Analyst angle: Faster charging, longer battery life, and a larger screen.

A long time ago, I set aside some time to write about the Pixel Watch 4 and compare it with the Pixel Watch 3, as I ended up owning both since launch. For some reason, I never ended up posting my findings, so I decided to do it now—about six weeks before Google introduces the next generation.

In the meantime, Google released Wear OS 7 and Android 17 for the watch, introducing some minor improvements over Wear OS 6.

Let me bring it back to the Pixel Watch 4. As in previous years, Google launched four variants: 41mm LTE, 41mm Wi-Fi, 45mm LTE, and 45mm Wi-Fi. Because the 41mm size looked small on my wrist, I didn’t even consider the 41mm Pixel Watch 1 or 2. However, I ended up using the Pixel Watch 3 and really liked it (I used the TicWatch Pro 5 before that).

I picked up the Pixel Watch 3 right when it launched. One of the main issues I had with it was the lack of repairability—if it got scratched, you were doomed to live with it. US customers had the option to insure the watch, which was honestly a necessity. The rest of the world had to rely on third-party insurance, assuming such a product existed in their country. As an outdoorsy person who likes to fish, I inevitably ended up scratching my Pixel Watch 3 and had to live with it until I swapped it for the Pixel Watch 4.

Pixel Watch 4

It features a housing made from 100% recycled aluminum and an Active Band made from fluoroelastomer with a soft-touch coating. It measures 45mm in diameter, 12.3mm in height, and weighs 36.7 grams without the band.

The 45mm watch comes in a Polished Silver Aluminum case with an Iris, Porcelain, or Lemongrass Active Band. There is also a Matte Black Aluminum case with an Obsidian Active Band version.

The star of the show is the Actua 360 display, covered by custom 3D Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It features a 320 ppi AMOLED LTPO display with DCI-P3 color coverage and up to 3000 nits peak brightness. The minimum brightness on the Always-On Display (AOD) drops down to 1 nit. The display supports a variable refresh rate of 1–60 Hz alongside AOD support.

Connectivity

There are Wi-Fi-only and 4G LTE versions of the watch. The Wi-Fi-only model supports Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, and Ultra-Wideband (UWB).

The 4G LTE version includes all of the above, plus a cellular modem supporting 4G LTE, 3G (UMTS), and Satellite SOS communication support.

Both versions feature Dual-Frequency GPS (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS). The watch ships with both small and large band sizes included: Small fits wrists 130–175mm, while Large fits wrists 165–210mm.

I discovered that the US version of the watch—which Google shipped with two free years of Google Fi—didn’t work in Europe, making it less attractive to me. Conversely, the EU version wouldn’t work in the US due to differing 4G bands.

Power (Battery & Charging)

The watch comes with a built-in 445 mAh rechargeable lithium-ion battery, offering up to 40 hours of use with the Always-On Display enabled and up to 48 hours in Battery Saver mode. The watch charges via a new Quick Dock that connects to the side. This is a noticeable shift from the Pixel Watch 3, which used charging pins on the back.

It charges to 50% in 15 minutes, 80% in about 25 minutes, and reaches 100% in roughly 45 minutes. It charges so quickly that topping it up in the morning while getting ready is completely hassle-free, allowing you to wear it to bed for sleep tracking without issue.

Under the hood, the Pixel Watch 4 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 (4nm) SoC paired with a Cortex-M55 co-processor and a Qualcomm modem. It ships with 2GB of SDRAM and 32GB of eMMC flash storage. A couple of quarters ago, I was praising the quality of this SoC to Dino Bekis, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Wearables and Personal AI at Qualcomm. At the time—before the next-gen Snapdragon Wear Elite was introduced—he promised I was in for a big positive surprise. He was right.

In Use

The new screen is brighter and much nicer to look at. It’s hard to put into words, but it almost feels curved when you view it in person. Visually, it’s a massive improvement.

The watch is easy to set up, running Wear OS 6 out of the box with a few new watch face options. Conveniently, you can now transfer the watch to a new phone without needing a full factory reset.

However, my biggest complaint remains the watch faces: old or new, they rarely look like a traditional watch. While this minimal, pebble-like aesthetic was an intentional choice by the chief designer—and has become a trademark look for the Pixel lineup—it won’t appeal to everyone.

People who prefer smartwatches with watch faces that mimic classic timepieces should probably look toward the Samsung Galaxy Watch series. The Pixel Watch 4 (45mm) is heavily centered around Fitbit (now Google Health) functionality; it does what it’s supposed to do, but it simply lacks native, traditional watch faces. Third-party watch face apps can fill the gap, but most complications end up broken or unsupported. That trade-off wasn’t enough to convince me to stick with third-party options.

