![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0441.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759943887_591_257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0441.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n$350<\/p>\n
The GoodAll-around better battery and fast-chargingMaterial 3 Expressive design refresh is smartBetter auto activity trackingRaise-to-Talk is quite naturalDomed display looks quite niceRepairability!Satellite SOSThe BadThird proprietary charger in four yearsGemini is still hit or missGPS maps are better, but still a bit wonky<\/p>\n
The latest Pixel Watch doesn\u2019t upend Google\u2019s design language. It still comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes and looks the same on your wrist. But move closer, and you\u2019ll start seeing the differences.<\/p>\n
The curve of the domed Actua 360 display is particularly noticeable on the 45mm watch. The bezels are 16 percent thinner, giving you 10 percent more screen real estate. The curve was most noticeable whenever I was scrolling through menus. Google\u2019s Material 3 Expressive software design change is a smart refresh. Tiles hug the edge of the domed display, and animations and buttons are larger with more rounded edges. You can fit more information on a single screen, and the playful design gives the Pixel Watch 4 a more distinctive flavor than before. When paired with a Pixel phone, the devices match each other\u2019s color themes, giving a more cohesive overall vibe.<\/p>\n
The battery life is excellent this time around. <\/p>\n The display is also brighter, maxing out at 3,000 nits, on par with the Apple Watch Ultra 3. It\u2019s easier to view in direct sunlight.<\/p>\n But battery life is the biggest hardware bump this year. Combined with the new power-efficient processors and Wear OS 6\u2019s performance improvements, the watch lasts noticeably longer on a single charge thanks to larger batteries. My colleague Allison Johnson regularly got about a day and a half with the smaller 41mm watch. I\u2019ve been testing the 45mm and got 45 hours on my first full charge. That well exceeds the maximum 32 hours I got on a rundown test of last year\u2019s Pixel Watch 3<\/a>. I\u2019ve regularly been getting about 36 to 42 hours with the always-on display enabled.<\/p>\n It has impressive fast charging, too. I placed the Pixel Watch 4 on the charger at 6:44AM with 14 percent battery. By 7:18AM, I was up to 97 percent. I\u2019m so impressed with the faster charging time that I\u2019m willing to forgive that we now have a third proprietary Pixel Watch charger in four years.<\/p>\n Lastly, while I was swapping straps, I was excited to see the screws that let you open up the watch. Wired<\/a> has an in-depth teardown, but you\u2019ll be able to replace the battery and display yourself. Components will eventually be available through iFixit, and you\u2019ll also be able to get the watch repaired through Google. While we haven\u2019t wrecked a Pixel Watch since the second-gen device, the design is prone to getting banged up. In the past, Google hasn\u2019t done<\/a> a great job<\/a> on this front, so this is a welcome development.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve written a bit about Gemini on the wrist<\/a> this summer. Many of my gripes remain. It\u2019s still not intuitive when you should use it over the phone, multi-step queries have a fair bit of latency, and it\u2019s not always clear how it differs from Google Assistant. That said, the Pixel Watch 4\u2019s implementation of it is sleeker than Samsung\u2019s.<\/p>\n The first is the Raise-to-Talk gesture. It\u2019s what it sounds like. You raise your wrist, and Gemini wakes up. You don\u2019t have to make any outlandish Power Ranger-like movements. Raise-to-Talk queries didn\u2019t always work until I tweaked the voice sensitivity options, which are buried in gesture settings.<\/p>\n The display now gets up to 3,000 nits.<\/p>\n The screws aren\u2019t proprietary and allow for a more serviceable watch.<\/p>\n This particular watchface shows off the curved display well.<\/p>\n You can see much more on a single Tile now.<\/p>\n The revamped Gemini Tile is more useful. You can now save two \u201cshortcuts\u201d to frequent Gemini queries like \u201csummarize my last email\u201d or \u201cturn off all my lights.\u201d (I use the latter daily; the former was not as useful.)<\/p>\n There are two other \u201csmart\u201d AI features on the wrist. One is Smart Replies, which offers more personalized replies to your messages. It requires that you\u2019re paired with at least a Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel 9 series, or Pixel 10 series phone. However, 95 percent of my text messages are either too long and juicy to use this or are so mundane that typical canned replies are sufficient. Notification cooldown is a new feature that\u2019s supposed to change how frequently you\u2019re notified without needing a do-not-disturb mode. Let\u2019s just say I still get a bazillion notifications from my Nest Doorbell.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t gotten to test the new AI-powered Fitbit Health Coach yet<\/a>. That\u2019s not coming until later this month. But the Pixel Watch 4 has a few notable health and fitness tracking changes.<\/p>\n The big one is improved activity detection. The watch will automatically record certain cardio activities for at least 15 minutes. You\u2019ll get a notification and activity recap within an hour of finishing. You can also train the AI to better recognize certain activities over others, like trail runs versus road runs.