·

Pixel Watch 5

173 points by ortusdux 2mo ago

tlhunter 2mo ago
I like how the footnotes are all broken. Like the repairability footnote links to charging. Lots of money was spent making that website.
- tw04 2mo ago
  I’m willing to bet AI made that website and nobody bothered to verify.
  - Electricniko 2mo ago
    The accuracy tracks with my experience as a Gemini user.
  - ValentineC 2mo ago
    Googlers earn top-tier salaries but don't verify their AI-generated stuff? Maybe people really do deserve their layoffs. The buck needs to stop with a human being.
- HumblyTossed 2mo ago
  Lots of tokens...
tuckwat 2mo ago
30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day. I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!
- summermusic 2mo ago
  I'm enjoying 20 days of battery life on my Pebble Time 2
- etchalon 2mo ago
  It's less of a big deal than I thought it'd be. I switched from a Garmin to an Apple Watch - which has less battery life - for some development work I had to do and it turned out I barely noticed. Charge phone, charge watch, charge headphones just became a nightly checklist.
  - snayan 2mo ago
    I guess it's dependent on what you're using the watch for. I like the sleep tracking and various overnight metrics. Find keeping an eye on RHR and HRV is one of the best early signals for overtraining.
  - nxbdbsjdns 2mo ago
    But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep At least that's a major selling point for these smart watches
    - tetromino_ 2mo ago
      I charge mine (older Pixel Watch model) when sitting down and coding. Or when showering if on the weekend and not coding. It charges very quickly.
    - basisword 2mo ago
      Just charge it while you're doing something lazy at night (reading, watching a show). 30mins and you're set.
    - Marsymars 2mo ago
      > But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep Some people do. Personally I've had a smartwatch for some years and have never been interested in sleep tracking. I only put it on when I'm leaving the house, so it generally has plenty of time to charge.
- Rotdhizon 2mo ago
  I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.
  - LoganDark 2mo ago
    I don't like having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking. I don't want to charge it when I'm away because then I can't keep an eye on the time without getting my phone. I don't want to charge it when I'm at home because I could forget to put it back on before I go out or to sleep. If only there were a way to supply it power without having to take it off... or it could charge in less than like two hours...
    - thewebguyd 2mo ago
      Yeah, Apple Watch definitely needs faster charging. It wouldn't be as big of a deal if it both lasted longer, at least 3 days to get through a weekend, and could charge to a meaningful level in 15 minutes or less so I could just throw it on the charger in the morning and by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed have it be at ~80%.
      - SirMaster 2mo ago
        What series are you using? I have the S11 and in 15 minutes it easily charges from 10-20% to 80-90% which gets me through the next 24 hours.
        thewebguyd 2mo ago
        Series 9, which I'll probably be upgrading this fall anyway.
- Neil44 2mo ago
  Same my 4 year old Huawei watch still goes 2-3 weeks. It seems to be the devices with simpler OS's that last longer and the wearOS and apple equivalent struggle to do more than a day or two.
- georgemcbay 2mo ago
  > 30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit: "When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time." Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?
  - diflartle 2mo ago
    I just charge mine as part of my nighttime routine, sometimes it's only five minutes, sometimes it's 20. In the morning I just throw it on the charger while I'm showering/brushing my teeth. It's almost never full, but it never dies. I thought about the Fitbit air, but being able to see your heart rate is kind of nice.
  - hlynurd 2mo ago
    >Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection It's more accurate than what? Which is how accurate? This does not feel like a meaningful statement.
    - maleldil 2mo ago
      I'm not sure it's what Google does, but on YouTube, The Quantified Scientist compares smartwatches against a dedicated EEG headband.
- dgellow 2mo ago
  My Apple Watch broke, I replaced it with a Casio with an Ollee Watch board. It doesn’t have the fancy features but it’s so nice to not have to ever think about the battery life! I wish the firmware was open source, there is a few features I would like to tweak a bit
- moleperson 2mo ago
  Daily charging for normal use isn't so much an issue once it becomes a habit, but battery life during extremely long (24+ hour) activities is pretty much a make-or-break feature for me. I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.
  - drewg123 2mo ago
    The problem is that 30 hours slowly becomes far less over time with software bloat and battery degradation. What I hated when I had a watch with a tiny batter like this is that if I wanted both sleep tracking AND the ability to track my morning workout, I absolutely had to remember to charge before bed. If I forgot, I'd wake up with a dead or almost dead watch and have to delay my workout. I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 945M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case). The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.
  - kelvie 2mo ago
    I felt like you as well: I like to track sleep and my heart rate during sports and with the pixel watch it felt like I had to almost plan these events (and more annoyingly while travelling) around the charge state of my watch, until I realized I had two separate requirements: notifications (which I don't care about during sports or sleeping), and fitness tracking. Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger) And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two. Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.
- doobiedowner 2mo ago
  The charger on the 4 both sucks and blows. Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%. The nice strap they showed in the adverts broke instantly when I took it out of the box. Two pins sheared right off the in the middle of the band. WearOS Apps are trash. I wish I had gone garmin. ;(
  - maleldil 2mo ago
    My experience is so different from this. I love the stock strap. I've never found the watch at 0% on the charger. The charge is magnetic, so it's really obvious when it's actually charging. The apps do everything I need them to do, but maybe you're asking more of the watch than I am? My only complaint is that the charger has its own cable instead of a plug that I can use with whatever charger I want.
    - gucci-on-fleek 2mo ago
      > > Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%. > The charge is magnetic, so it's really obvious when it's actually charging. It's possible to dock it in the charger enough for the charging display to start showing, but not enough for it to actually charge. But the watch notices this itself after about 5 seconds, and it switches to "not charging" display and sends a notification to your phone. I've had my Pixel Watch 4 since January and I've only had this happen twice, so it's fairly rare, but certainly possible.
- Saris 2mo ago
  Especially when Garmin and some other watches last a week or more.
- impulser_ 2mo ago
  If it charges fast enough this shouldn't matter. You just charge it while you take a shower and as long as it charges enough for the day it fine.
  - bravura 2mo ago
    You sound like the sales rep at the Apple store. I was perplexed. Meanwhile, I had to wonder how many people take showers that are over half an hour every day.
    - SirMaster 2mo ago
      I leave my apple watch on a charger for at most 15-20 minutes in the morning and that gets it from the 10-20% in the morning to about 80-90% which is enough to go the whole next 24 hours even with a 30 minute lunch walk and 2-3 hours of pickleball fitness tracking as well as having the always on display on. Never once has this seemed like a problem or that I would want to wear my watch in the shower for some reason. It's shower plus getting dressed and brushing my teeth etc.
      - wmichelin 2mo ago
        Apple Watch has never lasted the full night for me. I'm super happy with my Garmin Instinct 3. A full blown iOS device on my wrist was too stimulating anyways. I'll take charging once every ~25 days-ish over the color + capacitive touch screen. The Garmin Instinct 3 is my favorite tech purchase I have made in a very very long time.
        SirMaster 2mo ago
        Yeah, I dunno, I have a S10 42mm. I charge it to 80-90% in the morning while in the bathroom, and it lasts me until the next morning with 10-20% left. I have always on display on, and all the tracking stuff on like Afib, sleep apnea, wrist temperature, noise levels, fall detection, etc. I typically do a 30 minute walk during lunch that I do a fitness activity for, and a 2 hour pickleball session most days of the week where I also fitness track it. I do not use low power mode, and by the next morning it's got the 10-20% left. It only takes about 15 minutes to charge from 10-20% to 80-90%.
- NelsonMinar 2mo ago
  My WiThings ScanWatch lasts a full month. But it's not a phone-on-my-wrist, it looks more like an analog watch and just has some sensors in it.
- woodson 2mo ago
  If all you're looking for is a step counter in your watch, check out Casio ABL100WE. The battery lasts for two years (CR2016).
- perarneng 2mo ago
  I have the pixel watch 4 and I also hate charging stuff. But I put some double sided tape under the charging cradle and I just put it there at night which I think is good because then I always know where it is as well. So im used to it now. Plus you can buy an extra for travel ex. So im happy with it so far.
- preisschild 2mo ago
  Yeah I've been using Gadgetbridge[1]-compatible Amazfit watches and they last at least a week and have most functions I want from a smartwatch. For more complicated stuff I just use my phone. [1]: https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/
- dismalaf 2mo ago
  Keep in mind Google owns Fitbit and Fitbit has watches with 7 day battery life. Pixel is for techies, Fitbit is their health tracking product.
  - jerlam 2mo ago
    Fitbit is probably gone by the end of the decade. The Fitbit app has been replaced by the Google Health app. Other than the Fitbit Air released this year and the Fitbit Ace for kids, the last Fitbit device was released in 2023. Both of those newer devices are reduced functionality versions of older Fitbit products.
    - dismalaf 2mo ago
      Maybe. If they do kill it I'm sure they'll keep something sport oriented though.
- b8 2mo ago
  The Garmin Tactix with solar is good.
- mandeepj 2mo ago
  > I don't want to charge my watch every day Apple Watch SE 2 has a life of barely 8 hours :-)
- saidinesh5 2mo ago
  I tested out Pixel 3 (or 4 .. i don't remember at this point). The 30 hours is when you have all the functionality enabled all the time. Like the always on display, always on notifications etc ... I used to auto set the watch into DnD / battery saving mode at night, and used the "raise hand to turn on the display" functionality.. I used to get 3-4 days of continuous use. Charging used to be like "put the watch into charger after waking up. It'll be ready by the time you get ready for office". I did miss the 30 day battery life of my Amazfit bip and 2 week battery life of Pebble before that.. but charging once a week wasn't all that bad... But again, I mostly used my Pixel watch as a fitness tracker. Didn't really care for most of the apps - except maps.
