I’ll admit it: the Pixel Watch didn’t look all that spectacular in official renders. It was a round watch with a digital crown. Big whoop — it’s not like we haven’t seen smartwatches with a similar vibe earlier than. But these renders don’t actually do the Pixel Watch justice. In particular person, it’s truly much more spectacular.

Looking on the Pixel Watch, it actually does really feel like Google determined to provide some people the round Apple Watch they’ve been clamoring for. It’s obtained the curved glass show, a minimalist and techy really feel, a digital crown, and a flat facet button. Those components aren’t distinctive to Apple Watches, however they serve related capabilities right here. That mentioned, even with the Apple-esque design, it doesn’t stick out like a sore thumb if you put it subsequent to the Buds and Pixel 7. It very a lot feels prefer it matches inside the Pixel household.

The new Wear OS 3.5 UI additionally feels prefer it’s taken some cues from Apple’s watchOS. For occasion, urgent the facet button brings up your most up-to-date apps. You use the digital crown in the same method, too. It’s additionally virtually precisely the identical because the Fitbit Sense 2. In any case, the Pixel Watch appears like a definite departure from what Samsung’s doing on this house by way of each UI and design.

Having used virtually each iteration of Android Wear after which Wear OS, that is one of the best wearable interface Google’s ever put out. The bar was low, however I’m nonetheless glad it’s been cleared.

I wasn’t anticipating the Pixel Watch to be a comparatively small 41mm, particularly for the reason that watch solely is available in one dimension. The pattern this fall has been for smartwatch makers to go huge: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5 Pro solely is available in one dimension, and that’s a bigger, heavier 45mm. For no matter cause, I’d assumed the renders have been exhibiting me a 44–45mm watch… as a result of everybody’s been doing it. Given that, a smaller, light-weight, and comfortable watch is a pleasing shock. It’s positively tiny subsequent to the comically massive 49mm Apple Watch Ultra on my wrist. And whereas I recognize that bigger shows imply higher readability, the decision was nonetheless sharp, and it’s good to see the Pixel Watch doesn’t omit petite folks.

If you take a look at the Pixel Watch dead-on, you’ll see noticeable bezels on the show (which is a disgrace since there are not any sensors within the bezels, so it’s wasted house). That mentioned, the domed show additionally works a little bit of optical magic in order that they don’t look tremendous egregious. And since a lot of the watchfaces use a darkish background, you actually need to be searching for them. If you’re simply glancing at your wrist, it’s not going to leap out at you. But whereas the domed show does wonders for hiding bezels, I’m a bit cautious from a sturdiness standpoint. I can completely see this bumping and knocking into corners and furnishings. This isn’t sapphire crystal, so we’ll need to see how simply the Pixel Watch show scratches over time.

There gained’t be any third-party Pixel Watch bands at launch — so that you’re mainly caught with what Google’s providing till different producers can come out with their very own variations. The manner you connect the bands is definitely distinctive to the Pixel Watch. You snap them in through the facet as a substitute of beneath like most smartwatches. It actually took me a scorching second to get used to the mechanism. The button for the bands can also be tremendous delicate so that you won’t discover it in any respect. It’s speculated to really feel like a digicam lens, and it kind of does! I may see this being a little bit of a studying curve for people.

But it was shocking to see how a lot you may change the vibe of the watch utilizing totally different bands. The sportier bands connect straight, however the extra trendy life-style bands add a fake lug. That helps give the Pixel Watch a fancier really feel for extra formal events.

While I’ve solely flipped by means of just a few screens on demo models, efficiency appears snappy thus far. I used to be a smidge nervous when it turned out that these watches have been, in truth, utilizing a last-gen processor. However, I’m optimistic in regards to the 2GB of RAM and the co-processor maybe making up for that. We’ll need to see in additional testing, particularly with regard to the battery.

The Pixel Watch is obtainable for preorder beginning at present and is predicted to hit cabinets beginning October thirteenth. We’ll be placing the Pixel Watch by means of its paces within the meantime, so hold your eyes peeled for our evaluate.