What the Pixel Watch 3 Needs to Become the Smartwatch to Beat

Even although the Pixel Watch 2 was a major improve over the unique, there’s loads of room for enchancment within the Pixel Watch 3. Among the largest modifications I hope to see this yr is longer battery life. Google is not alone; attaining multiday battery life is a problem for a lot of smartwatch producers, together with Apple and Samsung. Yet as well being monitoring continues to change into an even bigger a part of the attraction behind smartwatches, battery life that reliably lasts for greater than a day or two is essential. It would flip the Pixel Watch right into a extra succesful sleep tracker, which is essential for measuring wellness.But battery life is only one manner I hope to see the Pixel Watch enhance with Google’s subsequent mannequin. More well being readings that do not require a Fitbit Premium subscription, new wellness metrics and extra dimension choices are additionally on my checklist. Google sometimes releases a brand new Pixel Watch and Pixel telephones in October, so we’re anticipating it to take care of that launch schedule in 2024. Read extra: Smart Rings Are Picking Up Where Fitness Trackers Left OffLonger battery life Google Pixel Watch 2 with the charger connected James Martin/CNETIt looks as if battery life will all the time be the Achilles heel of smartwatches. Like its important Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch rivals, the Pixel Watch 2 normally lasts for a couple of day on a single cost. But Google did make some enhancements between the first- and second-gen Pixel watches by enabling the newer mannequin to final for 24 hours with the always-on show activated. With that in thoughts, I hope to see extra enhancements with the following model.There’s another excuse to be optimistic concerning the Pixel Watch 3’s battery life. Google lately made modifications to the way in which its Wear OS working system switches between the watch’s important processor and secondary low-power co-processor, which ought to enhance energy effectivity and lengthen battery life. Light duties comparable to surfacing notifications out of your telephone ought to require much less energy. That’s excellent news for all Wear OS watches, not simply Google’s subsequent Pixel Watch, and we noticed these enhancements at work within the new OnePlus Watch 2. This improved energy effectivity mixed with any updates Google might make to the Pixel Watch 3’s battery might end in a noticeable enhance in longevity. And that is necessary contemplating health monitoring instruments from Fitbit (which Google owns) play an enormous position in serving to the Pixel Watch stand out from different Wear OS smartwatches. Sleep is a significant a part of the wellness equation, and it is troublesome to trace slumber constantly if you must cost your watch each evening. Another dimension possibility The Google Pixel Watch 2. Richard Peterson/CNETLike its predecessor, the Pixel Watch 2 is accessible in a single 41-millimeter dimension. That’s advantageous for somebody like me, since I’ve a small wrist, however I think about others might discover the Pixel Watch 2’s display too small. My former colleague Stephen Shankland mentioned metrics will be arduous to see on the Pixel Watch 2 when mountain biking, for instance.Other smartwatches can be found in two sizes to accommodate completely different wrists. The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, for instance, is available in 40mm and 44mm dimension choices, whereas Apple sells the Series 9 in 41mm and 45mm sizes. But Google is not the one one sticking with a single dimension. The OnePlus Watch 2 and TicWatch Pro 5 additionally solely provide one possibility, though their respective watches skew on the bigger aspect. Google might the truth is take a web page from Samsung and Apple’s ebook with the following Pixel Watch. According to a report from 9to5Google, the Pixel Watch 3 will are available a brand new 45mm dimension possibility alongside the present 41mm dimension. New big-picture well being metrics Workout choices on the Pixel Watch 2. Lisa Eadicicco/CNETFitbit launched its Daily Readiness Score in 2021, which charges how rested you’re primarily based on elements like exercise, sleep and coronary heart charge variability. But in 2024, I’d wish to see Google take {that a} step additional to extra clearly distinguish itself from rivals like Oura and Garmin.The current model of the Daily Readiness Score can already present bits of recommendation which can be tailor-made to your current sleep and exercise. For instance, in case your readiness is “good,” the app may suggest that you just train reasonably with out overdoing it. I believe Fitbit might do extra on this space with a broader kind of ranking that pulls in different knowledge factors like stress. Fitbit already