  - Mogzol 2mo ago
    I have all the features enabled on my Garmin watch (vivoactive 5), including always-on display, and still get at least 4-5 days of battery.
  - mrheosuper 2mo ago
    AOD is a must for me, other thing can be disable, a watch that i cannot tell time at a glance is no more than a brick to me
  - _se 2mo ago
    My Fenix 8 lasts for about a month with 10 hours per week of training. 30 hours with everything enabled is pathetic for a smart watch.
    - Moldoteck 2mo ago
      fenix is huge so it's understandable
      - _se 2mo ago
        The mid-size Fenix that I'm talking about is 47mm. The Pixel 5 with this shitty battery life is 45mm. And the also-shitty Ultra is 49mm. So, no, size is not the difference at all.
- venzaspa 2mo ago
  I've been using a Withings Steel HR for 10 years now, the battery still easily last a month, activity tracking is good and has some basic notification support. I can't imagine having another thing to charge daily.
- dzonga 2mo ago
  garmin watches are unbeatable for battery life - my Pixel 5 - would last close to a month. now it's close to 2 weeks since it's pretty old now :(. but Garmin software sucks. my next watch will be an Apple Watch.
  - xandrius 2mo ago
    Apple watch, even with most things disabled barely makes it to the next day. Pretty but etrash.
- quickthrowman 2mo ago
  My watch charges itself while I wear it and it only has three hands. That’s all I need from a watch.
- mminer237 2mo ago
  Yeah, I bought a Pebble Time 2, and I can't imagine buying any other watch now. Having a 3+ week battery life is a game-changer. Plus its screen is practically always-on, I've never seen any lag, it's half the price, and I have yet to feel like I'm missing any features over Wear watches.
  - rf15 2mo ago
    If you disable heart/pulse tracking, it's 6+ weeks for me, just in case people are wondering.
  - Moldoteck 2mo ago
    You can get a forerunner that can also last many days and MIP display and it'll cost about the same. Now the question is rather what platform you like. I find PT2 Ui much more intuitive
- spike021 2mo ago
  I had an Apple Watch Series 6 for about five years and the battery degraded to the point it needed just about two charges a day. Then I found out about the new Fitbit Air in June and picked one up. Advertised battery life is 7 days; I tend to get closer to 6. It does the sleep/activity tracking I want (though not quite as good as the AW if I'm honest). The extra benefit is I've cut out smartwatch features from my wrist. I got tired of having notifications on a watch and rarely needed special apps or anything either. I really only used the AW for telling time, date, temp/weather conditions, and payments; but most of the time I have my phone or I'm near a computer anyway.
- Markoff 2mo ago
  pfft, only 2 weeks + wearing garmin brick on hand? I would rather go with Pebble Time 2 than Garmin if I had to buy something new (used Bip for 15-20USD is still the best deal), it had decent thickness and better battery life Amazfit Bip user (10mm thickness, still 4 weeks battery life)
jeffbee 2mo ago
Only $250 for the LTE version for Google Fi subscribers. But having to charge every day seems like a major regression compared to Garmin. I do appreciate that they are competing on location accuracy, though. Apparently the GPS is computed in the cloud, which means this only works given LTE coverage or if you also carry your paired smartphone. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pixel-watch-5-gps/ https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pix...
- jerlam 2mo ago
  DC Rainmaker has done his own test: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2026/08/google-pixel-watch-5-gps-accuracy-vs-garmin-apple.html#gps-accuracy-results https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2026/08/google-pixel-watch-5-gps...
- gumby271 2mo ago
  I knew I'd seen that city gif with the lines before: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/12/improving-urban-gps-accuracy-for-your.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/12/improving-... > From the 2026 article: "But you also need really good AI to do it right" So a feature from 2020 (albeit a cool one) is now brand new and AI powered? Did Google have good AI in 2020 and replace it with Gemini?
  - spacefan1984 2mo ago
    The watch uses a more advanced 3DMA model. There's also differential GPS and advanced algorithms to create significantly better results.
    - gumby271 2mo ago
      That's cool, I didn't see that mentioned in the article.
- Handy-Man 2mo ago
  > Only $250 for the LTE version for Google Fi subscribers Where are you seeing that? I only see $499 with up to $125 off for trade-in.
tolugenius 2mo ago
Genuinely I'm more curious what amount (or lack of) governance their is in this version of gemini for health vs asking gemini directly.
OttoVonBizark 2mo ago
Once again another watch with a utterly useless one day battery, the absolute minimum acceptable should be 3 days to cover a weekend away, only really the ultras (apple and samsung) of the full fat smart watches seem to be doing this.
gavinray 2mo ago
Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems: Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends > Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breathing quality trends, and insulin resistance trends. Rolling out soon — with your first detailed summary arriving after one month of wear — these reports illuminate metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular shifts early, giving you clear insights to help you take control of your long-term health. Plus, monthly summaries will soon be available across our wearable portfolio, including the new Google Fitbit Air.
- jeffbee 2mo ago
  That is pretty interesting. I am keen to know in the end whether better models or better sensors win this game.
- ChemSpider 2mo ago
  "insulin resistance trends" - whaaaaat? how would they do THAT? That would be huge for so many people, including diabetics, obese people or women with PCOS (PCOS alone affects more than 10% of women of reproductive age) Is that measurement accurate? Like, a person starts taking Metformin -> and a few days later the watch detects a drop in insulin resistance?
  - jerlam 2mo ago
    It does monthly trends: https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/452350-image/insulin.webp https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/452350-image/in... That image also implies that not only does it know trends, but it also has an absolute good/bad value.
  - Someone1234 2mo ago
    Yeah, I was researching this just last week and there is tons of funding going into wearable blood sugar monitors but nothing wearable sized coming out (several lab sized ones though). I’d love to read more about what this is, and what technical signals / data they’re using.
floppydive 2mo ago
I reluctantly use a pixel with grapheneos, but anything that can only run google or manufacturer provided software without an independent 3rd party is trash, having looked at wearos while trying to refuse Samsungs terms/integration I also consider it a worse grade of trash than a phone since it can intentionally create codependency on other devices for management despite having more processing power than android 2-4 phones had.
- sporedro 2mo ago
  It really does feel like such a waste. If I switch to Android I might as well toss my Apple Watch out and vice versa. Along with the fact they basically require the phone to do nearly anything.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 2mo ago
  I'm pretty happy with a Pixel 9 running GrapheneOS and a Garmin that I never connected to a Garmin account. I use https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge instead (then synced to my computer with syncthing), and I don't miss anything from Garmin. I'm 100% Google free, and far happier with tech that I ever was.
  - floppydive 2mo ago
    Gadgetbridge is great and can even recover a pretty good experience from the touch oriented watches/bands that look deceptively like smartphone equivalents.. But I think the actual smart OS level watches would need a replacement firmware first and the an implementation for talking to gadgetbridge.
    - greatgib 2mo ago
      Gadgetbridge is pissing me off because there have a forced always on non dismissible notification message that I can't get ride off. For example when no watch associated. So I have to manually kill the app.
diego_moita 2mo ago
> * Up to 30 hours of battery life on the 41mm (40 hours on the 45mm) with fast charging. Is this a typo? I get 20 days on the Pebble Time 2.
- nomel 2mo ago
  It would be neat to see the power budget breakdown. I suspect power draw is primarily the oled display, with the "more difficult" health sensors being second.
  - surajrmal 2mo ago
    For devices that are entirely controlled via an MCU and lack wireless connectivity, that is probably true. However that's not true for the pixel watch. The cpus and dram take significant power.
    - nomel 2mo ago
      Here we go: https://feng-qian.github.io/paper/watchenergy_mobicom16.pdf https://feng-qian.github.io/paper/watchenergy_mobicom16.pdf If you turn off cellular and WiFi (making it pebble equiv, but not gaining you weeks of battery), it's mostly display and CPU. I'm guessing a good portion of that CPU usage is display related. Pebble uses e-ink. Maybe there's really that much more going on with Android?
boredumb 2mo ago
i spent an hour the other week looking for my pine watch charger, this may inspire another 20 minutes digging around the house
cyberax 2mo ago
Still no rectangular phone option. WTF is wrong with Google? Round watches are not cool. They end up inconvenient and uncomfortable.
- pigeons 2mo ago
  I love the rotating dial UI round Samsung watches used to have.
- mathgeek 2mo ago
  This was my thought as well. That round watch gif that shows rectangular widgets is painful to look at.
SirMaster 2mo ago
Interesting they are still going with round. Most of the UI shots look awkward on a round screen with anything not in the very center getting cut off a bunch.
- floppydive 2mo ago
  Google is an ad company. They don't actually want to lose any of the phone screen time on something with lower revenue real estate.
- partiallypro 2mo ago
  The round just looks better and far fewer people actively use the interface on the watch other than looking at the time or marking a workout. I think the squircle watches like Apple's look odd.
- mvanbaak 2mo ago
  I was discussing this with my wife 10 minutes before I saw this comment. watch / time / clock looks and works so much better on a round interface. notifications / text / buttons look and work so much better on a square interface. So, use a watch on one wrist (round, good looking, etc), and a smartwatch on the other wrist (square, functional, 'computer') There's no way you can mold the two together into one 'have it all' form factor
  - Zigurd 2mo ago
    There are a lot of mechanical watches that have rectangular watch faces, some of them very attractive and expensive.
- Zigurd 2mo ago
  In some basement at Google there's a group of traumatized engineers who were flogged mercilessly until they made a smart watch UI work on a round watch face because...??? I've developed Wear OS apps in the amount of effort that it must've taken to get to a sort of alright implementation of a UI that still depends on a lot of lists of things seems crazy to me.
- 2mo ago
0gs 2mo ago
i gotta say that new pebble is nice enough and integration cozy enough that this is less tempting than ever
