Leaked marketing materials all but confirm the upcoming smartwatch will debut dual-frequency GPS

Just when we thought there was nothing left to know about the Google Pixel Watch 4, a fresh leak has revealed a key hardware upgrade for runners and outdoor athletes.

A trove of what appears to be official marketing material, posted by the reliable leaker Evan Blass, has all but confirmed that the new watch will feature dual-frequency GPS.

While the leaked materials confirm many previously rumored or suspected details—such as the heavy Gemini focus, a super-bright 3,000-nit ‘Actua 360’ display, and improved battery life of up to 40 hours on the larger model—the inclusion of dual-frequency GPS is the most significant new hardware revelation.

As we’ve seen from various watchmakers over the last few years, this provides a step beyond standard GPS tracking, allowing the watch to receive signals from multiple satellite frequencies simultaneously. Depending on the implementation, this can dramatically improve location tracking accuracy, especially in challenging environments like dense forests and skyscraper villages.

The Wareable take

This is a feature Google needed to add to its spec sheet to be considered a serious competitor to high-end watches from Samsung, Garmin, and Apple. However, as we’ve said many times here at Wareable, simply having the hardware is no guarantee of better performance.

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The addition of dual-frequency GPS is a big deal on paper, but the real test is in the execution. We’ve already begun to see this feature trickle down to budget devices (most recently, Nothing’s CMF Watch 3 Pro), but that doesn’t mean the performance is always equal. In many cases, dual-frequency GPS on one brand can actually still be less accurate than the standard GPS tracking of gold-standard options like Apple and Garmin.

The real measure of this upgrade will be how well Google has tuned its antenna and algorithms to translate the hardware into genuinely better accuracy on the road and trail. And, encouragingly, our testing of the first three Pixel Watch generations has shown that this has never been an area of concern for the brand. So, we can only assume this addition will tighten GPS tracks even further.

With the official launch event expected on 20 August, we won’t have to wait long to get it on our wrist for testing and find out.