has a separate Stress Management Score that reveals how your physique is dealing with stress, together with how exercise and sleep affect your stress ranges. But it will be fascinating to see a blanket metric that ties elements like readiness and stress ranges collectively to color a extra complete image of your present state. It’s unclear precisely what’s subsequent for the Fitbit app, however Google is planning some massive modifications for this yr. Fitbit Labs, a program that can use AI to additional join the dots between well being knowledge factors, will arrive for Fitbit Premium members later in 2024. With Fitbit Labs, you’ll ask questions like why a run felt harder right this moment in comparison with yesterday, as the corporate talked about in its Made by Google keynote final yr when introducing this system. But in a newer dialog with CNET, Google’s Ajay Surie additionally mentioned the tech could possibly be used to assist Fitbit customers set up health targets.”We also see a huge potential for AI to help us drive the right recommendations for the goals you want to set,” he mentioned. “Because one of the biggest problems that we see in health, and I have this problem too, is getting users to stay focused and sticking with what they’re trying to achieve.”More with out Fitbit Premium Google Pixel Watch 2 and Google Pixel 8 with the Fitbit app. James Martin/CNETWith the free Fitbit app, you may nonetheless observe exercise, sleep and coronary heart charge and think about some traits associated to your well being metrics. But lots of the holistic knowledge factors that present extra context require a Fitbit Premium subscription, which prices $10 monthly. The Daily Readiness Score talked about above is just obtainable with a subscription, for instance, as is Fitbit Labs and Fitbit’s month-to-month personalised sleep evaluation device. While you may see your sleep and stress scores with out Premium, you want a subscription to get the total breakdown behind these scores.Charging a subscription for well being and health teaching companies is not unusual. Oura equally costs $6 a month, and the Whoop band requires a hefty $239 annual membership. But I’d wish to see Google present extra underneath the free tier, even when it is only a watered-down model of the Daily Readiness Score. Doing so would make the Pixel Watch a extra helpful health tracker out of the field, which is necessary now that Google is going through new competitors from OnePlus and Samsung. Both firms make Wear OS watches however do not require a subscription for any of their well being monitoring options. Samsung can be launching new wellness metrics like My Vitality Score and Booster Cards within the Samsung Health app later this yr. A better assistant Google’s AI assistant Gemini introduces itself on a telephone. Google/Screenshot by Lisa Lacy/CNETGoogle already introduced its Gemini AI mannequin to smartphones, and I hope smartwatches are subsequent. The present model of the Google Assistant is already loads responsive and is useful for duties like setting timers, checking the climate and shortly beginning a exercise. But there are many methods I might see a extra superior assistant being helpful on a smartwatch. What if a extra highly effective model of the Google Assistant might summarize incoming notifications or emails for you, moderately than simply surfacing them in your wrist? With a display as small because the Pixel Watch’s, having an assistant that may minimize down on the variety of occasions you must faucet, swipe and scroll is necessary. And a wiser model of the Google Assistant would seemingly do exactly that.But after Gemini’s picture creation device got here underneath hearth for creating pictures of folks that have been traditionally inaccurate, it would not be shocking for Google to decelerate its enlargement to new gadgets. Longer software program assist Google Pixel Watch 2 and Google Pixel 8  James Martin/CNETGoogle gives three years of software program updates for the Pixel Watch. While that is not horrible, the corporate provides for much longer assist for its Pixel telephones. The Pixel 8 household will get new variations of Android for seven years, which makes the Pixel Watch’s three-year timeline appear quick by comparability. Smartphones are a way more vital a part of on a regular basis life in comparison with smartwatches, so it is sensible that Google would assist Pixel telephones for an extended time frame. Still, I’d at the very least wish to see Google match Samsung, which helps its Galaxy Watch 6 lineup with 5 years of software program updates. Only Google is aware of what’s subsequent for the Pixel Watch and its different merchandise. But a long-lasting Pixel Watch with extra superior well being monitoring and a wiser digital assistant would make Google’s subsequent watch the one to beat.