I've worn both new Pixel Watch 3 models, and I'm ready to go big

Even though today’s Made by Google event was mostly focused on the Pixel 9 series, Google had way more to show us than just four new phones. On top of the new Google Pixel Buds Pro 2, the company also gave us a look at the new Pixel Watch 3. Most notably, the third iteration of Google’s smartwatch comes in two sizes this year — something fans have asked for since the original launched in 2022.

I had the opportunity to try out both the 41mm and 45mm versions of the Google Pixel Watch 3 about a week ago. Now that the products are official, I can finally tell you about my experience using them!

Google Pixel Watch 3 design: Same but bigger

While it’s great news that Google is finally offering the Pixel Watch in a larger size, that doesn’t mean it’s completely reinvented the look and feel of the smartwatch. After all, the previous Pixel watches have been some of the better Wear OS smartwatches you can buy, so why mess with success? In fact, the Pixel Watch 3’s 41mm case is virtually indistinguishable from the Pixel Watch 2 — or the original Pixel Watch, for that matter.

To be clear, that means an aluminum case in various colors with a color-matched digital crown on the side next to the side button, which is flush against the case. The proprietary band attachment mechanism also makes a return, allowing you to keep using any of your Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2 bands with the 41mm Pixel Watch 3. However, thanks to its increase in size, you will need to buy all new bands for the 45mm Pixel Watch 3, as the attachment system has also increased in size for that model.

The bottom line here, though, is that if you loved/hated the Pixel Watch or Pixel Watch 2’s design, you’re going to feel the same way about the Pixel Watch 3. Although there are some subtle changes, anyone just glancing at your wrist will not be able to deduce which model you own.

One thing that has changed, though, is the bezel surrounding the display. On the 41mm model, Google shrunk that bezel by about 16%, giving you a bit more screen real estate. It’s not a drastic change, but any bezel shrinkage is welcome. In the photo below, you can see the bezels, thanks to the flashlight app being turned on.

In the photo next to the flashlight pic, you can also see how Google uses the extra display space on the 45mm model. The two watches you see there are using the same watch face, but thanks to the larger display on the 45mm version, you can see extra rings around the edge when compared to the 41mm model. This is just one example of Google making the most out of the extra space — there are a lot more littered throughout various watch faces, settings pages, and apps.

I’ve been using the Pixel Watch 2 since it launched last year, and I noticed almost no differences with the Pixel Watch 3 in terms of operation. Navigating with the crown was smooth, and the haptic responses were crisp. Swipes and taps on the display were snappy, and neither watch felt too heavy or bulky on my wrist.

Interestingly, that was one of the things that surprised me the most about the Pixel Watch 3’s 45mm case. I know lots of people complained about the small size of the Pixel Watch, but I really love the 41mm case. I was worried the 45mm case of the Pixel Watch 3 would be too big, but it really wasn’t. It’s bigger, yeah, but not so much bigger that I would call it “large.” It certainly felt svelte and even downright tiny compared to the Galaxy Watch Ultra, which was a gargantuan monster on my wrist. I felt right at home with the 45mm watch — so much so that that’s definitely the size I will get for myself when pre-orders open.

Finally, you’ll want to know about colors. Thanks to the different sizes, there are unique colors for each variant. Both the 41mm and 45mm cases come in Matte Black with an Obsidian Active Band and Polished Silver with a Porcelain Active Band. However, the 41mm model has two exclusive colorways: a Champagne Gold case with a Hazel Active Band and a Polished Silver case with a Rose Quartz Active Band. Meanwhile, the 45mm model has one exclusive colorway: a Matte Hazel case with a Hazel Active Band. Personally, I’m probably going with the 45mm Matte Hazel case or the Matte Black case — I haven’t fully decided yet, but those were my two favorites.

Displays upgraded, among other new specs

Just because Google didn’t change the design that much doesn’t mean there are no upgrades here. In fact, Google brought in three upgrades that should substantially increase the usability of the Pixel Watch 3.

