Choice is good — especially when it comes to wearables. Human bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and there’s no such thing as one size fits all. Until Tuesday’s Made by Google 2024 event, the Pixel Watch has only been available in one size: 41mm.
Announced Tuesday, the Pixel Watch 3 adds some much-welcomed choice to the line. In addition to the 41mm model, the smartwatch will also be available in 45mm. Both versions sport larger screens than the Pixel Watch 2, owing in part to smaller bezels.
The display is now brighter as well, jumping from a peak of 1,000 to 2,000 nits — a nice improvement for a device designed to be checked in daylight. The AMOLED display packs a 320 ppi density, with a refresh rate up to 60 Hz.
The chip remains unchanged from last year’s model. It’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 5100, with a Cortex M33 co-processor. The battery is the same size as well, on the 41mm at 306 mAh, whereas the 45mm version’s is 420 mAh. Google is claiming the same 24 hours of battery life with the always-on display enabled. With Battery Saver mode, the life jumps to 36 hours.
That’s a nice bump over the Apple Watch’s stated 18 hours of life. Battery continues to be that product’s biggest sticking point. The OnePlus Watch 2, meanwhile, is on the other end of the spectrum at up to 100 hours. That comes courtesy of a dual-engine architecture, which switches processors to dramatically decrease power consumption.
The other noteworthy bits are on the software side. Fitness is a core feature, as Google’s 2021 Fitbit acquisition continues to be foundational for the watch. The company is getting more serious about appealing to the running community with the Watch 3. It uses a combination of motion sensing and machine learning to form a fuller picture of things like cadence, stride length and vertical oscillation.
A new running dashboard maintains all of those metrics in a single spot.
“Create a variety of running routines — add timed warmups and cool downs, set target pace, heart rate, times, and distances, or even set up interval routines with repeats,” Google writes. “Plan, execute, and reflect to beat your best. Then execute your saved run routines with real-time on-wrist guidance via audio and haptic cues.”
The company is still trying to upsell “serious” runners on the $10 a month Fitbit Premium membership. That upgrade leverages Google AI, combined with past runs to create workout goals.
The Fitbit app now offers a Morning Brief feature as well. That includes sleep metrics, a “readiness score,” weekly goals and other health numbers. Weather’s in there as well, for a better picture of what the morning run will look like.
The 41mm starts at $350 for the Wi-Fi model and $450 for LTE. The 45mm version runs $400 for Wi-Fi and $500 for LTE.
