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Google’s Pixel Watch 5 Keeps the Same Design and Leans Harder Into Health
Google really brought its A-game last year with the Pixel Watch 4 , improving the smartwatch's hardware in various ways to make it competitive with Apple Watches. The new Pixel Watch 5, announced together with the Pixel 11 series phones ahead of today's Made for Google event , sticks to the same round-screen design and instead focuses on its health, fitness, and wellbeing functionalities aided by Google's Gemini AI.
Aside from new colors (Canyon, Olive, Fog, and Obsidian) and a new "Weave" watch face, the Pixel Watch 5 looks identical to the Pixel Watch 4. It comes in the same 41mm and 45mm sizes and has the same 3,000-nit brightness and up to 40-hour battery life. It's still a classy-looking smartwatch, in my opinion.
Google's new smartwatch has mostly under-the-hood updates. There's a faster Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 chip (12% faster CPU with 20% faster on-device intelligence), 50% more RAM (3GB), and a more accurate GPS for route tracking.
You won't like that the watches cost more this year, though. The 41mm model starts at $399 ($50 more than the Pixel Watch 4), and the 45mm starts at $429 ($30 more). A Stephen Curry version (below) with a sweat-wicking band resembling the one on the same special edition Fitbit Air costs $579. The price hikes aren't Google's fault. Every gadget with RAM now costs more because of the ongoing "RAMageddon." It sucks, but this is the reality we're all living in. Not even Apple is immune to raising prices on its devices .
So why would you buy the Pixel Watch 5? For the health features, duh. Google says it's using even more advanced machine learning together with the optical heart rate sensor to track blood pressure trends and insulin resistance over time. The latter is notable because, with the Pixel Watch, it doesn't require drawing any blood. By analyzing data from your heart rhythm, sleep quality, and daily movements, insulin resistance tracking can remind you to manage your glucose levels. It's not a replacement for a doctor, but like many health-related features on consumer-grade wearables, it's simply a nudge for preventive care. Similarly, blood pressure tracking can provide an overview of trends for your heart health when you're stressed or overworked, though you should still use a blood pressure monitor to confirm any changes you may be experiencing. Both features will be available on the Pixel Watch 5 this fall, but they'll also be available for the Pixel Watch 3, Watch 4, and Fitbit Air.
The new smartwatch also has improved "readiness" and sleep scores (with 15% more accurate sleep stage tracking) and provides a "Sleep Breathing Quality" feature that "analyzes minute-by-minute variations in your blood oxygen levels during sleep and helps you better understand how daily and monthly breathing patterns may impact your energy, recovery, and heart health."
And, of course, there's all the new AI stuff from the Google Health Coach, first introduced on the Fitbit Air. With a Google Health Premium subscription ($9.99 per month or $99.99 per year), you'll get personalized fitness plans and health suggestions, powered by Gemini. If you're not familiar with the Google Health Coach, it's a feature that helps make sense of all the health and fitness data that your Pixel Watch 5 (and Fitbit Air) collects and then offers… coaching. You chat with it in the phone app, and it takes everything you tell it into account. That's how it should work in theory. Actual testing has been more mixed, with some reviewers (including myself) finding the Health Coach doesn't always make the best suggestions, even with the mountains of data it has.
On the fitness front, the Pixel Watch 5 also has that more accurate GPS I mentioned earlier. Google says it provides up to two times better route tracking, especially on trails and in "downtown cities with tall buildings" where signal loss is typical. Google even goes as far as to say the GPS route tracking outperforms the same functionality on an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and a Garmin Fenix 8 Pro.
I got to try out Gemini and the "Raise to Talk" feature, where you raise the smartwatch to your mouth and start chatting with the AI, and it definitely felt snappier processing my voice requests. Responses also came in much faster than I recalled on the Pixel Watch 4.
As far as annual smartwatch refreshes go, the Pixel Watch 5 is a modest update. There may be just enough new improvements to warrant an upgrade from an older Pixel Watch or non-Google smartwatch. It's usually the same story for the Apple Watch, including the Apple Watch Series 12 expected to launch next month alongside the iPhone 18 Pros and foldable iPhone .
If you're a Pixel phone user, the Pixel Watch 5 is probably a no-brainer smartwatch purchase, unless you require a more rugged device like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 . Preorders for the Pixel Watch 5 start today, Aug. 12, and with general availability on Aug. 20.
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