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Google Android

The Pixel Watch Is Official: $349, Good Looks, and a Four-Year-Old SoC 78

Posted by BeauHD from the new-and-shiny dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google is clawing its way back into wearable relevance. Today the company took the wraps off what is officially its first self-branded smartwatch: the Pixel Watch. Google started revamping its wearable platform, Wear OS, in partnership with Samsung. While Wear OS 3, the new version of Google's wearable platform, technically launched with the Galaxy Watch 4 last year, this is the first time we'll be seeing an unskinned version on a real device. First up: prices. Google is asking a lot here, with the Wi-Fi model going for $349 and the LTE version clocking in at $399. The Galaxy Watch 4, which has a better SoC, and the Apple Watch SE, which has a way, way better SoC, both start at $250. Google is creating an uphill battle for itself with this pricing.

Google and Samsung's partnership means the Pixel Watch is running a Samsung Exynos 9110 SoC, with a cheap Cortex M33 co-processor tacked on for low-power watch face updates and 24/7 stat tracking. This SoC is a 10 nm chip with two Cortex A53 cores and an Arm Mali T720 MP1 GPU. If you can't tell from those specs, this is a chip from 2018 that was first used in the original Samsung Galaxy Watch. For whatever reason, Google couldn't get Samsung's new chip from the Galaxy Watch 4, an Exynos W920 (a big upgrade at 5 nm, dual Cortex A55s, and a Mali-G68 MP2 GPU). It's hard to understand why this is so expensive.

The display is a fully circular 1.6-inch OLED with a density of 320 ppi (that should mean around 360 pixels across). The only size available is 41 mm, the cover is Gorilla Glass 5, and the body is stainless steel in silver, black, or gold. It has 2GB of RAM, 32GB of eMMC storage, NFC, GPS, only 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi 802.11n support (Wi-Fi 4), and a 294 mAh battery. For sensors, you get SPO2 blood oxygen, heart rate, and an ECG sensor. It's water-resistant to 5 ATM, which means you're good for submersion, hand washing, and most normal water exposure. Usually 10 ATM is preferred for serious sports swimming, but the Apple Watch is 5 ATM, and Apple does all sorts of swimming promos. Google's black UI background does a good job of hiding exactly how large the display is in relation to the body, but a few screenshots reveal just how big the bezels are around this thing. They are big. Real big. Like, hard-to-imagine-we're-still-doing-this-in-2022 big. Other things to note: the watch bands are proprietary, it'll be able to charge to 50 percent in 30 minutes, will work with any Android phone running version 8.0 and newer, and features Fitbit integration.

"Unlike the Pixel 7, which is expanding to 17 markets, the Pixel Watch is only for sale in eight countries: the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan," adds Ars. "The watch is up for preorder today and ships October 13."

Further reading: Google Unveils Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro Smartphones
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The Pixel Watch Is Official: $349, Good Looks, and a Four-Year-Old SoC More

The Pixel Watch Is Official: $349, Good Looks, and a Four-Year-Old SoC

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  • I love that term. Are wearables even actually relevant at all? Or is it just for an extremely small subset of people?

    • An extremely small subset of people I suspect, which includes me as it happens.
      I have a pretty old Samsung watch which I wear every day and really like. However, I bought it second hand off one an auction site and when the battery started to fail, I bought a replacement one from Aliexpress (for $6 if I remember correctly) so I may not be a typical smart watch wearer.

      I will probably replace this one at some point, but I will once again refuse to pay full price, because they cost way too much.

    • Are wearables even actually relevant at all?

      My spouse has an Apple Watch. She wears it when she runs to receive text msgs without carrying her phone.

      Otherwise, she only wears it when she socializes with her friends. So it is primarily a fashion accessory. She has several watchbands to match her different outfits.

      Or is it just for an extremely small subset of people?

      I know several people who own smartwatches, so I think the subset is small but not "extremely small." 30 million people own Apple Watches worldwide. But I don't see any "killer app" that will trigger wider adoption.

      • so I think the subset is small but not "extremely small." 30 million people own Apple Watches worldwide.

        That's actually really small. Smaller than I expected.

        • That's (30 million) actually really small. Smaller than I expected.