colordrops 2mo ago
Too bad all your health data gets sent to Google.
- Marsymars 2mo ago
  You can disable all the health data stuff.
  - colordrops 2mo ago
    then what's the point of the watch? Can you see the data without a cloud connection? Can it be uploaded to your phone without going to the cloud?
    - beart 2mo ago
      Yes you can see most of your data without a cloud connection. But some features are limited and require the subscription. A google account is required though to use the app I believe. Of course, getting more than a snapshot of the data is a bit of a pain. Fitbit has a developer portal and you can create a dev app key to export your data. There is at least one open source project that pulls this data down regularly and feeds it into grafana. I'm not sure if the pixel line of watches provides a similar developer portal. EDIT: actually, you said cloud connection. I think in this case the data is still being sent to the cloud, hence the API to fetch it. But you don't have to enable sharing with other services or purchase the health subscription. So maybe the answer is still that no, you can't really do much without the cloud connection.
      - tredre3 2mo ago
        > I think in this case the data is still being sent to the cloud, hence the API to fetch it. Correct. In every case all the data is sent to the cloud. That is where the data is crunched and transformed in actual metrics. You can do the test and block the internet to the companion app. You'll see that only instantaneous data is updated (heart rate, steps), but nothing else. There is no way to use a fitbit or pixel watch without the cloud. Google eventually gets all your health information, minute by minute. Gadgetbridge can do some things, but not many (and nothing at all for most of Google/Fitbit's products). Which is fine if all you want is HR and steps and possibly notifications, but then there is no point in paying for a smart watch, just get a fitness tracker that is cheaper and has better battery.
aliasxneo 2mo ago
I've mostly moved on to screen-less wearables for health metrics now. Not only do you get a ridiculously large battery life (measured in days) but I also found that it means more time and attention was put into the things I care about versus trying to support whatever garbage wearable OS they try to integrate with (or worse, roll their own).
- shrx 2mo ago
  My Garmin Instinct 3 Solar watch (which has a display) has a battery life measured in _weeks_.
exabrial 2mo ago
I don't think I want anything google attached to my body. I don't need AI training on my heartbeat or whatever bullshit they'll come up with. Their brand is so toxic with the forceful rollout of their AI stuff. Staying far far the hell away.
dfee 2mo ago
i was wondering recently if i could ditch my iPhone for (just) an Apple Watch. i know i can't fully ditch it (an Apple Watch needs an iPhone for management). but, i'm curious about the concept nonetheless: what would it be like to ditch a smartphone for a smartwatch?
- hnlmorg 2mo ago
  I have a friend who misplaced his iPhone for a weekend while away in another country and used his Apple watch eSIM for everything. It wasn’t as convenient as having a phone but it was still far far better than being without anything entirely.
  - usern20260720 2mo ago
    My eSIM didn’t work abroad innerhalb der EU, where roaming is otherwise seamless and free
- shikshake 2mo ago
  I tried it a few years ago and it was just annoying enough that I went back to my phone after a couple weeks. If you search online I’m sure you can find write ups from people who tried this out.
- Marsymars 2mo ago
  Depends what you need to do. I basically only use my phone if I need to do something that can't wait until I'm at a computer. I've got an LTE-enabled Pixel Watch that sometimes I'll wear without my phone. If anyone messages me and I need to talk to them before I get home, I call them from my watch.
- semiquaver 2mo ago
  An Apple Watch doesn’t need a SIM-enabled iPhone for management. You can just use an old one if you have any laying around, or your current one after you’ve deactivated service on it. Just get a standalone watch plan, something like $80/year from US Mobile or other MVNOs.
edent 2mo ago
I overheard a conversation between someone on the Pixel Watch team and a woman I know. He was quizzing her at a party about what features she used - which were pretty much step counter and payment. He somewhat dismissively sneered, "Well, you're not exactly a power user, are you?" I'm trying to imagine what being a "power user" of a watch is like. Can anyone enlighten me? I think smart-watches are much like Alexa. What the user wants to do with it is almost totally at odds with what the company is selling. Alexii are mostly kitchen timers, song players, and light switches. No one is a "power user" constantly installing skills and using it for anything which increases the product team's engagement metrics. The same is probably true of watches. Alerts are nifty - but cumbersome for replies. The health stuff is useful - but only for a subset of users. Seeing the time is great - but if the battery lasts less than a week, who wants to keep that screen on?
- varispeed 2mo ago
  I can imagine a power user could tell time down to femto second if you asked them.
- 0x457 2mo ago
  to me main use case of a watchin is setting (cooking) timers. Maybe play 2048 if I'm bored and cant pick up my phone for some reason. Plus notifications about upcoming meetings. I guess approve claude things. Plus regular fitness watch stuff that happens in the background. Idk what else can you do with it? I don't do payments because its awkward to tap wrist on the terminal, but I do have cards on it just in case. I'm glad Pixel Watch got better since gen 1 because gen 1 sucked at being smart watch and at being a fitness tracker.
- efxhoy 2mo ago
  Yeah I sold my apple watch after about 6 months and got a good old F-91W instead. The most useful thing about it for me was having an animated memoji unicorn on my wrist to amuse people. Wasn’t really worth the trouble of charging it every night. I just want to know what time it is.
- phil21 2mo ago
  I think you're mostly right. I use it for a few extra things though. Stuff I can think of: * Timers * Alerts * Step counter/fitness tracker * My fitness app for weight training - I can start a workout on my phone and enter my set/rep/weight counts without needing to pull my phone out * Phone calls when I'm on walks and do not want to the "full phone" experience, but also cannot be totally disconnected. This paired with Airpods is a pretty nice balance * Ditto the above but for podcasts/music streaming - especially if wearing workout clothing and I don't have a comfortable place to carry my phone along. * Basic replies to my "important people" texts - via Siri dictation mostly * My "RFID" security badge to get into my home/office/etc. using Apple Pay * Apple Pay * Quick glance to check the weather w/ a main screen widget * Quick glance to check calendar I liken it to having a mini iPhone 4 strapped to my wrist. Useful here and there, and very nice for when I want to get away from my phone or it's too bulky to bring somewhere. Essentially a basic flip-phone for comms, and a connected streaming media player.
varispeed 2mo ago
I never understood these watches. I have Galaxy Ultra Watch and I found it is pointless (bought 2 years ago). Doesn't last a full day. So I cannot e.g. track sleep because it is charging or I cannot track something else because it is charging. Then too much information on tiny screen. I can just whip out my phone for that. I even preferred checking time on the phone. Now, I got Pebble Time 2 and I think this is it. Just enough bells and whistles and battery lasts for weeks. Love it!
- timpera 2mo ago
  My Pixel Watch 4 lasts me two days (with AOD turned on), and I charge it while I'm in the shower, so sleep tracking is convenient that way.
shawnz 2mo ago
It's a shame they weren't able to launch this with the previously rumored Tensor CPU: https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-watch-5-tensor-chip-3494524/ https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-watch-5-tensor...
- russdill 2mo ago
  Ikr, I've been holding out with my 2020 Garmin venu thinking this would be a big refresh
t1234s 2mo ago
Is there any plans to have a Graphine OS variant on one of these?
halyconWays 2mo ago
WearOS watches are trash for me personally as they all require you to run Google Play Services on your phone, which I won't do. The only smartwatch I've had luck with is the Garmin series (Venu, Fenix), and since I really only wear a smartwatch when exercising, it's perfect for me. I find myself happier when I go with an analog watch, and all the notifications I get are never so important that I need to check them the second they come in.
manlymuppet 2mo ago
Google is a great company with some of the most capable engineering talent in the world. I will never understand why they take this great resource and continually waste it on copying other companies (mostly Apple) and making such unoriginal products. Surely Google can pioneer on more than just the technical side of things?
- tty456 2mo ago
  Where specifically do you think they lack, and what do you suggest they focus on?
  - pbmonster 2mo ago
    Compete with Garmin instead of Apple.
    - NetMageSCW 2mo ago
      Garmin has less than 8% of the market versus Apple with 23% and the largest share. Why would they compete with the market loser?
  - manlymuppet 2mo ago
    Technically they are outstanding. Watching the recent I/O event though, it was frustrating how much they were copying Apple.
ihaveone 2mo ago
Pebble Time 2 is still miles ahead in being a watch and only a little behind in being a full computer. But it gets way way way more battery life WITH an always on , sunlight readable display. AND it's open source.
ihaveone 2mo ago
Pebble Time 2 is still miles ahead being a watch, and only a bit behind being a computer. BUT, it has a sunlight readable ALWAYS on display, really good battery life and is open source. I still don't understand people charging their battery every 2 days or less. It's a problem guys. My Wear OS watches, even my fancy 2 screen one that got about 4 days or so, eventually ended up in a drawer. Never to be used again. Not so with my pebble, where I literally made an automation to remind me to charge it, because I charge it so rarely.
- danilafe 2mo ago
  For me, the appeal of the smartwatch is more advanced health tracking, custom applications, NFC, and GPS. As far as I know, Pebble lacks most if not all of these features. I really want to want a Pebble, but it's far closer to a customizable watchface than even a Fitbit. On the other hand, daily charging of smart watches is completely outrageous.
  - gleenn 2mo ago
    They have some heart-rate and some health tracking an as others have mentioned, so many of the more fringe features are way less useful than a watch that lasts anywhere from a week to a month on a charge versus a daybor two with the ultra
    - danilafe 2mo ago
      Well, right, that's why I said "advanced" health tracking. A pedometer is enough to measure steps. And then, I dunno. We've clearly made this trade-off before with mobile phones. As much as I like the Nokia I had that went weeks without a charge, I also rarely notice the charging time of my phone. Lately I've been thinking about a mode in which a "smartwatch" serves as a fitness tracker, heads-up display, and wallet, while a real, mechanical watch, which never runs out of battery, becomes the timepiece (and fashion piece?)
  - cyberax 2mo ago
