Everything you need to know about the Google Pixel Watch 3

Google has had a rocky start with smartwatches so far. The first Pixel Watch, while interesting, left much to be desired. The Pixel Watch 2 was a much better showing, though it wasn’t perfect. Now, hoping to crack the smartwatch code once and for all, Google has announced the Pixel Watch 3.

The Pixel Watch 3 finally comes in two body sizes, including a 41mm and a 45mm frame. This is great news for anyone who found the previous Pixel Watches too small for their wrists and helps to fix a common bugbear with the range.

But adding a new size isn’t the only thing Google has added to the Pixel Watch 3. This new Android smartwatch has had a significant makeover that increases the size of the display while still preserving the unique style of the Pixel Watch. Not all additions are cosmetic, too, and the Pixel Watch 3 will include new features for exercise, AI-powered daily recommendations, and energy monitoring. Interested? Here’s everything you need to know.

Google Pixel Watch 3: price and availability

Prices for the 41mm body start at $349 and rise to $449 for an LTE connection. The 45mm variant starts at $399 and costs $499 for an LTE connection. It’s available in several color and band options and can be found in several retailers and online stores. As ever with smartwatches, it’s worth checking out the options in person so you can see which body size fits you best.

Preorders for the Pixel Watch 3 are live as of August 13, although regular sales won’t begin until September 10.

Google Pixel Watch 3: specs

Google Pixel Watch 3: hands-on

We’ve had a chance to try the Google Pixel Watch 3 ahead of our full review. In short, our first impressions are good!

The addition of a new size this year is fantastic, and the 45mm Pixel Watch 3 looks and feels fantastic in person. It’s not too bulky like the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, yet it feels much more substantial (in a good way) than the smaller 41mm size. The reduced bezels this year are excellent, too, and fix one of our biggest complaints about the previous two Pixel Watch generations.

There’s only so much we can say about the Pixel Watch 3 based on a limited hands-on session, but it’s certainly off to a good start, and we can’t wait to spend more time with it soon.

Google Pixel Watch 3: design and display

The Pixel Watch 3 doesn’t depart enormously from the formula we’ve seen in previous Google smartwatches, but there are some changes worth highlighting. Google has shrunk the bezels down, a very welcome move when you consider how large the original Pixel Watch’s bezels were. This results in an additional 40% usable display.

The displays themselves have also been upgraded. These Actua displays can reach a brightness of 2,000 nits and reach as low as a single nit. The refresh rate can adapt from 1Hz to 60Hz, and there have also been some big updates to power efficiency, which should help the battery life.

They should also be fairly durable, protected with Gorilla Glass 5, and offering an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, plus a 5ATM rating as well. In other words, you shouldn’t think twice about taking this watch swimming, though it won’t be suitable for diving.

Google Pixel Watch 3: health and fitness tracking

With Fitbit’s excellence built into the Pixel Watch 3, you can be sure you’re getting strong fitness and health tracking. The new Pixel Watch has all the usual fitness tracking options, including step counting, heart rate, blood-oxygen tracking, options to track a range of exercises, and automatic tracking for a smaller number of workouts.

Google has upgraded the Pixel Watch’s run tracking abilities and has added the option to create running plans from your watch or smartphone app, as well as guidance to keep you at your target pace. Advanced motion tracking can keep an eye on your running form and let you know if you should improve your basics. Each day, an AI-powered coach will let you know its recommendation for a daily run for you so you can always be pushing yourself.

How does it know what to recommend? That’s thanks to three new features: Readiness, Cardio Load, and Target Load. Readiness is similar to the Energy Score we saw introduced on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Ring — it keeps an eye on your daily activity, exercise, and how you slept, and uses that data to predict how energized you are for the next day. Cardio Load and Target Load are slightly different: They monitor how hard your heart and body are working during workouts, and keep you on target to not overdo it and risk injury.

The watch will also now automatically detect when you’re asleep and put itself into Bedtime Mode when triggered. That means shutting off the always-on display, disabling notifications, and ratcheting down battery use. It’s a handy little feature, and anyone who’s had their watch unexpectedly light up like a Christmas tree at night will appreciate it.

All of these features are available for free, except for the AI coach, which requires a Fitbit Premium membership.

Google Pixel Watch 3: performance and battery

The Pixel 3 has the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 processor, which is similar to the chip from the Pixel Watch 2. It’s a solid processor, and Google made a lot of the way the chip has been tuned to handle running multiple processes at once. It has a dual-chip architecture, which can focus on separate needs at the same time; perhaps one part of the chip will handle animations, while another will make sure your step count or heart rate monitoring continues unabated. It’s not likely you’ll notice much of a difference in real-life use, but that’s not a bad thing, as the Pixel Watch 2 had a snappy performance.

The two case sizes mean there are two differently sized batteries in these watches. The 41mm model has a 306mAh cell, while the 45mm has a 420mAh battery. The 41mm model’s battery is the same size as that in the Pixel Watch 2, so it’s likely that the size of the Pixel Watch 3 will last a similar amount of time. That means a day to a day-and-a-half of life off a single charge, which isn’t bad for a smartwatch. We’ll have to wait and see whether the 45mm Pixel Watch 3’s larger battery means a much longer battery life, but it’s worth keeping in mind it’s running a larger screen, so it has a heavier load.

Google has boosted the charging speed, though, and claims it’s now 20% faster than the Pixel Watch 2. According to Google, the smaller Pixel Watch 3 will take an hour to charge to full, while the larger 45mm model will take 80 minutes.

Google Pixel Watch 3: software and updates

The Pixel Watch 3 comes with Wear OS 5, and Google has made a big push to add more cross-device connectivity. The Pixel Watch 3 will play well with other Google devices. For instance, you’ll be able to view your Nest cameras from your wrist and even talk to people through your Nest Doorbell. The watch can also become a remote for Google TV, and there’s also an app for Recorder, UWB-powered phone unlock, more camera controls, and more Call Assist features.