          Maybe it's smaller than expected because the current number is around 125 million [aboveavalon.com] Apple Watch users.

            And don't forget the total market into which the pIxel wash goes, is really larger than that as there are still a lot of FtiBit users.

    • I love that term. Are wearables even actually relevant at all? Or is it just for an extremely small subset of people?

      By extremely small subset of people, do you mean most people around you? The wearables market at close to 150million devices / quarter is only half of the entire mobile phone market (not just smartphones, but every mobile phone, 350million devices / quarter).

      Maybe you live in the only corner of the world that these things aren't bought, but these days I see more people wearing smart watches, fitness bands, or other "wearables" than I have ever seen people wearing things on their wrist in the past.

      That trans

  • So it's already out of Google/Android support ... :-)

  • Will become eWaste in 5 years tops. But good on EU to force Apple to sell USB-C cables now to reduce eWaste.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Potor ( 658520 )
      I bought two Samsung Galaxy watches over about the space of just over a year and they both became pretty useless pretty quickly: the first simply stopped working in around 10 months, and the battery life of the second plummeted, its behaviour became unpredictable, it took forever to get a GPS signal, and it simply did not play well with Strava (I primarily wanted them for running, which was a huge mistake). They are e-waste. I replaced them with a Garmin Forerunner 55, and I love it. It's not really a smart

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Potor ( 658520 )
        Oh - I forgot to say that the Galaxy Watch 4 massively changed the interface from the Galaxy Watch 2. Why would anyone do that ? It's hard enough to navigate on a small screen. To unlearn muscle memory is rather difficult.
      • I had the original Garmin Vivoactive for like 5 years before I lost it. The battery went for a couple weeks if I wasn't using the GPS.. could still see texts and alerts on the watch, control music playback etc. I can't believe these new watches need to be charged practically daily even if you turn off the health monitoring stuff.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zuriel ( 1760072 )

      Mmm. Possibly not. This is attached to the Android and Google services products, so they'd probably just stop pushing updates but it would keep doing everything it already did.

      Unless it has a non-replaceable battery, in which case sure.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      But good on EU to force Apple to sell USB-C cables now to reduce eWaste.

      And send to eWaste the decade's worth of lightning accessories that were created from speaker docks, alarm clocks and other devices.

      Sure, there will be less e-waste in that less chargers need to be bought, but now all those accessories will need to be re-bought in the end.

      Though, given Apple's rather muted objections, it could also just be a plan for Apple to force USB-C makers to install Apple authorization chips in everything. After

  • This SoCs (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Had to google what a SoC was.

    Posting anonymously because I'm secretly ashamed.

  • ... is SoC?

    tyvm

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Striek ( 1811980 )

      No idea came here to ask this.

      TFA doesn't say so either. Lousy reporting and lousy summarizing.

      At least it's not behind a paywall...

      • A SoC is a System On a Chip [wikipedia.org].

        The CPU, GPU, and peripherals are integrated onto a single semiconductor die. Often, RAM is integrated as well.

        "SoC" is not a term that an average person would know, but it is common enough that it should not need to be spelled out in an article written for a technical audience.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Striek ( 1811980 )

          I've been working in IT for 20 years. I'm most definitely a "technical audience".

          I still didn't know. A single reference or link would have cleared it up (to be fair, so would have a single search).

          Now at least it makes sense. Thanks.

      • You don't know what a SoC is, and you're on this site?
        What is this, the Mac Rumors site now?

    • System on a Chip. The CPU, RAM, and wireless baseband.

    • My remark is rated a 1, and few will see it. Yet the majority of comments were the same as mine. Thanks to those who provided clarification.

  • Real question: what the hell do people do with these watches? The one niche case I've heard these are useful is for nurses because they can't have cell phones in some areas. So what in the hell do the rest of the people that buy these things need them for?!

    Honestly, i feel like I'm an old man yelling at the wind because as far as I can tell, these things are expensive boondoggles that are vastly inferior to their lower power predecessors.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Junta ( 36770 )

      Some people like the wrist watch over the pocket watch, so similar principals apply.

      Beyond that, being mounted on the wrist is a great place to do things like monitor pulse/ECG, and more reliably position to monitor arm movement.