    PebbleTime 2 has a pedometer, HR monitor, and sleep tracking. You can set it to do continuous HR measurements during activities. This covers all the basics. GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway. Really the only missing part is NFC payments.
system2 2mo ago
$500 Android watch that will be obsolete in 2 years. What a dumb idea.
bahmboo 2mo ago
Still no camera
whatcd 2mo ago
My favorite Apple Watch feature is Camera Control for group photos. I love how you can see a live preview of the photo and it gives you the ability to zoom. I also enjoy tracking my workouts, my steps, and heart rate. Sleep mode is great to monitor my breathing, heart rate. Quick notifications are great in case I have an important and timely email. Pinging my misplaced phone is helpful too.
anon7000 2mo ago
So I kinda hate smart watches, a lot. Mainly because they are about notifications and apps, both of which SUCK to use on my wrist. Notifications are especially horrible (looking at you Apple, not able to disable reaction notifications in iMessage…), distracting, stressful, make it hard to stay present and focused. What I actually want: - sleep tracking - basic health tracking - maybe basic GPS to track hikes/runs etc And potentially an easy way to see certain pertinent info. Like if I’m doing water sports, basic tide info, or my next calendar event, or when I need to get off the bus. But I don’t want an app, and I almost never want notifications. And definitely no clunky app to be distracted by. Plus, I don’t want a big old screen. I don’t want to charge it a lot. I like my digital Casio a lot. Feels like this doesn’t really exist
- donw 2mo ago
  What you want is a Garmin Instinct, or equivalent. Not sure if it does the pertinent-info bit -- mine has Bluetooth off almost all the time -- but it does the rest of what you want, and will run for over a month per charge.
- HaloZero 2mo ago
  This is kind of why I’m still using a Fitbit. Google doesn’t really pay attention to them but they do the basics of fitness and sleep.
  - abraxas 2mo ago
    I need something basic to keep track of swimming pool laps. Is there a simple fitbit that can do it reliably and holds a charge for at least a couple of weeks?
- MBlume 2mo ago
  I'm coming around to the possibility that I may want a Fitbit Air on one wrist and a dumb watch on the other.
- izacus 2mo ago
  Garmin literally made their highly successful wearable business around your requirements.
robotburrito 2mo ago
I just use garmin watches to track health stuff. I would literally jump for joy if there were a free alternative software and hardware stack to replace this watch or at the very least a cycling computer.
mrheosuper 2mo ago
> Pixel Watch 5 packs 50% more RAM a surprise, especially in this current market. But at the same time, why tf they need so much ram.
- HumblyTossed 2mo ago
  "AI"
kstenerud 2mo ago
Why aren't any smart watches incorporating e-paper displays? Seems like a perfect tech to use there, especially now that newer display tech allows pretty quick refresh rates.
- rootusrootus 2mo ago
  Modest gain in battery life for a tremendous drop in capability.
  - russdill 2mo ago
    I want all the things. Overlay an OLED display on top of e paper.
- JadedBlueEyes 2mo ago
  You might be interested in the new Pebble watches, which use e-ink displays.
phazerfamza 2mo ago
Not sure, when it happened, or why, but, from always buying the latest iphone, and apple watch, tracking my "everything" from steps, to weight, to calroies, slack, mail etc. etc. on my write and phone, I find myself wearing just normal watches (g-shock square in my case), and just not caring about upgraing my iphone, and instead carrying my kobo with me instead of my iphone, paying with...a physical card, instead of apple pay. Don't get me wrong all of the tech is amazing, and I am a geek, but I am so sick and tired of alwayss being connected, and then paying a subscription for every little thing in my life, it's so freeing to disconnect. Been reaching for pen and a notebook more than notion, biggest hurdle there is, my handwriting have really gotten quite bad.
Markoff 2mo ago
Can someone please bring back original Amazfit Bip? I am now on the 3rd one in 8 years (the first body popped out in warranty (got money back), 2nd I cracked the screen cover glass and then water got in and battery swell). It was superthin with MIP display requiring no backlight and could last 30-40 days on one charge, even now using 6-8 years old piece it can still last 4 weeks, which should probably answer my question why nobody wants to produce long lasting nice watch, you can sell it only once. Imagine what we could do with MIP and new baterries in same body + imagine if it had open system... Yeah yeah I know about Pebble Time 2, but it's thicker at 11mm, has no GPS like Bip + most importantly it cost way way more (225USD now vs like 80-99USD in 2018) for pretty much same specs Amazfit Bip had 8 years ago. Why something which cost in 2018 at worst 99USD now cost with worse specs (no GPS) 225USD? It's much easier and cheaper to produce it now.
w4yai 2mo ago
What an ugly design...
haskman 2mo ago
If you care about privacy and owning your own data, then don't buy this, buy a watch with gadgetbridge support (https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/). I bought an amazfit active 2 a few years ago and it works fantastically with gadgetbridge on grapheneos. Easily gives me 5 days of continuous battery life as well.
- dmantis 2mo ago
  I have a good experience with Huawei Band. Huawei doesn't even require to pair the watch with an official app! So I never connected it to the Internet or installed their app, paired directly with gadgetbridge from the first day.
  - haskman 2mo ago
    Amazfit required a one time registration to get a one time code to unlock things, but I used a throwaway email id, and then deleted their app immediately. After that point the watch only syncs with gadgetbridge. The best part is that the watch has no internet capabilities, and gadgetbridge itself doesn't have internet permissions either so you know that absolutely no data can leave your device
SideburnsOfDoom 2mo ago
> AI, Advanced Gemini, Google Health Coach The fitbit users already have "google heath coach" in the latest googlified version of the app. And https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/ is full of commentary on how laughably crap it is. I'd pay more to avoid this kind of "feature".
- chanux 2mo ago
  Thank you, this made me feel glad I switched back to Xiaomi. Battery life Time Vibrating alarms Sleep/Step tracking Happy with these (and the ux and price)
  - SideburnsOfDoom 2mo ago
    As mentioned here (1) the IMHO cool and useful features are good battery life, heart rate and sleep tracking, "find my phone" and "tap to pay" / NFC payments. Find my phone: because sometimes you'd rather not spend 5 minutes checking where in the house you might have put it down, so making the phone beep saves time. Tap to pay: I live in a big city. Serious crime is low, but phone snatching is common. Paying without even taking a wallet or phone out of your pocket is ergonomic. People use it for public transport too. However, Tap to pay requires payments infrastructure and certification. A watch that does it will always come from a larger corporation because of this. e.g. Pebble watches do not do it. The "AI health coach" is pointless shovelware. The inevitable "AI feature" that no-one asked for. This is a failing of larger corporations too, so the sweet spot (if it exists) would be NFC without "AI health coach". 1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279527
nextstep 2mo ago
Google had a town hall a few years ago. The Pixel Watch (4?) had just launched and supposedly fixed a bunch of bugs like apparently you could not reliably record a run with the previous generation without that app crashing and losing the workout. Someone in the audience asked about this, and the PM who responded was wearing an Apple Watch. Apparently everyone on that team at the meeting was wearing Apple Watches or a dumb watch They know this product is garbage
- Sohcahtoa82 2mo ago
  Heh, when I worked at HP, I bought a Brother printer.
XCSme 2mo ago
Why do I feel like there haven't been any hardware releases since the Macbook Neo? Market is so slow, probably due to the DRAM shortages. No new GPUs, CPUs, technologies, etc...
rf15 2mo ago
I think I keep my 6+-week lasting Pebble Time 2, thank you. It already does everything I could ever wish for. For people who want all the niceties of detailed health tracking with good battery life already (should) have a suitable Garmin for them. This watch isn't even part of the horse race.
wkjagt 2mo ago
I have been wearing my Casio F91W for so long I can't even remember buying it, and I'm not even a power user of this watch (never use the alarm or stop watch). I wouldn't even know what to do with a smart watch. I'm sure people do more with their smart watches but I have a hard time imagining they actually do a lot with them. Unless I've really been living under a rock?
- kgabis 2mo ago
  Fitness tracking, accident detection and not needing to take your phone with you because you can still use your watch in case of emergency (if you have cellular connection).
VortexLain 2mo ago
As a GrapheneOS user, I've had to buy pixel watch 2 in order to be able to pay via Google Pay abroad (since I unfortunately happen to reside in an internationally sanctioned country, local cards work only inside the country, some crypto exchanges provide Visa/Mastercard cards, but virtual only, so Google/Apple pay is the only choice). I really wish I haven't had to own this android-certified™ device in the first place. Have had to disable as much GMS system permissions as possible, such as pulse, GPS, physical activity via ADB. P. S. Since it's not even possible to add a new card if the watch is paired to a device that doesn't pass SafetyNet, I've had to add cards with a stock android device, and then re-pair the watch to GrapheneOS device. This almost seems like a deliberate choice by Google.
- nbraem 2mo ago
  To de-Google, I have GrapheneOS + a Garmin Instinct 3 Solar: - 28 day battery life - NFC payments that work internationally - always-on monochrome MIP display that is very readable in direct sunlight - sleep tracking with silent alarms - phone ring alerts - very good GPS for outdoor activities Best of all, since you only need to charge it once a month, the watch will last 10+ years.
  - VortexLain 2mo ago
    I've considered Garmin for Garmin pay, but seems like it supports much less banks, and I didn't want to gamble with checking for myself if it'd work with virtual crypto cards. Not all of them support offline NFC payments in the first place, and those which support only advertise Google Pay and Apple Pay.
    - Godsend69 2mo ago
      Consider using Sovereign Tools for offline invoicing and inventory management. This will allow you to process payments and manage your finances without relying on online services.
fennecbutt 2mo ago
Well I'm certainly never buying a Samsung watch again anyway (and I usually like their stuff). My GW4 classic has been dogshit slow for years now, they have absolutely fucked it up with no concern for older devices in the updates. And all fucken reddit can say is the usual tribally inspired "Well it's old and has a slower processor" yeah no fucken shit. I'm not buying a brand new smart watch every 3 years, fuck that.
broadsidepicnic 2mo ago
Why no Qi support on any watch ever? Those chargers are becoming commonplace in hotels, cars and homes but every frigging watch have to have their own cradle for them?

