The new Google Pixel Watch 5 reviewed

We look at the new Google Pixel Watch 5, which we have been wearing and using for the last week now. See more about the watch here.

Google Pixel Watch 5 reviewed

Since reviewing the Pixel Watch 4 last year, we continued to use it through to the arrival of the Pixel Watch 5 last week. This naturally helped in terms of having a good point of comparison between the two, as well as in relation to other options out there in the market place. First up, it does charge quickly, both the 4, and now the 5 too. We wouldn’t be completely convinced about the 40 hours battery life, but you might closer to this by bringing down the brightness setting for example. Mostly it serves you pretty well, especially if you don’t need to sleep with it on, every or any night. We did it once or twice, but, after seeing the usual sleep patterns it felt unnecessary to sleep with it on every night, and hey, how much of your data do you want to share too? As above, the charging cradle does its job super effectively too, so you can normally work around a quick blast and then you should be covered for your next bout of activities.

There are plenty of watch face options too, all very quickly and easily changed via the app. You can also use the Gemini AI to generate your own personalised watch faces too, so you could really go to town on that option and have some fun. We imagine everyone will have their own interesting anomaly stories. For us, it was using a power tool, to drill off plaster, and have the watch suggest that we had been cycling for the duration! Go figure, but of course it can be hard for the watch to track exactly every activity that you might be doing. For walks and runs, the watch does very well, as you would hope, and perhaps even expect. Several of our testers immediately enjoyed using the watch to get good, precise maps and data about their workouts, so it is a definite thumbs up for these functions and the watch’s capabilities.

There is also the interesting question about if information can inform, inspire and change behaviour and habits. Naturally we all want to be fitter, exercise more, the watch, with it’s steps tracker, kinda by default, did help nudge us to be more active over the last year. At the same time you don’t want to become a hamster on a wheel, constantly aiming to beat the last pb, the last week’s total distance covered, and so on. Overall we felt the data from the activities was a good input into trying to be more healthy. At the same time, the nudging to get wellness tips, and fitness plans was something that we were less interested in. For a while there was a series of motivational comments and feedback. The trouble is, you can very quickly tell that it is AI derived, and quite soon it becomes repetitive and same-ish. Through the year of using the Pixel Watch 4, the app went through a few changes, so it would be good to see if it settles down for the new Pixel 5.

In other ways, apart from the supporting app, which was Fitbit, and is now Google Health, in many ways the Pixel Watch 5 is not massively different from the 4. In many ways it is quite possible therefore that this watch is aimed at users of the Pixel Watch 3 and earlier, or other brand users, who now wish to move into the Pixel Watch 5 ecosystem. As the Pixel Watch 4 sample we reviewed was still going strong a year later, this would also make sense – that the new watch is not shouting out to be an immediate replacement for Pixel Watch 4 users, if you see what we mean. It has been a positive experience using the PW4, and, a week in, we are optimistic that using the Pixel Watch 5 could also be a good option, and continue to inform and inspire heathier living. A qualified thumbs up so far, and next we shall see how it performs for durability and longevity.

More about the Google Pixel Watch 5

What’s new with the Google Pixel Watch 5.

Our most comprehensive health and wellness tracking.

Epic accuracy. Epic performance.

Designed for Gemini Intelligence.

Up to 40 hours of battery. Get 15 hours in just 15 minutes.2

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