    • I like to bike to surfing or the skatepark. I had been leaving my phone behind as it just seems like the kind of thing that would get lost or broken. My wife said, "you should get that watch that would let me text you in case of an emergency."

      What could i say? She wanted me to buy a tech toy. I'm not foolish enough to ruin that opportunity. I got the watch.

      Turns out that it's nice. I can leave my wallet, phone, and keys (because i made an app that opens my garage door through a raspberry pi) behind. I can

      • Went for a swim myself today, and coming back tried to grab lunch at a food truck we hadn't been to in a while... their Apple Pay was down, so I got lucky. Burger and Fries next door, plus a little chicken dance. Damn we have a chicken problem. (middle of 7-Mile Miracle)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        I have a Xiaomi Mi Band 6. Smaller screen, no NFC or cellular modem, but it does what I need. Heart rate and step tracking, timers/alarms, and can show notifications if I want but I don't use that functionality.

        Best of all it was 20 bucks and replacement bands are 3 bucks for a pack of 3. It's waterproof, no need to take it off in the shower. Battery life is about 3 weeks.

        For the money it's amazing. It sounds like you value the extra features on your smart watch, but to me they aren't worth 10-15x the price

    • My watch alerted me to an afib episode and I was able to get to the hospital and figure out I've got some fucked up shit going on before I had any serious negative outcomes(PA Lt Gov John Fetterman had an afib episode earlier this year that resulting in him having a stroke after it went on too long)

    • To send weird, poorly understood txt messages with.

      At least, that's my impression being on the receiving end of them.

    • It seems like the next version of my Fitbit Sense. HR, SPO2, ECG. Everything else about it is pretty shit (timer has like 3 presets max, Google Assistant can't hear a damn thing. I tried the phone call once just to find out if the microphone was working (it was)). The stupid proprietary band connector fell off at a gas station and the screen cracked on the concrete. Even the ECG failed to process the collected data one time I really wanted the analysis. And they won't give you all of your data unless you

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by kwalker ( 1383 )

      It depends on the watch. For me personally, I use mine for activity and sleep tracking; actionable notifications from my phone, including voice-to-text replies; music and Podcast listening management; call handling (Particularly with Bluetooth earphones); frequent watch-face changes to match my mood and the situation; fast timers (multiple simultaneous sometimes); quick looks at my calendar and the weather; calendar reminders; and so I don't have to drag my phone out of my pocket all the time. It has also a

    • The one niche case I've heard these are useful is for nurses because they can't have cell phones in some areas.

      That makes no sense. If there is a reason to ban cell phones (privacy?, RF?, noise?), the same reason would apply to a smartwatch, which is a small cell phone that attaches to your wrist.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        Not entirely; there also a hygiene aspect. My father is a doctor, and he likes his Apple Watch because he can see incoming call and text information without touching anything -- his gloves and watch don't cross-contaminate.

        Granted, it's a limited use case. For myself, I use my fitness watch for tracking run details (location, speed, heart rate, cadence, etc.) and music. I keep my phone with me for real-time tracking, so my family knows where to look if I get hit by a bus or whatever, but otherwise my fit

    • Real question: what the hell do people do with these watches? The one niche case I've heard these are useful is for nurses because they can't have cell phones in some areas. So what in the hell do the rest of the people that buy these things need them for?!

      Honestly, i feel like I'm an old man yelling at the wind because as far as I can tell, these things are expensive boondoggles that are vastly inferior to their lower power predecessors.

      I use mine for golfing, so it displays the rangefinder on my wrist rather than having to look at the phone, and for a time/speed/distance display when I am biking - for the same reason. Granted my first gen Pebble could do these things just fine and the battery lasted a lot longer, so yeah, for me the newer tech has not added much functionality. It is still useful for what I use it for though.