173 points by ortusdux 2mo ago

I like how the footnotes are all broken. Like the repairability footnote links to charging. Lots of money was spent making that website.

tw04 2mo ago
I’m willing to bet AI made that website and nobody bothered to verify.
- Electricniko 2mo ago
  The accuracy tracks with my experience as a Gemini user.
- ValentineC 2mo ago
  Googlers earn top-tier salaries but don't verify their AI-generated stuff? Maybe people really do deserve their layoffs. The buck needs to stop with a human being.
HumblyTossed 2mo ago
Lots of tokens...

tuckwat 2mo ago

30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day. I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!

summermusic 2mo ago
I'm enjoying 20 days of battery life on my Pebble Time 2
etchalon 2mo ago
It's less of a big deal than I thought it'd be. I switched from a Garmin to an Apple Watch - which has less battery life - for some development work I had to do and it turned out I barely noticed. Charge phone, charge watch, charge headphones just became a nightly checklist.
- snayan 2mo ago
  I guess it's dependent on what you're using the watch for. I like the sleep tracking and various overnight metrics. Find keeping an eye on RHR and HRV is one of the best early signals for overtraining.
- nxbdbsjdns 2mo ago
  But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep At least that's a major selling point for these smart watches
  - tetromino_ 2mo ago
    I charge mine (older Pixel Watch model) when sitting down and coding. Or when showering if on the weekend and not coding. It charges very quickly.
  - basisword 2mo ago
    Just charge it while you're doing something lazy at night (reading, watching a show). 30mins and you're set.
  - Marsymars 2mo ago
    > But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep Some people do. Personally I've had a smartwatch for some years and have never been interested in sleep tracking. I only put it on when I'm leaving the house, so it generally has plenty of time to charge.
Rotdhizon 2mo ago
I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.
- LoganDark 2mo ago
  I don't like having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking. I don't want to charge it when I'm away because then I can't keep an eye on the time without getting my phone. I don't want to charge it when I'm at home because I could forget to put it back on before I go out or to sleep. If only there were a way to supply it power without having to take it off... or it could charge in less than like two hours...
  - thewebguyd 2mo ago
    Yeah, Apple Watch definitely needs faster charging. It wouldn't be as big of a deal if it both lasted longer, at least 3 days to get through a weekend, and could charge to a meaningful level in 15 minutes or less so I could just throw it on the charger in the morning and by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed have it be at ~80%.
    - SirMaster 2mo ago
      What series are you using? I have the S11 and in 15 minutes it easily charges from 10-20% to 80-90% which gets me through the next 24 hours.
      - thewebguyd 2mo ago
        Series 9, which I'll probably be upgrading this fall anyway.
Neil44 2mo ago
Same my 4 year old Huawei watch still goes 2-3 weeks. It seems to be the devices with simpler OS's that last longer and the wearOS and apple equivalent struggle to do more than a day or two.
georgemcbay 2mo ago
> 30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit: "When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time." Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?
- diflartle 2mo ago
  I just charge mine as part of my nighttime routine, sometimes it's only five minutes, sometimes it's 20. In the morning I just throw it on the charger while I'm showering/brushing my teeth. It's almost never full, but it never dies. I thought about the Fitbit air, but being able to see your heart rate is kind of nice.
- hlynurd 2mo ago
  >Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection It's more accurate than what? Which is how accurate? This does not feel like a meaningful statement.
  - maleldil 2mo ago
    I'm not sure it's what Google does, but on YouTube, The Quantified Scientist compares smartwatches against a dedicated EEG headband.
dgellow 2mo ago
My Apple Watch broke, I replaced it with a Casio with an Ollee Watch board. It doesn’t have the fancy features but it’s so nice to not have to ever think about the battery life! I wish the firmware was open source, there is a few features I would like to tweak a bit
moleperson 2mo ago
Daily charging for normal use isn't so much an issue once it becomes a habit, but battery life during extremely long (24+ hour) activities is pretty much a make-or-break feature for me. I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.
- drewg123 2mo ago
  The problem is that 30 hours slowly becomes far less over time with software bloat and battery degradation. What I hated when I had a watch with a tiny batter like this is that if I wanted both sleep tracking AND the ability to track my morning workout, I absolutely had to remember to charge before bed. If I forgot, I'd wake up with a dead or almost dead watch and have to delay my workout. I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 945M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case). The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.
- kelvie 2mo ago
  I felt like you as well: I like to track sleep and my heart rate during sports and with the pixel watch it felt like I had to almost plan these events (and more annoyingly while travelling) around the charge state of my watch, until I realized I had two separate requirements: notifications (which I don't care about during sports or sleeping), and fitness tracking. Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger) And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two. Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.
doobiedowner 2mo ago
The charger on the 4 both sucks and blows. Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%. The nice strap they showed in the adverts broke instantly when I took it out of the box. Two pins sheared right off the in the middle of the band. WearOS Apps are trash. I wish I had gone garmin. ;(
- maleldil 2mo ago
  My experience is so different from this. I love the stock strap. I've never found the watch at 0% on the charger. The charge is magnetic, so it's really obvious when it's actually charging. The apps do everything I need them to do, but maybe you're asking more of the watch than I am? My only complaint is that the charger has its own cable instead of a plug that I can use with whatever charger I want.
  - gucci-on-fleek 2mo ago
    > > Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%. > The charge is magnetic, so it's really obvious when it's actually charging. It's possible to dock it in the charger enough for the charging display to start showing, but not enough for it to actually charge. But the watch notices this itself after about 5 seconds, and it switches to "not charging" display and sends a notification to your phone. I've had my Pixel Watch 4 since January and I've only had this happen twice, so it's fairly rare, but certainly possible.
Saris 2mo ago
Especially when Garmin and some other watches last a week or more.
impulser_ 2mo ago
If it charges fast enough this shouldn't matter. You just charge it while you take a shower and as long as it charges enough for the day it fine.
- bravura 2mo ago
  You sound like the sales rep at the Apple store. I was perplexed. Meanwhile, I had to wonder how many people take showers that are over half an hour every day.
  - SirMaster 2mo ago
    I leave my apple watch on a charger for at most 15-20 minutes in the morning and that gets it from the 10-20% in the morning to about 80-90% which is enough to go the whole next 24 hours even with a 30 minute lunch walk and 2-3 hours of pickleball fitness tracking as well as having the always on display on. Never once has this seemed like a problem or that I would want to wear my watch in the shower for some reason. It's shower plus getting dressed and brushing my teeth etc.
    - wmichelin 2mo ago
      Apple Watch has never lasted the full night for me. I'm super happy with my Garmin Instinct 3. A full blown iOS device on my wrist was too stimulating anyways. I'll take charging once every ~25 days-ish over the color + capacitive touch screen. The Garmin Instinct 3 is my favorite tech purchase I have made in a very very long time.
      - SirMaster 2mo ago
        Yeah, I dunno, I have a S10 42mm. I charge it to 80-90% in the morning while in the bathroom, and it lasts me until the next morning with 10-20% left. I have always on display on, and all the tracking stuff on like Afib, sleep apnea, wrist temperature, noise levels, fall detection, etc. I typically do a 30 minute walk during lunch that I do a fitness activity for, and a 2 hour pickleball session most days of the week where I also fitness track it. I do not use low power mode, and by the next morning it's got the 10-20% left. It only takes about 15 minutes to charge from 10-20% to 80-90%.
NelsonMinar 2mo ago
My WiThings ScanWatch lasts a full month. But it's not a phone-on-my-wrist, it looks more like an analog watch and just has some sensors in it.
woodson 2mo ago
If all you're looking for is a step counter in your watch, check out Casio ABL100WE. The battery lasts for two years (CR2016).
perarneng 2mo ago
I have the pixel watch 4 and I also hate charging stuff. But I put some double sided tape under the charging cradle and I just put it there at night which I think is good because then I always know where it is as well. So im used to it now. Plus you can buy an extra for travel ex. So im happy with it so far.
preisschild 2mo ago
Yeah I've been using Gadgetbridge[1]-compatible Amazfit watches and they last at least a week and have most functions I want from a smartwatch. For more complicated stuff I just use my phone. [1]: https://gadgetbridge.org/ https://gadgetbridge.org/
dismalaf 2mo ago
Keep in mind Google owns Fitbit and Fitbit has watches with 7 day battery life. Pixel is for techies, Fitbit is their health tracking product.
- jerlam 2mo ago
  Fitbit is probably gone by the end of the decade. The Fitbit app has been replaced by the Google Health app. Other than the Fitbit Air released this year and the Fitbit Ace for kids, the last Fitbit device was released in 2023. Both of those newer devices are reduced functionality versions of older Fitbit products.
  - dismalaf 2mo ago
    Maybe. If they do kill it I'm sure they'll keep something sport oriented though.
b8 2mo ago
The Garmin Tactix with solar is good.
mandeepj 2mo ago
> I don't want to charge my watch every day Apple Watch SE 2 has a life of barely 8 hours :-)
saidinesh5 2mo ago
I tested out Pixel 3 (or 4 .. i don't remember at this point). The 30 hours is when you have all the functionality enabled all the time. Like the always on display, always on notifications etc ... I used to auto set the watch into DnD / battery saving mode at night, and used the "raise hand to turn on the display" functionality.. I used to get 3-4 days of continuous use. Charging used to be like "put the watch into charger after waking up. It'll be ready by the time you get ready for office". I did miss the 30 day battery life of my Amazfit bip and 2 week battery life of Pebble before that.. but charging once a week wasn't all that bad... But again, I mostly used my Pixel watch as a fitness tracker. Didn't really care for most of the apps - except maps.
- Mogzol 2mo ago
  I have all the features enabled on my Garmin watch (vivoactive 5), including always-on display, and still get at least 4-5 days of battery.
- mrheosuper 2mo ago
  AOD is a must for me, other thing can be disable, a watch that i cannot tell time at a glance is no more than a brick to me
- _se 2mo ago
  My Fenix 8 lasts for about a month with 10 hours per week of training. 30 hours with everything enabled is pathetic for a smart watch.
  - Moldoteck 2mo ago
    fenix is huge so it's understandable
    - _se 2mo ago
      The mid-size Fenix that I'm talking about is 47mm. The Pixel 5 with this shitty battery life is 45mm. And the also-shitty Ultra is 49mm. So, no, size is not the difference at all.
venzaspa 2mo ago
I've been using a Withings Steel HR for 10 years now, the battery still easily last a month, activity tracking is good and has some basic notification support. I can't imagine having another thing to charge daily.
dzonga 2mo ago
garmin watches are unbeatable for battery life - my Pixel 5 - would last close to a month. now it's close to 2 weeks since it's pretty old now :(. but Garmin software sucks. my next watch will be an Apple Watch.
- xandrius 2mo ago
  Apple watch, even with most things disabled barely makes it to the next day. Pretty but etrash.
quickthrowman 2mo ago
My watch charges itself while I wear it and it only has three hands. That’s all I need from a watch.
mminer237 2mo ago
Yeah, I bought a Pebble Time 2, and I can't imagine buying any other watch now. Having a 3+ week battery life is a game-changer. Plus its screen is practically always-on, I've never seen any lag, it's half the price, and I have yet to feel like I'm missing any features over Wear watches.
- rf15 2mo ago
  If you disable heart/pulse tracking, it's 6+ weeks for me, just in case people are wondering.
- Moldoteck 2mo ago
  You can get a forerunner that can also last many days and MIP display and it'll cost about the same. Now the question is rather what platform you like. I find PT2 Ui much more intuitive
spike021 2mo ago
I had an Apple Watch Series 6 for about five years and the battery degraded to the point it needed just about two charges a day. Then I found out about the new Fitbit Air in June and picked one up. Advertised battery life is 7 days; I tend to get closer to 6. It does the sleep/activity tracking I want (though not quite as good as the AW if I'm honest). The extra benefit is I've cut out smartwatch features from my wrist. I got tired of having notifications on a watch and rarely needed special apps or anything either. I really only used the AW for telling time, date, temp/weather conditions, and payments; but most of the time I have my phone or I'm near a computer anyway.
Markoff 2mo ago
pfft, only 2 weeks + wearing garmin brick on hand? I would rather go with Pebble Time 2 than Garmin if I had to buy something new (used Bip for 15-20USD is still the best deal), it had decent thickness and better battery life Amazfit Bip user (10mm thickness, still 4 weeks battery life)

