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Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
The new Pixel Watch 5 has just been unveiled at the annual Made by Google event alongside the latest Pixel smartphones, and like its smartphone brethren, it feels (on paper at least) like Google is treading water.
The new wearable looks exactly the same as before, with its now-familiar smoothly rounded circular shape. It’s available, identically, in 43m and 54mm sizes and its “Actua 360” AMOLED LTPO display matches its predecessor spec for spec, with peak brightness of 3,000 nits, an adaptive refresh rate of 1-60Hz and pixel density of 320ppi.
It’s rated to last exactly as long on a single charge, too, which is up to 40 hours with always-on display enabled for the bigger watch and 72 hours in battery saver mode (still not long enough in my opinion). And not even the price has shifted much, the latter model rising by £20, from £349 to £369.
At least the colours are new: the Pixel Watch 5 will be available in Obsidian, Fog, Olive and Canyon, and a Steph Curry special edition, but alas in the US only.
Pixel Watch 5 specifications
| Display | 41mm or 45mm, 320ppi AMOLED LTPO, 300 nits, 1-60Hz refresh, curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 |
| Case colours | Case: Matte black, polished silver, satin pyrite, champagne gold |
| Wrist band colours | Obsidian, Fog, Olive, Canyon |
| Build | Aluminium |
| Dust/water resistance | IP68 / 5 ATM |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon W4 Gen 2 Accelerated |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Storage | 64GB eMMC |
| Battery | 41mm: 332mAh (30hrs with always on display); 45mm: 465mAh (40hrs with AOD) |
| GPS | Dual-band |
| Dimensions (WDH) | 41mm: 41 x 12.3 x 41mm; 45mm: 45 x 12.3 x 45mm |
| Weight | 41mm: 31g (without wrist band); 45mm: 39g (without wrist band) |
There are other “upgrades” but most of these are marginal hardware improvements or software-related health and fitness features, many of which are coming to the Pixel Watch 3, 4 and Fitbit Air anyway.
Let’s start with the hardware upgrades. Here, we have a new processor: the Qualcomm Wear Elite W5 Gen 2 Accelerated, which Google claims has 12% more processing power than the standard W5 Gen 2. There’s also 50% more RAM than before, at 3GB, and twice the GPS accuracy, although only in environments where the GPS signal is weak, such as built-up city centres. That’s thanks to improvements in the algorithm, though, rather than any hardware upgrade.
On the features side of things, there’s a handful of new tools gathered together under the “Health Guardian” umbrella. First on the list is “blood pressure pattern” tracking. This feature won’t provide real-time blood pressure readings like a proper cuff will, or the Huawei Watch D2. Instead, it delivers analysis of your blood pressure trends, perhaps nudging you to get a reading done if you haven’t for a while.
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
Google is also adding insulin resistance tracking, another slightly sideways look at a common health issue. Again, it won’t give you the real-time feedback a diabetes sufferer might get from a Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), but is instead designed to highlight any “metabolic shifts” your body is experiencing that might point towards serious health issues in the future.
There’s also purportedly a 15% improvement in sleep tracking accuracy, and Google is delivering what it says is its “biggest fitness upgrade” with a renewed focus on gym workouts. Users will be able to build strength and HIIT circuits, which can be edited on the wrist as you progress through the workout if need be.
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
Otherwise, there’s a couple of handful of quality of life upgrades that you’d expect to come to the other Pixel watches in time: a smart wake alarm and offline Gemini for setting timers alarms and workouts with your voice without the need for an internet connection.
Early verdict
It all looks like a pretty lightweight upgrade. You probably won’t notice the bump in performance and the brighter screen, while nice to have, will only kick in the very brightest of conditions. Likewise the improvement in GPS accuracy. Again, nice to have but only really useful in very specific conditions.
Combined with the fact that a lot of those software additions are going to be made available to existing Pixel and Fitbit wearables, you have to ask yourself why Google bothered. I might be persuaded otherwise once I get my hands on one for review, but if you already have the Pixel Watch 4, I counsel you to hold fire on those upgrade guns and wait until next year.
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
Pixel Watch 5, 41mm Standard Angles
