A year after the launch of the Pixel Watch 3, Google has unveiled its successor, the Pixel Watch 4.
Although we haven’t reviewed the Pixel Watch 4 yet, we have reviewed its Samsung competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, and gave the wearable both a 4.5-star rating and a spot on our best smartwatches list too.
As both are naturally Android wearables that run WearOS, what actually separates the Google Pixel Watch 4 from the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8?
Below, we’ve highlighted the key differences, alongside any noteworthy similarities, between the Google Pixel Watch 4 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 8.
Price and Availability
Much like the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, although the Google Pixel Watch 4 is available for preorder today, it won’t be available until October 9th. Like its predecessor, the Pixel Watch 4 is available in two sizes: 41mm and 45mm, with the former starting at £349.99/$349 while the latter starts at £399.99/$399.
Similarly, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is available in two sizes: 40mm and 44mm. It’s also slightly cheaper than the Pixel Watch 4, with a starting price of £319/$349 for 40mm and £349 for 44mm.
Google Pixel Watch 4 has a domed display
Hailed as being a “first-of-its-kind”, the Pixel Watch 4 sports a physically curved Actua 360 display that delivers a 10% larger active area and an edgeless appearance, which Google says is thanks to “16% smaller bezels” than before.
Google also promises the Pixel Watch 4 is up to 50% brighter than its predecessor, and now boasts up to 3000 nits too.
Comparatively, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 sports an almost square-like design, which our reviewer coined as a “squircle”. This design gives the wearable a more minimalist yet sleek design.
Otherwise, the Galaxy Watch 8 is fitted with a 1.3-inch, 438 x 438 Super AMOLED display, which we found offers solid viewing angles and crisp visuals alike.
Google Pixel Watch 4
Samsung Galaxy Watch 8
Fitbit vs Samsung Health
The biggest difference between the Pixel Watch 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 comes from their respective health monitoring tools. While the Pixel Watch 4 uses Google’s Fitbit, the Galaxy Watch 8 uses Samsung Health.
Google promises its Pixel Watch 4 offers “the best of Fitbit”, thanks to advanced health and fitness tools, such as accurate heart rate monitoring, health metrics and a choice of over 40 workouts to track.
The Pixel Watch 4 also includes the Fitbit Morning Brief, which is a useful tool that’s similar to Garmin’s Morning Report. The tool provides a summary of your most important health and fitness metrics every morning, to help you decide what workouts to do or avoid, depending on your data.
Samsung Health also offers plenty of tracking tools across health, sports and general wellbeing too. That said, there are a few tools (like sleep apnea monitoring) that are locked in Samsung’s Health Monitor app, which is only accessible via Samsung smartphones.
Similarly, unlike Whoop, neither the Pixel Watch 4 nor the Galaxy Watch 8 require a subscription to work. However, the Pixel Watch 4 offers Fitbit Premium, which is a monthly or annual payment and includes additional tools like more workouts, mindfulness sessions, more detailed sleep scores and more.
Google Pixel Watch 4 has Loss of Pulse Detection
Launched with the Pixel Watch 3 last year, the Pixel Watch 4 retains the Loss of Pulse Detection tool, which can detect when your heart stops beating to automatically connect to emergency services. Hailed as a potentially life-saving tool, this joins numerous safety features found on the Pixel Watch series.
These tools include Safety Check, another potentially life-saving tool that enables the Pixel Watch 4 to share your location with emergency contacts if you’re out on a run or walking alone at night, should you fail to respond after a certain amount of time.
In addition, both the Pixel Watch 4 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 are fitted with Fall Detection, which calls the emergency services in the event of a serious fall.
Both have built-in Gemini
Much like the Samsung Galaxy S25 series, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is equipped with Google’s AI assistant, Gemini. While the use of a smartwatch assistant might not be the main reason you upgrade, it’s worth noting that we were impressed with Gemini within the Galaxy Watch 8 and found it to be among the most useful we’ve tested.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Pixel Watch 4 is also equipped with built-in Gemini. Not only that, but the wearable is equipped with additional features that promise to make interacting with Gemini a bit easier. Firstly, you can now raise your wrist to talk to Gemini while the device’s new speaker and haptic engine work to deliver clearer audio and stronger haptics when on the go.
Pixel Watch 4 offers a slightly longer battery life
Before we dive in, it’s worth noting that neither the Pixel Watch 4 nor the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 offer particularly groundbreaking battery life. Considering the likes of the Garmin Instinct 3 boast up to 18 days of battery life and even include the option of a Solar display, Google and Samsung’s wearables undoubtedly fall short.
The exact battery life on offer usually depends on the size of the watch. While the 45mm Pixel Watch 4 boasts up to 40 hours or up to 72 hours when Extreme Battery Saver is enabled, the smaller 40mm sees up to just 30 hours and 48 hours, respectively.
However, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 actually offers the same battery life, regardless of the size, as both the 40mm and 44mm models can last up to 30 hours.
Early Verdict
With a fresh design, a plethora of advanced tracking features and a slightly longer battery life than before, the Pixel Watch 4 looks like a promising upgrade from last year’s Pixel Watch 3. However, as we haven’t reviewed the smartwatch yet, we’ll have to hold off until October before giving a definitive verdict.
In the meantime, we hailed the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 as “Samsung’s best smartwatch launch in a long time”, thanks to built-in Gemini, tracking tools and the new cushion design.
We’ll be sure to update this article once we’ve reviewed the Pixel Watch 4.