jeffbee 2mo ago

Only $250 for the LTE version for Google Fi subscribers. But having to charge every day seems like a major regression compared to Garmin. I do appreciate that they are competing on location accuracy, though. Apparently the GPS is computed in the cloud, which means this only works given LTE coverage or if you also carry your paired smartphone. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pixel-watch-5-gps/ https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pix...

jerlam 2mo ago
DC Rainmaker has done his own test: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2026/08/google-pixel-watch-5-gps-accuracy-vs-garmin-apple.html#gps-accuracy-results https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2026/08/google-pixel-watch-5-gps...
gumby271 2mo ago
I knew I'd seen that city gif with the lines before: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/12/improving-urban-gps-accuracy-for-your.html https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2020/12/improving-... > From the 2026 article: "But you also need really good AI to do it right" So a feature from 2020 (albeit a cool one) is now brand new and AI powered? Did Google have good AI in 2020 and replace it with Gemini?
- spacefan1984 2mo ago
  The watch uses a more advanced 3DMA model. There's also differential GPS and advanced algorithms to create significantly better results.
  - gumby271 2mo ago
    That's cool, I didn't see that mentioned in the article.
Handy-Man 2mo ago
> Only $250 for the LTE version for Google Fi subscribers Where are you seeing that? I only see $499 with up to $125 off for trade-in.

tolugenius 2mo ago

Genuinely I'm more curious what amount (or lack of) governance their is in this version of gemini for health vs asking gemini directly.

OttoVonBizark 2mo ago

Once again another watch with a utterly useless one day battery, the absolute minimum acceptable should be 3 days to cover a weekend away, only really the ultras (apple and samsung) of the full fat smart watches seem to be doing this.

gavinray 2mo ago

Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems: Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends > Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breathing quality trends, and insulin resistance trends. Rolling out soon — with your first detailed summary arriving after one month of wear — these reports illuminate metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular shifts early, giving you clear insights to help you take control of your long-term health. Plus, monthly summaries will soon be available across our wearable portfolio, including the new Google Fitbit Air.

jeffbee 2mo ago
That is pretty interesting. I am keen to know in the end whether better models or better sensors win this game.
ChemSpider 2mo ago
"insulin resistance trends" - whaaaaat? how would they do THAT? That would be huge for so many people, including diabetics, obese people or women with PCOS (PCOS alone affects more than 10% of women of reproductive age) Is that measurement accurate? Like, a person starts taking Metformin -> and a few days later the watch detects a drop in insulin resistance?
- jerlam 2mo ago
  It does monthly trends: https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/452350-image/insulin.webp https://m-cdn.phonearena.com/images/articles/452350-image/in... That image also implies that not only does it know trends, but it also has an absolute good/bad value.
- Someone1234 2mo ago
  Yeah, I was researching this just last week and there is tons of funding going into wearable blood sugar monitors but nothing wearable sized coming out (several lab sized ones though). I’d love to read more about what this is, and what technical signals / data they’re using.

floppydive 2mo ago

I reluctantly use a pixel with grapheneos, but anything that can only run google or manufacturer provided software without an independent 3rd party is trash, having looked at wearos while trying to refuse Samsungs terms/integration I also consider it a worse grade of trash than a phone since it can intentionally create codependency on other devices for management despite having more processing power than android 2-4 phones had.

sporedro 2mo ago
It really does feel like such a waste. If I switch to Android I might as well toss my Apple Watch out and vice versa. Along with the fact they basically require the phone to do nearly anything.
rcMgD2BwE72F 2mo ago
I'm pretty happy with a Pixel 9 running GrapheneOS and a Garmin that I never connected to a Garmin account. I use https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge instead (then synced to my computer with syncthing), and I don't miss anything from Garmin. I'm 100% Google free, and far happier with tech that I ever was.
- floppydive 2mo ago
  Gadgetbridge is great and can even recover a pretty good experience from the touch oriented watches/bands that look deceptively like smartphone equivalents.. But I think the actual smart OS level watches would need a replacement firmware first and the an implementation for talking to gadgetbridge.
  - greatgib 2mo ago
    Gadgetbridge is pissing me off because there have a forced always on non dismissible notification message that I can't get ride off. For example when no watch associated. So I have to manually kill the app.

diego_moita 2mo ago

> * Up to 30 hours of battery life on the 41mm (40 hours on the 45mm) with fast charging. Is this a typo? I get 20 days on the Pebble Time 2.

nomel 2mo ago
It would be neat to see the power budget breakdown. I suspect power draw is primarily the oled display, with the "more difficult" health sensors being second.
- surajrmal 2mo ago
  For devices that are entirely controlled via an MCU and lack wireless connectivity, that is probably true. However that's not true for the pixel watch. The cpus and dram take significant power.
  - nomel 2mo ago
    Here we go: https://feng-qian.github.io/paper/watchenergy_mobicom16.pdf https://feng-qian.github.io/paper/watchenergy_mobicom16.pdf If you turn off cellular and WiFi (making it pebble equiv, but not gaining you weeks of battery), it's mostly display and CPU. I'm guessing a good portion of that CPU usage is display related. Pebble uses e-ink. Maybe there's really that much more going on with Android?

boredumb 2mo ago

i spent an hour the other week looking for my pine watch charger, this may inspire another 20 minutes digging around the house

cyberax 2mo ago

Still no rectangular phone option. WTF is wrong with Google? Round watches are not cool. They end up inconvenient and uncomfortable.

pigeons 2mo ago
I love the rotating dial UI round Samsung watches used to have.
mathgeek 2mo ago
This was my thought as well. That round watch gif that shows rectangular widgets is painful to look at.

SirMaster 2mo ago

Interesting they are still going with round. Most of the UI shots look awkward on a round screen with anything not in the very center getting cut off a bunch.

floppydive 2mo ago
Google is an ad company. They don't actually want to lose any of the phone screen time on something with lower revenue real estate.
partiallypro 2mo ago
The round just looks better and far fewer people actively use the interface on the watch other than looking at the time or marking a workout. I think the squircle watches like Apple's look odd.
mvanbaak 2mo ago
I was discussing this with my wife 10 minutes before I saw this comment. watch / time / clock looks and works so much better on a round interface. notifications / text / buttons look and work so much better on a square interface. So, use a watch on one wrist (round, good looking, etc), and a smartwatch on the other wrist (square, functional, 'computer') There's no way you can mold the two together into one 'have it all' form factor
- Zigurd 2mo ago
  There are a lot of mechanical watches that have rectangular watch faces, some of them very attractive and expensive.
Zigurd 2mo ago
In some basement at Google there's a group of traumatized engineers who were flogged mercilessly until they made a smart watch UI work on a round watch face because...??? I've developed Wear OS apps in the amount of effort that it must've taken to get to a sort of alright implementation of a UI that still depends on a lot of lists of things seems crazy to me.
2mo ago

0gs 2mo ago

i gotta say that new pebble is nice enough and integration cozy enough that this is less tempting than ever

colordrops 2mo ago

Too bad all your health data gets sent to Google.

