Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsGoogle must have cut way too many corners to the point this watch is fairly useless
Reviewed in Canada on December 29, 2022
I've used several watches since the first Motorola with WearOS1. It's hard to believe that Google would finally make their own Pixel watch and it'll be so bad.
Where do I start from?
1) Sizes, ooops, size. While almost all other smartwatches come in 40-41mm (ladies) and 44-45mm, even 49mm (men), this Pixel watch came only small. If you are an average male who goes to the gym, you won't put this thing on your wrist.
2) Battery that doesn't last 8h no a watch that tries to sell you a Fitbit subscription for sleep analysis. If google is throwing in that 6m free subscription hoping they can provide software updates to make the watch last the night, well, that's a bad marketing move.
3) Yet another proprietary charger. The industry is doing well forcing USB-C for other devices but it must stop the Googles of the world from coming up with something that's like Qi but it's not. The battery charges fast but it's unpredictable as some days it dies after 5-6 hours (take off the charger at 7am, dead during lunch break). And once the battery dies you can't charge it on anything that anyone else has brought to the office - apple, Qi, Nomad, and even Samsung chargers work across all kinds of devices but NOT the Pixel Watch. Hey, even Apple figured out that much when it comes to their Apple Watch!
4) You can't use Google for Work profiles for anything on the Pixel Watch. Funny how your company could be a Microsoft shop, you'd use Outlook email for work on M365, install the Outlook watch face on your WearOS watch (even back years ago on WearOS 2) and have your agenda at a glance on your wrist. If you are in Google's ecosystem for both @gmail personal account and @company email via Google for Work, you can only see Calendar events on the Pixel Watch complications from your @gmail personal account. That's a deal breaker for anyone, like me, who wants to use the Pixel Watch at Work with Google's own Cloud for work account!
5) Watch might not work with every LTE provider in Canada! Google Support is the most useless one from any vendor I've worked with. It took them several weeks to conclude that they actually had published this https://support.google.com/googlepixelwatch/answer/12652073#networkinfo and no, the Pixel Watch doesn't work on Rogers, nor does it work on Freedom or any other smaller sub-brand. You must move your phone plan to either Bell or Telus. Really???? I recall using Apple Watch 5 (that's 3 generations back) on Rogers and it worked just fine all those years ago!
6) That bolted-on Fitbit! I had purchased and configured so many apps in the past to sync HealthMate, Samsung Health, MyFitnessPall, etc. to Google Fit and now Google is not even installing their own Fit app on the Pixel Watch?!?!? And that Fitbit app doesn't seem to pull that data from all the years I've been storing it in Fit! But if you install Fit, you can't map the buttons to start a workout. Supposedly the Fitbit app tracks something quietly and invisibly but how do you know that? My old Samsung Watch4 would start Samsung Health automatically and it'll show me what it tracks. It'll stop it after a workout automatically and also show me what it recorded.
7) Bands... yes, all those bands that you've collected with your previous watches. You can't use them. It's another money grab by Google and you must purchase their bands now.
The list of what's wrong with this watch is longer than the space provided for reviews here, that's how bad it is!
With all the things that Google sends to the graveyard, this should be next and now. While Google is refunding Stadia owners, they might as well refund Pixel Watch owners right now and stop the agony.