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a new sleep algorithm too. It was mostly on par with my Oura Ring and Eight Sleep mattress.<\/p>\n I tried this for both walks and runs. It accurately recorded activity type and start and end times. I\u2019m bad at tracking walks, so this was a nice perk. Allison also told me that the feature worked well for her cycling sessions. However, this feature doesn\u2019t yet work for anything that isn\u2019t a walk, run, bike ride, spinning, rowing, elliptical, or team sport workout.<\/p>\n The Pixel Watch 4 also adds dual-frequency GPS, which is supposed to improve route maps in challenging terrain like cities or dense forests. I was looking forward to this, since Pixel Watch (and Fitbit) GPS maps have historically taken creative licenses with my runs. Across five runs, I noticed a marked improvement. But when compared to the maps of the same runs recorded on the Ultra 3? Fitbit still has some work to do.<\/p>\n Emergency satellite SOS is limited to when you\u2019re actually in danger without access to cellular connectivity. Like with the Apple Watch Ultra 3<\/a>, that wasn\u2019t a scenario I found myself in, despite trekking up three mountains in dense state forests over the past few weeks. You can try a satellite demo (though this doesn\u2019t actually connect you to a satellite), but it\u2019s more helpful to think of this as a backup safety feature than a primary means of emergency communication.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a sleek watch that I\u2019ve enjoyed wearing, even if Gemini is still hit or miss. The AI is great for reminders or turning off smart lights, though.<\/p>\n The Android watch to beat<\/p>\n For so long, Samsung has been the dominant name in the Android wearable space. But after a relatively static Galaxy Watch 8<\/a>, I\u2019m confident the Pixel Watch 4 is now the best Android smartwatch in terms of price, feature set, and design.<\/p>\n Sure, OnePlus has better overall battery life with its smartwatches. Yeah, Samsung has a physical rotating bezel on the Classic watches. But if I look at which company has the whole package, and a vision<\/a> about where Android smartwatches should go next? I gotta hand it to Google and the Pixel Watch 4.<\/p>\n Agree to Continue: Pixel Watch 4<\/p>\n Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it \u2014 contracts that no one actually reads. It\u2019s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit \u201cagree\u201d to use devices when we review them since these are agreements most people don\u2019t read and definitely can\u2019t negotiate.<\/p>\n To use the Pixel Watch 4, you must pair it to an Android phone. That means agreeing to that phone\u2019s terms of service and privacy policies.<\/p>\n To use the Fitbit and Fitbit Premium features, there are two mandatory Fitbit agreements:<\/p>\n Keep in mind that you will be required to log in to Fitbit with your Google account<\/a> to use the Pixel Watch 4. As part of requirements from global regulators, Google says it must keep your Fitbit health data separate from its Google ads data. Should you choose to integrate any apps with your Fitbit account, like Strava, you will also have to agree to those apps\u2019 terms of service and privacy policies. The same goes if you opt in to Google\u2019s Health Connect API to better integrate with third-party services.<\/p>\n Additionally, if you want to use Gemini, you must agree to let Google collect app info and contact info from your devices. Other features like Google Wallet, Google Home, Gmail, Google Calendar, and YouTube Music will also come with their own separate agreements. There will also be several optional permissions related to Bluetooth, location services, and financial services, depending on what you choose to enable.<\/p>\n If you choose to activate LTE, you will also have to agree to your carrier\u2019s terms of service and privacy policies. You will have to agree to optional agreements if you choose to use Safety Signal as well.<\/p>\n Final tally: five mandatory agreements and a boatload of optional agreements.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Victoria SongClose Senior Reviewer, Wearable Tech<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All by Victoria Song<\/a><\/p>\n FitnessCloseFitness<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Fitness<\/a><\/p>\n Fitness Tracker ReviewsCloseFitness Tracker Reviews<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Fitness Tracker Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n GadgetsCloseGadgets<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Gadgets<\/a><\/p>\n ReviewsCloseReviews<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n SmartwatchCloseSmartwatch<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Smartwatch<\/a><\/p>\n Smartwatch ReviewsCloseSmartwatch Reviews<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n See All Smartwatch Reviews<\/a><\/p>\n TechCloseTech<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n PlusFollow<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0119.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0266.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0486.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0098.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0403.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Someone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0352.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"It\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/257970_Pixel_Watch_4_AKrales_0128.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Victoria](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759943889_330_VICTORIA_SONG.0.jpg\"\/)
Victoria Song<\/p>\n