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Pixel Watch 2 / Smart Watches In General - A Review

Picked up a Pixel Watch 2 because:

  1. It was on sale
  2. I had Google Store credit
  3. Was interested in the experience
Total after taxes and shipping was about $75CAD. Pretty good I would say for a brand new smart watch.

Concerns I had were largely limited to battery life and how usable the screen was. The PW2 only has the smaller 41mm size and the closest thing I've owned in the past was a Nokia/Withings watch with a lot of the trackers but no smart/touch display.

My most consistent thought is that I'm glad I didn't splurge on a PW3 or wait for a PW4. I'm not disappointed in the device or anything. But, it would be pretty hard to be disappointed for the price I paid. I think I would have been disappointed at a higher price point. This is obviously subjective and dependent on a lot of personal factors, but I'll get into that in a bit.

First up; I don't use always on display or gestures. I haven't worn a watch in over a year. And, when I did I can't say that I actually looked at the time on it all that often. Having to press the crown to get the time is not an issue for me.

An interesting side note... I wore my last watch (the aforementioned Nokia one) primarily for tracking HR/sleep/etc... and only stopped wearing it because it was irritating my wrist. One thing I hadn't really considered was how the much shorter battery life of the PW2 is actually a boon here. NEEDING to take the watch off almost daily gives my wrist time some recovery time and gives me time to clean up the watch and wrist more regularly.

Battery life is up next. The watch is brand new and I expect battery to degrade over time. At the moment though, I don't think I would have a problem getting through a full day with always-on display. I had it on for a while and monitored the battery life and it seemed fine. With my current setup, I could probably make it through 2 days. I don't try though. My preference is either something that needs a daily charge or something with a week+ of battery life. The in-between zone is bad news in my opinion. It is easy to build a routine around something you need to do daily. And when something lasts a week or more it is easier to just find a time to charge it when convenient. 

Now onto screen size. I expected the size of the watch face to be a challenge. I'm certainly not blown away. Like, I can't replace a phone or anything crazy. But, most notifications are fine without any need to scroll and media controls, etc... are more than usable. Put another way, it is passable as more than just a device for tracking health stats.

Conclusion? I'm clearly not the target audience for smart watches.

For the price I paid, I'm happy with this device. I think it is well made. But, I can't really see the value in paying 4-5x for a newer version (obviously the gap would be lower had I paid MSRP, but I would likely still wait for this to die rather than upgrade). Not even for a slightly bigger screen or battery. 

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