First, the display is capable of getting much brighter as well as much dimmer. Previously, the Pixel Watch 2 had a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, but the Pixel Watch 3 can go up to 2,000 nits. This should help you better see what’s on display on bright, sunny days. On the flip side, the display can now get as dim as just one nit, which will help when you don’t want a bright display. This will help you check the time in a dark theatre without irritating your seat neighbors, for example. I couldn’t do any objective testing of just how bright/dim the watches got in my limited time using them, but it certainly got brighter and dimmer than my Pixel Watch 2. We’ll be able to get you more data on this when we do our formal reviews.

Second, the display also has an adaptive refresh rate for the first time on a Pixel Watch. This means it can go as low as 1Hz or as high as 60Hz. This should make a significant difference in battery life. For example, on previous Pixel Watch models, your always-on display (AOD) is always refreshing at either 30 or 60 times per second. That’s a total waste of power. The Pixel Watch 3’s AODs, by contrast, will only refresh once per second. This could be a game-changer for longevity.

Third, the 41mm model of the Pixel Watch 3 charges faster than any Pixel Watch before it. Google claims it is up to 20% faster than the Pixel Watch 2. While this is great news, Google curiously didn’t make any claims about charging speeds for the 45mm model. This might be because of the differences in battery sizes across the two models.

Speaking of which, the battery in the 45mm model is a 420mAh cell, which is about 35% larger than the 306mAh cell in the 41mm model (this remains unchanged from the Pixel Watch 2). It’s unclear for now how much this will affect overall battery life, considering the extra juice will at least partially be negated by the larger display. Time will tell on that one.

The other core specs of the Pixel Watch 3 remain unchanged year-over-year. That means the same processors — a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 5100 for performance tasks and a Cortex M33 co-processor for efficiency tasks — and the same 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. However, the performance of the Pixel Watch 2 was never an issue — battery life was the main problem. From the upgrades we see in the Pixel Watch 3, it’s clear Google put all its focus on that, so I have no issues with it leaving the other specs alone.

New health features, including Premium features going free

As with the two previous Pixel Watch models, the Pixel Watch 3 relies on Fitbit integration for its health-tracking features. All the features you’ve come to know and love are here, including activity tracking, sleep tracking, SpO2, cEDA, ECG, and the optical heart rate sensor that checks you every second of every day — still the only watch on the market that does this. On top of all these, Google is introducing a few new health-focused features to the Pixel Watch 3.

The one I’m most excited about is Auto-Bedtime. On the Pixel Watch 2 and original Pixel Watch, you must manually enable Bedtime mode or use various workarounds to get it to trigger automatically at a certain time or with a specific action on your phone. With Auto-Bedtime, though, the Pixel Watch 3 will turn Bedtime mode on or off based on your detected sleep patterns. Now you can just get into bed, turn off the light, and the Pixel Watch 3 will enter Bedtime mode on its own. When you wake up, it will switch back into the normal mode automatically, too. Amazing!

With the Fitbit app on your phone, you can now plan out your workout, specifically your runs. You can plan out your route, pace, breaks, and goals and then instantly send it to your watch. Then you can head out for the run leaving your phone behind. During that run, you’ll get real-time guidance and feedback based on your plan.

As part of this new system, you’ll also see support for offline Google Maps. Even if you don’t have a connection during your run, Maps will still work properly. Do note that this is not the same as the offline mapping feature on your phone. You can’t download specific maps to your watch and then use them offline for navigation and directions — this is specifically for your preset workouts.

Google is also bringing in some new pre- and post-workout features and, most notably, moving some features out of Fitbit Premium and making them free for anyone who owns a Pixel Watch 3. First, Fitbit’s Readiness Score is exiting Premium on the Pixel Watch 3. This numerical score gives you an idea of how ready you are for your workouts based on your health data from the previous day. A high score means you should push yourself, while a low score means you should either go easy on yourself or take a rest day.

In tandem with the new free Readiness Score, we have Cardio Load and Target Load features. Cardio Load lets you know if you are over- or under-training yourself based on the past seven days of training. Target Load will give you customized targets you should be trying to hit based on all your previous data. As a simple example of this, 10,000 daily steps is a noble goal, but sometimes that’s not the correct number. On days when your Readiness Score is high, maybe you should go for 15,000 steps. On days when your Readiness Score is low, maybe you should go for 6,000. Target Load will help you with these decisions.

