Google Pixel Watch 4: Feature-rich premium smart wearable for Android phone users

With just a short period of time, Google's Pixel Watches have gained global recognition not just for smart, feature-packed health trackers, but also for the unique, visually pleasing design elements.

The latest Pixel Watch 4 builds on the legacies of the previous iteration with a more refined design and more advanced sensors for Android phone owners to improve their fitness.

Design, build quality and display

Google Pixel Watch 4 is one of the best-looking smartwatches in the market. It flaunts a gorgeous classic circular dial design with Actua 360 bright, domed, curved display panels with thinner bezels. And it supports peak brightness of 3000 nits, 1000 nits brighter than the predecessors, enough to read messages, time and timely notification right from waist height outdoors.

Google Pixel Watch 4.

And, with adaptive brightness turned on, it can lower to the minimum brightness. Users can manually push down to 1 nits as well. Also, with adaptive refresh rate, it can dynamically switch between maximum 60 hertz to as low as 1 hertz and this helps in conserving battery life.

It comes with a premium aerospace-grade aluminium enclosure and is water-resistant up to 50 meters. The top display is protected by Corning's reliable Gorilla Glass, and the back of the watch, which houses some of the most advanced health sensors, has chemically strengthened glass at the base.

It is available in two sizes— 41mm and 45mm. Our review unit is the latter.

One of the most significant changes one will notice about the Pixel Watch 4 is the side-by-side charging. This game-changing design allows the device to turn into a valuable table-top timepiece in the bedroom. When charging, it will be in landscape orientation, and it can display useful information such as time and notifications with big fonts.

Google Pixel Watch 4.

Also, the sliding mechanism to put the strap is very neat. It is easy to dock and dislodge with a simple ejector button below the watch. By the way, the soft silicone strap is amazingly skin-friendly and sturdy. I never felt discomfort all day. Even at night, I did not face any skin irritation.

Another notable upgrade coming with the Pixel Watch 4 is an upgraded custom speaker and haptics that have been redesigned to make interacting with the watch hassle-free. During calls, the speaker doesn't distort much even when the volume is put to maximum. This comes in handy while directly taking calls on the watch and while interacting with the Gemini Live feature, which works amazingly well.

Watchfaces of Pixel Watch 4.

The new custom haptics engine is 15 per cent stronger than the predecessor for a clearer tactile feel on the wrists whenever we receive a notification or a call.

On the opposite side, you will find the digital crown, which too offer tactile feel when rotating it. It also features a back key above it.

User interface and Performance

Google Pixel Watch 4 runs all-new Wear OS 6.0 with Material 3 Expressive UI. It has a refreshingly clean user interface and offers smooth animation transitions.

Setting up Pixel Watch 4 with Pixel 10 Pro.

Also, the device supports a lot of new colourful watchfaces, and the display is very responsive to the touch inputs.

It also comes with 2GB RAM, 32GB storage and is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 integrated with Google M55 co-processor to support Gemini Live digital assistant and efficiently offer turn-by-turn navigation using Google Maps without draining the battery life.

The Pixel Watch 4 also boasts the Readiness Score. It monitors heart rate variability (HRV) and resting heart rate and lets the owner know if he/she is ready to do heavy, intense workouts or not.

It also comes with Cardio Load, which calculates how much strain the user’s cardiovascular system undergoes all-day. It will offer suggestions on when to take rests and how to improve fitness routine.

Fitbit app offers insightful data on physical activities with health metrics.

Also, it promises a better sleep pattern tracker. It can track multiple stages of sleep, such as time spent awake on the bed, REM (Rapid Eye Movements), light, and deep sleep stages, to calculate the sleep score. Based on the insightful data, users can improve their sleep, which is very crucial for stress management and mental well-being.

It can intuitively track up to 40 activities, including running, swimming, hiking and more. It boasts of dual-frequency GPS for accurate tracking of walking or jogging.

Google Pixel Watch 4 supports Gemini AI.

The new Pixel Watch 4 boasts of precision Dual-Frequency GPS to offer the most accurate route tracking even in tough environments such as downtown city runs or dense forest hikes. The Dual-Frequency GPS makes use of two distinct satellite frequencies to improve location accuracy and reliability.

Based on the user's physical activity, Pixel Watch 4 offers tips on improving fitness.

Fitbit app offers premium fitness programme.

For more advanced tracking and training tips, Google offers a Fitbit subscription plan. The new Watch 4, it is offering a free six-month membership programme. For an extended period, users have paid Rs 999 for an annual plan.

As noted above, the device is waterproof up to a depth of 50 metres. This is more than enough to jump fearlessly onto the swimming pool and track multiple laps. It should be noted that the Pixel Watch 4 comes with Water Lock. It can automatically turn on water lock mode on the screen to prevent accidental touch mode, and the watch will automatically eject water after noticing the owner is not in water.

Google Pixel Watch 4 boasts of a ‘loss of pulse feature. It will alert the owner how dangerously low the heartbeat is reduced to, and if there is no response, it will automatically contact loved ones or emergency responders for immediate help. But this feature is not available in India yet.

In select countries, the Pixel Watch 4 supports satellite connectivity to contact emergency services during natural disasters or when lost during an outdoor trek, and there is cellular connectivity. This is also not activated in India yet.

On the bright side, Pixel Watch 4 boasts of Crash Detection, Emergency SOS, Fall detect and natural calamity (Earthquake, Cyclone, Tsunami) notification. These potential life-saving features will help in getting rescue responders and medical aid to the incident spot faster.

Personal Safety features-- Car Crash Detection, Fall Detect, SoS Emergency Call, Natural Calamity Notification are supported on Pixel Watch 4.

Battery life

With a full charge, the Pixel Watch 4 can easily last a full day, including the night for sleep pattern tracking. The next day, the user can keep the watch charging for a few minutes. Thanks to fast charging, it can go from zero to 50 per cent in under 20 minutes. That's enough to monitor the workouts at the gym or at home in the morning. And once done, get it into the power outlet again. By the time you are done with the morning routine of brushing teeth, bathing and breakfast, the Pixel Watch 4 will be fully charged for the day.

Google Pixel Watch 4 supports fast charging.

It should be noted that the new model promises to deliver a 25 per cent longer battery life than the predecessor. With Battery Saver mode, the 41mm model can run for two days, and the 45mm model can last for three days.

Final thoughts

Google Pixel Watch 4 is an impressive smart timepiece. It has the most gorgeous domed display panel with classical circular dial design, and add to that, the redesigned charging mechanism is a genius move. When charging in landscape orientation, it can display useful information such as time and notifications on the night table.

Further, the build quality is absolutely top-class.

In terms of tracking physical activities, it does a decent job and offers an insightful health data related to calories burned, cardiac load, stress management, sleep pattern, heartrate pattern and more.

Google Pixel Watch 4.

The only qualm is that the Pixel Watch 4 is yet to get the 'Loss of Pulse' detection feature in India. It will add more value to the Google smart wearable, and this will be more compelling for Android phone users to purchase it.

Last week, Google activated the emergency location sharing feature in Android phones in India, and we hope the search engine giant expands the satellite-based SOS feature on Pixel watches too.

In India, Google is offering the Pixel Watch 4 in Wi-Fi only variants— 41mm and 45mm— for Rs 39,900 and Rs 43,900, respectively.

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