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this is the pixel watch 3 and not sure if you've noticed but this is actually the first Google Smartwatch that I review yes I did have the first two generations and I will admit that I did my best to try to use them but a few things just didn't work out the First Watch in particular was a gigantic leap not just for Google but genuinely for were OS this whole idea aide of actually creating a smart watch around the Fitbit was just genius that watch alone set the standard that all others are following today when it comes to specs and performance but the compromises and taste were the problem for many it only came in one size which didn't include me and the battery life was just atrocious
the pixel Watch 2 was built on the same platform and a ton of improvements but dragged some of the problems with it and introduced new ones the material got cheaper which I have no problem with when it came to alum um but the display was just a deal breaker a Fitbit that favors Runners but then struggles with polarized sunglasses should simply not exist it wasn't until this third generation and the introduction of a second size option that I was really compelled to fully commit so much so that I haven't taken it off ever since which Yes means that it even replaced my Galaxy watch Ultra it really didn't take much for me to notice that this was an overall far better experience than I was expecting though yeah it's still not
perfect I'm he with pocket now and let me explain to you why in our full review okay so just to clarify even if this watch did grow up you're still pretty much getting the option to go smaller if that's your thing and that's just one of the many benefits this means you're not forced to pick a size in order to get a specific set of features when it comes to the hardware I do think that this is like the newer generation of the Moto 360 that we all loved many years ago a minimalistic screen that's just completely uninterrupted by bezel
is the natural progression to a watch back then that was just so iconic and already looked like the future as a result the pixel watch 3 almost mimics a water drop which by the way the company demoed during their launch it's just all screen which then gets matched by a casing of polished aluminum that's pretty minimalistic at the bottom about the only thing I don't like is this band mechanism it takes some getting used to snapping it on or off which also makes it hard for you to find third-party bands after just a few weeks the current Google band already feels a tad sticky after daily workout so yeah keep that in mind about the only solution I'd recommend is from speakin but then again
I'm still waiting for those to become available the display is the bigger story here as it's just gorgeous in every way across the board there's 16% smaller bezels and a brighter 2,000 nits that can go as low as one nit and from 60 to just 1 Hertz when needed it means a ton of more information on your screen and the possibility for more complete watch phases going 45 mm results in technically getting 40% more screen real estate than before making it far more comfortable to read for people like me meaning over 40 the overall result is an ACTA display that I can easily call the best on a wos watch the Galaxy watch Ultra might be better at least in paper but wear polarized
sunglasses and you'll see why I prefer to go pixel also notice how the dimensions almost match that Ultra if you were to not consider the beefier bezels but then try to not knock it around as this is still just Gorilla Glass 5 it's not Sapphire now when it comes to internals the watch is a bit more of a mixed bag which you might not necessarily notice at first see the Snapdragon W5 gen one that powers the show is yes 2 years old that said its 4mm architecture is pretty advanced even for today's standards and its hybrid architecture match with a cortex m33 co-processor at sensing with efficiency there's 2 gigs of RAM 32 gigs of storage which yes already Trails behind the competition still this variant I have
offers LTE a newish version of Wi-Fi Bluetooth uwb is ip68 water indust resistant and brings a pretty decent battery that now charges faster though apparently the endurance is the same regardless of the size you pick also for those sensing efficiencies that I mentioned this watch is about more than just what your eyes can see as any typical Fitbit heart rate is being tracked permanently which is a huge departure and accuracy from even leading competitors anyone comparing endurance of this watch to any other should consider just how much data is being captured every second we also have tracking for oxygen saturation electrical sensors for ECG a skin temperature sensor and more like seriously this watch is very complete now the reason I say you might not even
notice it's because were OS on this watch is exactly what it should be on every watch see Samsung for example brings its tysen like feel and OnePlus also goes pretty unique which are all pretty good but I feel this approach to the UI was far better thought out here we have the benefit of a rotating crown that also doubles as a back button or a way to call on your apps and we have a secondary key for extra interaction if anything I do wish that we had an extra button to go back or that you can map more commands to a press and hold on the crown right now you can only press and hold the top key for the Google Assistant because yes oddly there is no Gemini here yet which is odd since you
have the animation when the watch boots still I do prefer this approach of pressing the crown for apps and the top key for recents which then becomes a pause button while you're running I also like notifications as a swipe along with controls though I do feel that having notifications at the top and controls at the bottom would have done a better job with our muscle memory as that's how we deal with smartphones tiles from the sides are cool but this is yet another area where I wish these could be stacked into smaller tiles for efficiency as we see on the Apple watch with its spart stack or widgets on a Garmin which also benefit from a bottom placement instead of side to side that said once you get used to the user
