The much anticipated first smartwatch from Google is finally official. Aesthetically, there is nothing you haven’t already seen or know. It has a beautiful 41 mm circular design with a dome watch face, featuring custom 3D Corning Corilla Glass and an AMOLED display with up to 1,000 nits brightness.
The Google Pixel Watch features a recycled, premium stainless steel finish, paired with a tactile button and a crown. It has the features and functionality as most smartwatches today. This means you can use the Pixel Watch to navigate, make payments, access Google Assistant for help, check mail and calendar, listen to music, et cetera.
Obviously, the watch can also track your fitness but unlike other wearables, this watch benefits from the experience of Fitbit. TBH, it won’t be any different from any other smartwatches or fitness trackers. But hey, Google has to justify the acquisition, right?
That said, the first timepiece from Google touts Fitbit’s “most accurate heart rate tracking yet”, has ECG capability, monitors sleep and health metrics, and falls detection and Emergency SOS will arrive later this year.
While it may be a 41 mm (1.6+ inches) watch diameter, the display is just 1.2 inches. This means you have an awfully large bezel that can be seen at some point. Not the prettiest, IMHO.
The watch is paired with an interchangeable Fluoroelastomer with a soft-touch coating. It does not use the usual spring-loaded pin quick-change mechanism. It has its own very unique way of quick change that involves sliding the band onto the watch case.
Other key spec sheet details include Exynos 9110 SoC with Cortex M33 co-processor, 2GB SDRAM, 32 GB eMMC flash storage, Bluetooth 5.0, 2.4 GHz WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, NFC, 4G LTE and UMTS (for the LTE model), positioning (GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo), a 294 mAh battery good for up to 24 hours of use, magnetic charging, built-in microphone, built-in speaker, water resistant to 5 ATM, and a bunch of sensors.
Google’s first smartwatch, the Google Pixel Watch, is available to order now with a starting price of US$349.99, with availability next week. The purchase of the watch will include 6 months of Fitbit Premium included plus 3 months of YouTube Music Premium.
All images courtesy of Google.