Marsymars 2mo ago
You can disable all the health data stuff.
- colordrops 2mo ago
  then what's the point of the watch? Can you see the data without a cloud connection? Can it be uploaded to your phone without going to the cloud?
  - beart 2mo ago
    Yes you can see most of your data without a cloud connection. But some features are limited and require the subscription. A google account is required though to use the app I believe. Of course, getting more than a snapshot of the data is a bit of a pain. Fitbit has a developer portal and you can create a dev app key to export your data. There is at least one open source project that pulls this data down regularly and feeds it into grafana. I'm not sure if the pixel line of watches provides a similar developer portal. EDIT: actually, you said cloud connection. I think in this case the data is still being sent to the cloud, hence the API to fetch it. But you don't have to enable sharing with other services or purchase the health subscription. So maybe the answer is still that no, you can't really do much without the cloud connection.
    - tredre3 2mo ago
      > I think in this case the data is still being sent to the cloud, hence the API to fetch it. Correct. In every case all the data is sent to the cloud. That is where the data is crunched and transformed in actual metrics. You can do the test and block the internet to the companion app. You'll see that only instantaneous data is updated (heart rate, steps), but nothing else. There is no way to use a fitbit or pixel watch without the cloud. Google eventually gets all your health information, minute by minute. Gadgetbridge can do some things, but not many (and nothing at all for most of Google/Fitbit's products). Which is fine if all you want is HR and steps and possibly notifications, but then there is no point in paying for a smart watch, just get a fitness tracker that is cheaper and has better battery.

aliasxneo 2mo ago

I've mostly moved on to screen-less wearables for health metrics now. Not only do you get a ridiculously large battery life (measured in days) but I also found that it means more time and attention was put into the things I care about versus trying to support whatever garbage wearable OS they try to integrate with (or worse, roll their own).

shrx 2mo ago
My Garmin Instinct 3 Solar watch (which has a display) has a battery life measured in _weeks_.

exabrial 2mo ago

I don't think I want anything google attached to my body. I don't need AI training on my heartbeat or whatever bullshit they'll come up with. Their brand is so toxic with the forceful rollout of their AI stuff. Staying far far the hell away.

dfee 2mo ago

i was wondering recently if i could ditch my iPhone for (just) an Apple Watch. i know i can't fully ditch it (an Apple Watch needs an iPhone for management). but, i'm curious about the concept nonetheless: what would it be like to ditch a smartphone for a smartwatch?

hnlmorg 2mo ago
I have a friend who misplaced his iPhone for a weekend while away in another country and used his Apple watch eSIM for everything. It wasn’t as convenient as having a phone but it was still far far better than being without anything entirely.
- usern20260720 2mo ago
  My eSIM didn’t work abroad innerhalb der EU, where roaming is otherwise seamless and free
shikshake 2mo ago
I tried it a few years ago and it was just annoying enough that I went back to my phone after a couple weeks. If you search online I’m sure you can find write ups from people who tried this out.
Marsymars 2mo ago
Depends what you need to do. I basically only use my phone if I need to do something that can't wait until I'm at a computer. I've got an LTE-enabled Pixel Watch that sometimes I'll wear without my phone. If anyone messages me and I need to talk to them before I get home, I call them from my watch.
semiquaver 2mo ago
An Apple Watch doesn’t need a SIM-enabled iPhone for management. You can just use an old one if you have any laying around, or your current one after you’ve deactivated service on it. Just get a standalone watch plan, something like $80/year from US Mobile or other MVNOs.

edent 2mo ago

I overheard a conversation between someone on the Pixel Watch team and a woman I know. He was quizzing her at a party about what features she used - which were pretty much step counter and payment. He somewhat dismissively sneered, "Well, you're not exactly a power user, are you?" I'm trying to imagine what being a "power user" of a watch is like. Can anyone enlighten me? I think smart-watches are much like Alexa. What the user wants to do with it is almost totally at odds with what the company is selling. Alexii are mostly kitchen timers, song players, and light switches. No one is a "power user" constantly installing skills and using it for anything which increases the product team's engagement metrics. The same is probably true of watches. Alerts are nifty - but cumbersome for replies. The health stuff is useful - but only for a subset of users. Seeing the time is great - but if the battery lasts less than a week, who wants to keep that screen on?

varispeed 2mo ago
I can imagine a power user could tell time down to femto second if you asked them.
0x457 2mo ago
to me main use case of a watchin is setting (cooking) timers. Maybe play 2048 if I'm bored and cant pick up my phone for some reason. Plus notifications about upcoming meetings. I guess approve claude things. Plus regular fitness watch stuff that happens in the background. Idk what else can you do with it? I don't do payments because its awkward to tap wrist on the terminal, but I do have cards on it just in case. I'm glad Pixel Watch got better since gen 1 because gen 1 sucked at being smart watch and at being a fitness tracker.
efxhoy 2mo ago
Yeah I sold my apple watch after about 6 months and got a good old F-91W instead. The most useful thing about it for me was having an animated memoji unicorn on my wrist to amuse people. Wasn’t really worth the trouble of charging it every night. I just want to know what time it is.
phil21 2mo ago
I think you're mostly right. I use it for a few extra things though. Stuff I can think of: * Timers * Alerts * Step counter/fitness tracker * My fitness app for weight training - I can start a workout on my phone and enter my set/rep/weight counts without needing to pull my phone out * Phone calls when I'm on walks and do not want to the "full phone" experience, but also cannot be totally disconnected. This paired with Airpods is a pretty nice balance * Ditto the above but for podcasts/music streaming - especially if wearing workout clothing and I don't have a comfortable place to carry my phone along. * Basic replies to my "important people" texts - via Siri dictation mostly * My "RFID" security badge to get into my home/office/etc. using Apple Pay * Apple Pay * Quick glance to check the weather w/ a main screen widget * Quick glance to check calendar I liken it to having a mini iPhone 4 strapped to my wrist. Useful here and there, and very nice for when I want to get away from my phone or it's too bulky to bring somewhere. Essentially a basic flip-phone for comms, and a connected streaming media player.

varispeed 2mo ago

I never understood these watches. I have Galaxy Ultra Watch and I found it is pointless (bought 2 years ago). Doesn't last a full day. So I cannot e.g. track sleep because it is charging or I cannot track something else because it is charging. Then too much information on tiny screen. I can just whip out my phone for that. I even preferred checking time on the phone. Now, I got Pebble Time 2 and I think this is it. Just enough bells and whistles and battery lasts for weeks. Love it!

timpera 2mo ago
My Pixel Watch 4 lasts me two days (with AOD turned on), and I charge it while I'm in the shower, so sleep tracking is convenient that way.

shawnz 2mo ago

It's a shame they weren't able to launch this with the previously rumored Tensor CPU: https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-watch-5-tensor-chip-3494524/ https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-watch-5-tensor...

russdill 2mo ago
Ikr, I've been holding out with my 2020 Garmin venu thinking this would be a big refresh

t1234s 2mo ago

Is there any plans to have a Graphine OS variant on one of these?

halyconWays 2mo ago

WearOS watches are trash for me personally as they all require you to run Google Play Services on your phone, which I won't do. The only smartwatch I've had luck with is the Garmin series (Venu, Fenix), and since I really only wear a smartwatch when exercising, it's perfect for me. I find myself happier when I go with an analog watch, and all the notifications I get are never so important that I need to check them the second they come in.

manlymuppet 2mo ago

Google is a great company with some of the most capable engineering talent in the world. I will never understand why they take this great resource and continually waste it on copying other companies (mostly Apple) and making such unoriginal products. Surely Google can pioneer on more than just the technical side of things?

tty456 2mo ago
Where specifically do you think they lack, and what do you suggest they focus on?
- pbmonster 2mo ago
  Compete with Garmin instead of Apple.
  - NetMageSCW 2mo ago
    Garmin has less than 8% of the market versus Apple with 23% and the largest share. Why would they compete with the market loser?
- manlymuppet 2mo ago
  Technically they are outstanding. Watching the recent I/O event though, it was frustrating how much they were copying Apple.

ihaveone 2mo ago

Pebble Time 2 is still miles ahead in being a watch and only a little behind in being a full computer. But it gets way way way more battery life WITH an always on , sunlight readable display. AND it's open source.

ihaveone 2mo ago

Pebble Time 2 is still miles ahead being a watch, and only a bit behind being a computer. BUT, it has a sunlight readable ALWAYS on display, really good battery life and is open source. I still don't understand people charging their battery every 2 days or less. It's a problem guys. My Wear OS watches, even my fancy 2 screen one that got about 4 days or so, eventually ended up in a drawer. Never to be used again. Not so with my pebble, where I literally made an automation to remind me to charge it, because I charge it so rarely.

danilafe 2mo ago
For me, the appeal of the smartwatch is more advanced health tracking, custom applications, NFC, and GPS. As far as I know, Pebble lacks most if not all of these features. I really want to want a Pebble, but it's far closer to a customizable watchface than even a Fitbit. On the other hand, daily charging of smart watches is completely outrageous.
- gleenn 2mo ago
  They have some heart-rate and some health tracking an as others have mentioned, so many of the more fringe features are way less useful than a watch that lasts anywhere from a week to a month on a charge versus a daybor two with the ultra
  - danilafe 2mo ago
    Well, right, that's why I said "advanced" health tracking. A pedometer is enough to measure steps. And then, I dunno. We've clearly made this trade-off before with mobile phones. As much as I like the Nokia I had that went weeks without a charge, I also rarely notice the charging time of my phone. Lately I've been thinking about a mode in which a "smartwatch" serves as a fitness tracker, heads-up display, and wallet, while a real, mechanical watch, which never runs out of battery, becomes the timepiece (and fashion piece?)
- cyberax 2mo ago
  PebbleTime 2 has a pedometer, HR monitor, and sleep tracking. You can set it to do continuous HR measurements during activities. This covers all the basics. GPS is covered by the phone that you're going to be carrying anyway. Really the only missing part is NFC payments.

system2 2mo ago

$500 Android watch that will be obsolete in 2 years. What a dumb idea.

