Google’s second mainline smartwatch is here but can it do enough to topple the Apple Watch’s reign? Let’s take a look.
For as long as smartwatches have been around, Apple has remained somewhat uncontested in its dominance of the market. Sure, we’ve seen plenty of contenders from the likes of Samsung, Fitbit and TicWatch, but none of them have come close to reaching the heights of what Apple has achieved with watchOS and its line of wearable devices.
Even last year’s Pixel Watch missed the mark due to its disappointing battery life, but now a fully-fledged successor is here to take on the Apple Watch 9. To know exactly how the latest wearables from Google and Apple fare against one another, just keep reading on.
Wear OS 4 vs watchOS 10
The Pixel Watch 2 will launch with the new Wear OS 4 platform right out of the box, which includes revamped experiences for Google apps like Gmail and the Google Calendar. This is particularly handy if you own on a Pixel phone and are invested in that ecosystem as it’ll just make it easier to check in on key bits of information. Still, Wear OS 4 doesn’t look like a massive visual overhaul in the same way that watchOS 10 does.
The Apple Watch’s latest operating system marks a huge change for Apple’s wearable, with a new widget-based smart stack system and more colourful apps to boot. It’s a far more visually arresting experience than Google’s clean and minimalist take, and of course the whole thing is designed to extract the most out of Apple’s own ecosystem.
They’re two great pieces of software but the overall experience will come down to which phone you’re pairing with them.
Fitbit vs Apple Fitness
The Apple Watch 9 is no slouch when it comes to fitness tracking, particularly as Apple’s Rings makes it incredibly easy to see exactly how well you’re hitting your goals on a daily basis. Combine that with Apple Health and you can pick up on any trends with your recovery, heart rate or even sleep quality that can help you to lean on healthier habits.
As great as the Apple Watch 9 is on this front, it has stiff competition from the fact that the Pixel Watch 2, just like its predecessor, has Fitbit fitness tracking built in. Fitbit’s weekly active measurements are far more forgiving for working adults and more accessible to beginners, plus Google will be introducing AI into the Fitbit app to let it answer any fitness related questions you may have. It’s a tough race but the Pixel Watch may just have the edge here.
Pixel Watch 2 seems to dominate on battery life
We’re being cautious here because the Pixel Watch boasted a 24-hour battery life which, on paper, would beat the 18-hour runtime quoted for the Apple Watch 9, but that didn’t quite pan out. The Pixel Watch suffered from horrendous battery drain during everyday use which massively undercut Google’s claims, but it seems as though a concerted effort has been made to give the Pixel Watch 2 a much-needed boost.
This time around, the Pixel Watch 2 can supposedly reach that same 24-hour cycle but with the always-on display toggled which, if this proves to be true, would definitely leave Apple in the dust. Again, we won’t know for sure how true Google’s claims are until we can test the wearable for ourselves, but it does at least point towards a hopeful future for the Pixel Watch 2.
Apple Watch is still the pricier option
Just like the Apple Watch 8 against the original Pixel Watch, the Series 9 is also more expensive than the Pixel Watch 2, and by quite a fair margin. The Apple Watch Series 9 has a starting price of £399 while the cheapest option for the Pixel Watch 2 comes in at £349.
It should be pointed out however that Apple does have a trick up its sleeve in the form of the Apple Watch SE 2, which comes in at a far more affordable price of £219, so there is a budget option for the Apple crowd while Google has yet to come up with a suitable alternative, unless you want to go in a different direction and invest in the new Fitbit Charge 6 which features some Google apps.