    • I mainly monitor my heart with mine. My wife insisted after a cardiac incident, so I wasn't about to complain.
    • Looking at your phone to read a text message while driving around here can be met with a ticket and rather huge fine. Looking at your watch seems to not bother the authorities at all. I can see my messages on my car's screen as well, but not everyone has that functionality yet.
      • Doesn't Android Auto and Apple Carplay solve this problem though by just reading the message out loud when it's received? Android Auto will still run when the phone is mounted on to the dash, so any car can have a hands free option of using one's cellphone.
      • I just bought a Panasonic Stereo with WiFi support, so it can do Android Auto (and presumably Apple Car Play too) without even connecting the USB cable. Combine that with a wireless charging pad, and yes, it remote most of your phone functionality fairly well, and displays it on a bigger screen. Now if I could just convince car manufacturers that touch screens in cars are a bad idea, because you can't use them without looking at the screen!

    • Real question: what the hell do people do with these watches? The one niche case I've heard these are useful is for nurses because they can't have cell phones in some areas. So what in the hell do the rest of the people that buy these things need them for?!

      Honestly, i feel like I'm an old man yelling at the wind because as far as I can tell, these things are expensive boondoggles that are vastly inferior to their lower power predecessors.

      What do you want to do? You're talking about devices with a load of features which may suit some people and not others. They tell time, weather, track movement, give you detailed sports and sleep statistics (modern ones even give you blood pressure, ECG, stress etc), they can control smart home devices, locate your phone, adjust your music system and ... did I mention they also tell time? Because people historically wore things which tell time on their wrist.

      Personally:
      - A useful feature for me is the find

      • What do you want to do?

        This is really the crux of my question. What are people using it for?

        One of the guys at work just likes it as a watch and as far as I can tell the only smart feature he uses is to see his Whatsapp message.

        I suspect this is typical behavior: buy fancy boondoggle, utilize a tiny fraction of the functionality. It reminds of people who buy huge trucks but never/rarely haul anything.

        - A useful feature for me is the find my phone button which takes my phone off silent and plays an alarm. Very handy is also a bluetooth link button since that shows me straight away if said unfindable phone was accidentally forgotten in my car.

        It strikes me that you leave your smartphone in unknown places precisely because it has so much centralized functionality. Personally, I think sticking with a non-smartphone and using more dedicated devices is a better solution.

        - Yesterday I was downstairs painting, my phone was on silent upstairs. The ringing notification came to my wrist. I had a set of bluetooth headsets handy so I didn't even need to go upstairs to take the phone call. That's assuming you don't own a smartwatch which doubles as a bluetooth headset: https://consumer.huawei.com/en [huawei.com]... [huawei.com]

        In my estimate, many people use the

    • They do some things better than smartphones. Alert one to notifications (no need for phone sounds any more), wireless payment, show time/widgets, start shortcuts, track body metrics.

  • Discontinued in 5, 4, 3...

  • Douglas Adams will be spinning in his orbit.

  • Every google device and service comes (Score:3)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Thursday October 06, 2022 @06:45PM (#62945251)
    With18 months of device and driver support, after which service discontinuation is guaranteed. No less. Never more.
  • Why buy an expensive gewgaw they will stop supporting after three years or less?
    • I had that problem with my Samsung Galaxy S watch -- Samsung just blatantly discontinued support for it on new phones, and the phone I bought with the watch stopped working years ago, so I have this completely unusable watch now... that I just bought a new charger for, because I lost the old charger and couldn't use for a couple years.
  • QZSS is necessary in Japan, Australia, and probably Korea.

    (I'll pick Coros Pace 2 [coros.com] way better for me)

  • And another $80 for a leather watch band. Some third party should definitely start selling bands for these; I used to pay less than $80 for entire digital watches!
  • Does this mean it will go on a killing rampage at the end to get more life?

    Like tears in rain.

    Time to die.

  • Not that I'm worthy of one! ;)

    I like how they run off the wearer's energy though.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • what am I missing 320 ppi * 1.6 is 512?

  • Only if you are into plasticky, extremely cheap-looking Swatches.
  • Good afternoon, I can recommend a site with vacancies in different areas layboard.in [layboard.in] and fields of activity, with good wages and excellent working conditions, all you need to do is go in and choose what suits you
  • for the same price, only with huge bezels, fewer accessoires, shorter lifespan and a little less polished. I guess, if you alway wanted an apple watch, but hadn an android phone, this is for you. I'm not sure, if this is really much better than nothing, though.
  • They have Fitbit, why have a dog and bark? Just fix a few issues with the Sense (like the fucking charging dock clip) and you're gold.

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