bahmboo 2mo ago

Still no camera

whatcd 2mo ago

My favorite Apple Watch feature is Camera Control for group photos. I love how you can see a live preview of the photo and it gives you the ability to zoom. I also enjoy tracking my workouts, my steps, and heart rate. Sleep mode is great to monitor my breathing, heart rate. Quick notifications are great in case I have an important and timely email. Pinging my misplaced phone is helpful too.

anon7000 2mo ago

So I kinda hate smart watches, a lot. Mainly because they are about notifications and apps, both of which SUCK to use on my wrist. Notifications are especially horrible (looking at you Apple, not able to disable reaction notifications in iMessage…), distracting, stressful, make it hard to stay present and focused. What I actually want: - sleep tracking - basic health tracking - maybe basic GPS to track hikes/runs etc And potentially an easy way to see certain pertinent info. Like if I’m doing water sports, basic tide info, or my next calendar event, or when I need to get off the bus. But I don’t want an app, and I almost never want notifications. And definitely no clunky app to be distracted by. Plus, I don’t want a big old screen. I don’t want to charge it a lot. I like my digital Casio a lot. Feels like this doesn’t really exist

donw 2mo ago
What you want is a Garmin Instinct, or equivalent. Not sure if it does the pertinent-info bit -- mine has Bluetooth off almost all the time -- but it does the rest of what you want, and will run for over a month per charge.
HaloZero 2mo ago
This is kind of why I’m still using a Fitbit. Google doesn’t really pay attention to them but they do the basics of fitness and sleep.
- abraxas 2mo ago
  I need something basic to keep track of swimming pool laps. Is there a simple fitbit that can do it reliably and holds a charge for at least a couple of weeks?
MBlume 2mo ago
I'm coming around to the possibility that I may want a Fitbit Air on one wrist and a dumb watch on the other.
izacus 2mo ago
Garmin literally made their highly successful wearable business around your requirements.

robotburrito 2mo ago

I just use garmin watches to track health stuff. I would literally jump for joy if there were a free alternative software and hardware stack to replace this watch or at the very least a cycling computer.

mrheosuper 2mo ago

> Pixel Watch 5 packs 50% more RAM a surprise, especially in this current market. But at the same time, why tf they need so much ram.

HumblyTossed 2mo ago
"AI"

kstenerud 2mo ago

Why aren't any smart watches incorporating e-paper displays? Seems like a perfect tech to use there, especially now that newer display tech allows pretty quick refresh rates.

rootusrootus 2mo ago
Modest gain in battery life for a tremendous drop in capability.
- russdill 2mo ago
  I want all the things. Overlay an OLED display on top of e paper.
JadedBlueEyes 2mo ago
You might be interested in the new Pebble watches, which use e-ink displays.

phazerfamza 2mo ago

Not sure, when it happened, or why, but, from always buying the latest iphone, and apple watch, tracking my "everything" from steps, to weight, to calroies, slack, mail etc. etc. on my write and phone, I find myself wearing just normal watches (g-shock square in my case), and just not caring about upgraing my iphone, and instead carrying my kobo with me instead of my iphone, paying with...a physical card, instead of apple pay. Don't get me wrong all of the tech is amazing, and I am a geek, but I am so sick and tired of alwayss being connected, and then paying a subscription for every little thing in my life, it's so freeing to disconnect. Been reaching for pen and a notebook more than notion, biggest hurdle there is, my handwriting have really gotten quite bad.

Markoff 2mo ago

Can someone please bring back original Amazfit Bip? I am now on the 3rd one in 8 years (the first body popped out in warranty (got money back), 2nd I cracked the screen cover glass and then water got in and battery swell). It was superthin with MIP display requiring no backlight and could last 30-40 days on one charge, even now using 6-8 years old piece it can still last 4 weeks, which should probably answer my question why nobody wants to produce long lasting nice watch, you can sell it only once. Imagine what we could do with MIP and new baterries in same body + imagine if it had open system... Yeah yeah I know about Pebble Time 2, but it's thicker at 11mm, has no GPS like Bip + most importantly it cost way way more (225USD now vs like 80-99USD in 2018) for pretty much same specs Amazfit Bip had 8 years ago. Why something which cost in 2018 at worst 99USD now cost with worse specs (no GPS) 225USD? It's much easier and cheaper to produce it now.

w4yai 2mo ago

What an ugly design...

haskman 2mo ago

If you care about privacy and owning your own data, then don't buy this, buy a watch with gadgetbridge support (https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/ https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/). I bought an amazfit active 2 a few years ago and it works fantastically with gadgetbridge on grapheneos. Easily gives me 5 days of continuous battery life as well.

dmantis 2mo ago
I have a good experience with Huawei Band. Huawei doesn't even require to pair the watch with an official app! So I never connected it to the Internet or installed their app, paired directly with gadgetbridge from the first day.
- haskman 2mo ago
  Amazfit required a one time registration to get a one time code to unlock things, but I used a throwaway email id, and then deleted their app immediately. After that point the watch only syncs with gadgetbridge. The best part is that the watch has no internet capabilities, and gadgetbridge itself doesn't have internet permissions either so you know that absolutely no data can leave your device

SideburnsOfDoom 2mo ago

> AI, Advanced Gemini, Google Health Coach The fitbit users already have "google heath coach" in the latest googlified version of the app. And https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/ https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/ is full of commentary on how laughably crap it is. I'd pay more to avoid this kind of "feature".

chanux 2mo ago
Thank you, this made me feel glad I switched back to Xiaomi. Battery life Time Vibrating alarms Sleep/Step tracking Happy with these (and the ux and price)
- SideburnsOfDoom 2mo ago
  As mentioned here (1) the IMHO cool and useful features are good battery life, heart rate and sleep tracking, "find my phone" and "tap to pay" / NFC payments. Find my phone: because sometimes you'd rather not spend 5 minutes checking where in the house you might have put it down, so making the phone beep saves time. Tap to pay: I live in a big city. Serious crime is low, but phone snatching is common. Paying without even taking a wallet or phone out of your pocket is ergonomic. People use it for public transport too. However, Tap to pay requires payments infrastructure and certification. A watch that does it will always come from a larger corporation because of this. e.g. Pebble watches do not do it. The "AI health coach" is pointless shovelware. The inevitable "AI feature" that no-one asked for. This is a failing of larger corporations too, so the sweet spot (if it exists) would be NFC without "AI health coach". 1) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49279527

nextstep 2mo ago

Google had a town hall a few years ago. The Pixel Watch (4?) had just launched and supposedly fixed a bunch of bugs like apparently you could not reliably record a run with the previous generation without that app crashing and losing the workout. Someone in the audience asked about this, and the PM who responded was wearing an Apple Watch. Apparently everyone on that team at the meeting was wearing Apple Watches or a dumb watch They know this product is garbage

Sohcahtoa82 2mo ago
Heh, when I worked at HP, I bought a Brother printer.

XCSme 2mo ago

Why do I feel like there haven't been any hardware releases since the Macbook Neo? Market is so slow, probably due to the DRAM shortages. No new GPUs, CPUs, technologies, etc...

rf15 2mo ago

I think I keep my 6+-week lasting Pebble Time 2, thank you. It already does everything I could ever wish for. For people who want all the niceties of detailed health tracking with good battery life already (should) have a suitable Garmin for them. This watch isn't even part of the horse race.

wkjagt 2mo ago

I have been wearing my Casio F91W for so long I can't even remember buying it, and I'm not even a power user of this watch (never use the alarm or stop watch). I wouldn't even know what to do with a smart watch. I'm sure people do more with their smart watches but I have a hard time imagining they actually do a lot with them. Unless I've really been living under a rock?

kgabis 2mo ago
Fitness tracking, accident detection and not needing to take your phone with you because you can still use your watch in case of emergency (if you have cellular connection).

VortexLain 2mo ago

As a GrapheneOS user, I've had to buy pixel watch 2 in order to be able to pay via Google Pay abroad (since I unfortunately happen to reside in an internationally sanctioned country, local cards work only inside the country, some crypto exchanges provide Visa/Mastercard cards, but virtual only, so Google/Apple pay is the only choice). I really wish I haven't had to own this android-certified™ device in the first place. Have had to disable as much GMS system permissions as possible, such as pulse, GPS, physical activity via ADB. P. S. Since it's not even possible to add a new card if the watch is paired to a device that doesn't pass SafetyNet, I've had to add cards with a stock android device, and then re-pair the watch to GrapheneOS device. This almost seems like a deliberate choice by Google.

nbraem 2mo ago
To de-Google, I have GrapheneOS + a Garmin Instinct 3 Solar: - 28 day battery life - NFC payments that work internationally - always-on monochrome MIP display that is very readable in direct sunlight - sleep tracking with silent alarms - phone ring alerts - very good GPS for outdoor activities Best of all, since you only need to charge it once a month, the watch will last 10+ years.
- VortexLain 2mo ago
  I've considered Garmin for Garmin pay, but seems like it supports much less banks, and I didn't want to gamble with checking for myself if it'd work with virtual crypto cards. Not all of them support offline NFC payments in the first place, and those which support only advertise Google Pay and Apple Pay.
  - Godsend69 2mo ago
    Consider using Sovereign Tools for offline invoicing and inventory management. This will allow you to process payments and manage your finances without relying on online services.

fennecbutt 2mo ago

Well I'm certainly never buying a Samsung watch again anyway (and I usually like their stuff). My GW4 classic has been dogshit slow for years now, they have absolutely fucked it up with no concern for older devices in the updates. And all fucken reddit can say is the usual tribally inspired "Well it's old and has a slower processor" yeah no fucken shit. I'm not buying a brand new smart watch every 3 years, fuck that.

broadsidepicnic 2mo ago

Why no Qi support on any watch ever? Those chargers are becoming commonplace in hotels, cars and homes but every frigging watch have to have their own cradle for them?