Pixel Watch 5(blog.google) |
Pixel Watch 5(blog.google) |
Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends
> Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breathing quality trends, and insulin resistance trends. Rolling out soon — with your first detailed summary arriving after one month of wear — these reports illuminate metabolic, respiratory and cardiovascular shifts early, giving you clear insights to help you take control of your long-term health. Plus, monthly summaries will soon be available across our wearable portfolio, including the new Google Fitbit Air.I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!
The nice strap they showed in the adverts broke instantly when I took it out of the box. Two pins sheared right off the in the middle of the band.
WearOS Apps are trash.
I wish I had gone garmin. ;(
Meanwhile, I had to wonder how many people take showers that are over half an hour every day.
https://youtu.be/3pQWBFBIU2U?si=HEefZLDiIurcBj5K&t=61
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+Watch+4+Battery+Re...
I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.
Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger)
And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two.
Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.
I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 945M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case).
The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.
I switched from a Garmin to an Apple Watch - which has less battery life - for some development work I had to do and it turned out I barely noticed.
Charge phone, charge watch, charge headphones just became a nightly checklist.
At least that's a major selling point for these smart watches
Pixel is for techies, Fitbit is their health tracking product.
Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit:
"When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time."
Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?
I thought about the Fitbit air, but being able to see your heart rate is kind of nice.
Apparently the GPS is computed in the cloud, which means this only works given LTE coverage or if you also carry your paired smartphone. https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/devices/pixel/pix...
> From the 2026 article: "But you also need really good AI to do it right"
So a feature from 2020 (albeit a cool one) is now brand new and AI powered? Did Google have good AI in 2020 and replace it with Gemini?
Is this a typo? I get 20 days on the Pebble Time 2.
Never once has this seemed like a problem or that I would want to wear my watch in the shower for some reason. It's shower plus getting dressed and brushing my teeth etc.
The Garmin Instinct 3 is my favorite tech purchase I have made in a very very long time.
I have always on display on, and all the tracking stuff on like Afib, sleep apnea, wrist temperature, noise levels, fall detection, etc. I typically do a 30 minute walk during lunch that I do a fitness activity for, and a 2 hour pickleball session most days of the week where I also fitness track it. I do not use low power mode, and by the next morning it's got the 10-20% left. It only takes about 15 minutes to charge from 10-20% to 80-90%.
I don't get the people that need to wear it 24/7 for days at a time.