Finally, there’s one other health feature coming to the Pixel Watch 3 that will also not be locked behind Fitbit Premium: Morning Brief. This feature will give you a daily digest in the morning that provides data, suggestions, and encouragement for your upcoming day.

So many other new features!

I know it seems like we’ve already gone over so much, but Google isn’t done tossing new things at the Pixel Watch 3 line. Here are six other new features you’ll be able to enjoy with your new smartwatch:

• Wear OS 5: Up until today, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra were the only watches with Wear OS 5. The Pixel Watch 3 now joins the club. The most notable aspect of Wear OS 5 is battery efficiency. At Google I/O, the company told us that every single aspect of the OS has been tweaked to make the hardware more battery-efficient. When you combine this with the hardware upgrades of the Pixel Watch 3, we have high hopes for battery stats.
• Ultra-wideband: The Pixel Watch 3, for the first time, has an ultra-wideband (UWB) chip. This will allow the watch to do proximity-related functions, such as securely unlock your phone or even your car door, if that’s supported. It is possible (and even likely) that Google will roll out more features utilizing the UWB chip in time.
• Google Home: You can now add Google Home-related actions to the Home tile on Wear OS, giving you quick access to controls such as lights, climate, locks, etc. Your Nest-branded cameras and smart doorbells are also now visible right on your watch. Nest Doorbell owners can now see when someone rings the doorbell and even communicate with the person at the door, all on the Pixel Watch 3.
• Google TV: In tandem with the new Google TV Streamer, Google is bringing TV controls to your watch. On supported TVs, you’ll be able to change apps, increase/lower the volume, and more without needing to touch your physical remote. Need the remote for something, and you can’t find it? You can put your remote into “chirp” mode from your wrist so you can figure out where it ran off to.
• Call Assist: Google has expanded Call Assist features to the Pixel Watch 3. Call Assist is a feature on Pixel phones that will have Google Assistant answer your phone calls for you to deduce whether or not it’s someone you really want to talk to. If it is, Assistant will place the person on hold and then alert you. Now, this can all happen on your wrist.
• Pixel Recorder: Although this feature is not rolling out immediately with the Pixel Watch 3, Google says most of the Recorder features you enjoy on your Pixel phone will soon be available on your Pixel Watch 3. It is unclear when this will roll out.

Google Pixel Watch 3 specs

The Google Pixel Watch 3’s new sizing split means we have slightly different specs across the two models. You can see how they compare to one another in the table below.

Google Pixel Watch 3 hands-on review: This is how you upgrade

I’ll fully admit that when the original Pixel Watch launched, I scoffed at it — big time. At the time, my Fitbit Sense did more than the Pixel Watch and had much, much better battery life. The Pixel Watch 2, though, finally brought over everything I loved about the Fitbit Sense and made the battery life good enough that I could stomach abandoning the Sense. I made the switch and, honestly, have been loving it.

That all being said, I am absolutely pre-ordering the 45mm Pixel Watch 3 today. The larger size felt great on my wrist, and the new upgrades and features I’ve described in this article make it a tangibly better product in all areas, from battery life to health to integration with the larger Pixel ecosystem.

To me, pre-ordering is a no-brainer when you take into consideration these upgrades and the fact that pricing is still quite reasonable. The 41mm model in its Wi-Fi variant is the same price as last year: $349. The 41mm LTE model did jump up by $50, though, now costing $449 as compared to last year’s $399. Meanwhile, the 45mm Wi-Fi-only and LTE models are $399 and $499, respectively.

Obviously, these are not low prices. You can get a Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Watch 7 ($299.99 at Amazon) for a lot less money. However, I’m neck-deep in the Pixel ecosystem, and the way this watch integrates with my other Pixel devices is absolutely worth a premium. Plus, like I said, there are so many new features and upgrades this year that the price is reasonable, in my eyes.

Even if you decide against upgrading this year, there’s no arguing that Google hasn’t delivered in 2024. Most of the attributes of the Pixel Watch 3 are better than last year, and what hasn’t been upgraded simply hasn’t changed. You can’t ask for much more than that when it comes to a new device sequel.

What do you think? Has Google knocked it out of the park with the Pixel Watch 3, or should it have done even more? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned for our full review coming soon!