interface there's a lot to like this watch breezes through the interface and I love how it doesn't yank you from whatever you're doing with a notification everything is subtle unless you're not using it say every Smartwatch should be which almost feels like an Apple Watch but sort of better see this whole Fitbit integration means this is not just any Smartwatch that can do Fitness instead I'd call this the closest conventional Smart Watch to a Garmin which makes it more of a smart Fitness computer the watch comes with 6 months of Fitbit premium if that's your thing still for most people I still think that the base services are pry pretty awesome I've tested this watch against my Garmin epics Gen 2 and even
the Galaxy watch Ultra in some of the roughest running conditions and it's GPS is just as accurate and that's even while lacking the Dual Band GPS functionality I've tested it next to an Apple Watch series 10 doing weight training and I feel it does calorie burn calculations better I've also tested it next to that same Apple watch and runs and it comes on top I've even used it with my pelaton and it SNS the effort score just as well as an Apple Watch does which is better than a Galaxy watch in a nutshell this is what I mean by saying it's like an Apple Watch but better in many ways even the fitness watch phases are more logical in how they vertically stack heart rate and how
logical they are about giving you step count while you're walking for example things that are just common sense now when it comes to Fitness I'd say that there are other things that should improve for example the daily Readiness score for example is a good competitor to Gar body battery but sadly it's not variable you get a daily score and whatever load you add during the day doesn't change it which kind of defeats its purpose the cardio load calculator is then pretty useful but as opposed to a Garmin this watch doesn't tell you what the ideal blend of high aerobic or low aerobic workouts will help you improve your Fitness level they just give you the Stacked information lots of
stuff that again just needs to be portrayed better cuz the watch does the best job in were OS in compiling all this data also an interesting Quirk of this being a Fitbit is that owning more than one tracker becomes a problem you have to unpair this watch from the Fitbit app and switch to another though that doesn't apply to the rest of Osos so that's kind of weird actually the process of switching this watch to another Android smartphone was pretty simple I went from a pixel 9 Pro to a 9 Pro fold in less than 5 minutes which takes a lot less than if you try to switch watches on the Fitbit app and then there's the case of endurance where all this information strives on yes I've
been able to sleep with the pixel watch 3 on most nights and yes the battery does last for you to sleep with it and that's all while doing an hour and a half of workouts a day and then charging it while I shower now do I wish it lasted longer yes because I'm not sure how well this watch can survive say a full Marathon clearly it's made to last the above average person in Daily activity but I think it lacks the pro name for a reason it's just not necessarily made for pros last but not least there's the pros and cons of this watch and its ecosystem obviously this comes to complement anyone owning a pixel so if you've got the phone and the buds then yes this will feel pretty relatable it's not necessarily perfect
though is the fact that there is a voice recorder app on the watch doesn't mean that you'll get the same experience as on the phone now the con is that Fitbit has always been a Walt garden and that doesn't always play in this watch's favor for example my current pixels don't even bring Google Fit installed so whatever information you had there pretty much got stranded there if I were to use a Garmin with an iPhone and then switch to an Apple Watch that same day Apple health will carry those activities over but that doesn't really happen here something to keep in mind in case you want to switch over or in case you wouldn't want to stay for the long run to conclude let me just say I never
thought I'd be mixed about using this watch I love the hardware I love the software I love its Fitness accuracy I love its Fitbit benefits and best of all I love the fact that it no longer feels like a Half Bake experiment Generation 3 is really where it's at as this product feels more mature than almost every other were OS watch I've used or smart watches for that matter I don't like the proprietary bands which pretty much make options dependent on how successful the watch is and we know that hasn't necessarily been the case I don't like that Fitbit limits quick watch switches even between compatible devices I don't like that Fitbit is not a weos benefit which means switching away from a pixel
watch pretty much means your information gets stuck there it leaves me in this weird situation because I'm not sure if you've noticed how some other watch owners behave with the Apple watch I like being able to switch to my Garmin getting my half marathon done noting that watch has better endurance and then switching back to my Apple watch for everything else doing this is either not easy or pretty impossible with the pixel watch which then lacks the versatility of not necessarily being the best watch for rougher or prolong activities bottom line sure I'd blindly recommend the pixel watch 3 to anyone who wants the best were experience and doesn't need to switch away from this
watch for more intense activities its price and features are just too good but then again so long as you know you're going to live on this ecosystem for a bit if Fitness Matters to you let me know if you agree with our assessment in the comments down below and while you're addit follow us on social media and subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one you can also follow me on my personal hand those to see me actually like a pixel watch for the first time ever please give this video a thumbs up if you like what you saw I'm ha thanks so much for watching we'll see you on the next one