Google desperately needs more watch face designs and customization options. This is an area where Apple thrives, often making me regret being tied to the Android ecosystem. Apple Watches simply offer better watch faces—ranging from clean and serious to fun and casual—alongside superior health and fitness features.

That said, the Fitbit / Google Health integration gets the job done. It automatically detects activities and provides detailed reports. Step tracking worked flawlessly and motivated me to walk more, which is always a plus.

I really appreciate the Google Health daily summary and sleep tracking. It gives a clear picture of sleep duration (even if that part isn’t rocket science to figure out without a watch) and breaks down deep, REM, and light sleep stages, as well as wake time, while managing to conserve battery in sleep mode

With Google Health incorporating an AI assistant, it now offers actionable suggestions to help you improve. It tracks steps, sleep, and workouts like cycling or fishing—though occasionally it misidentifies an activity, like mistaking outdoor movement for an elliptical session. The Fitness Readiness score gives you a sense of whether your body is ready for another tough workout, while keeping an eye on your heart rate zones, calories burned, distance covered, and weekly workout consistency.

At one point, it set my weekly cardio target to 337 points. Thanks to a mix of logged workouts, I managed to hit that target in almost a single day during an intense eight-hour stretch of walking, fishing, and biking.

The Google Health assistant can converse with you about your latest achievements and suggest taking a break or starting a workout. It supports text/chat inputs and, like any good personal trainer, is ready to adjust your training schedule on the fly.

Apps & Features

Aside from Google Health, I only rely on a handful of core features. I occasionally answer a call directly on the watch, read and reply to text messages or WhatsApp chats, and set silent alarms for important reminders. Calendar notifications are also seamless. That covers the vast majority of my day-to-day smartwatch use outside of health tracking.

I love having the Nuki Smart Lock app on my wrist; it lets me unlock my front door with a single tap. Apps like Google Wallet and Google Maps are daily essentials, though it remains annoying that setting the watch language to English forces system units into imperial measurements (miles and yards) instead of metric (kilometers and meters).

Notifications from various messaging apps work reliably, as do voice calls. Being able to take a quick call on the watch when my hands are busy—especially while standing in the middle of a river fishing—is super convenient. The camera companion app also works great as a remote viewfinder for better family or group photos.

Charging with the new side-mounted two-pin connector is fast and seamless, effectively eliminating battery anxiety. I consistently get about two days (48 hours) of battery life with the Always-On Display turned off. I don’t turn off AOD just to preserve battery; it’s simply how I prefer to use a smartwatch.

Comparing the Pixel Watch 3 and 4 to my old TicWatch Pro 5 (which used a dual-layer display system with an ultra-low-power screen), the TicWatch was practical, but its main display quality couldn’t come close to the Pixel Watch 3, let alone the 4.

By far my most-used utility is Find My Device. Tap a button, your phone rings, and you locate it instantly. The flashlight tool and silent alarms are also personal favorites.

Recent software additions include the Find My Device Hub (which finally made its way to the watch) and new motion controls. You can now flick your wrist or pinch your fingers to scroll through notifications or dismiss them.

I frequently use the Gemini app on the watch, particularly while driving, since Android Auto on my phone/car setup previously only offered the classic Google Assistant (though my car has since been updated to Android Auto with Gemini).

After a recent Wear OS update, I experienced mediocre battery life, only to realize a background app was stuck trying to finish an update. I noticed my battery draining rapidly overnight. As a rule of thumb, losing more than 1–2% battery per hour overnight indicates something is wrong, so keep an eye on background tasks.

Recent OS updates have brought helpful features like Live Updates right to your wrist, letting you track food deliveries, ride-shares, and sports scores directly on your watch face without opening an app. Google is also transitioning away from traditional Tiles in favor of a flexible, grid-based widget system (2×1 and 2×2 layouts) that significantly increases on-screen data density.

The update also introduced Task Automation: deep agentic AI capabilities allow you to execute multi-step voice actions—like reordering food, controlling smart home devices, or navigating complex phone tasks—straight from your wrist. (I haven’t spent enough time with this feature yet to form a firm opinion.) Additionally, the update was meant to improve personal intelligence by drawing contextual references from Google apps like Gmail and Search to deliver personalized suggestions. However, this feature hasn’t worked reliably for me, even on a Pixel 10 Pro XL phone, let alone the watch.

On the audio front, Google introduced System Media Controls, allowing you to easily switch audio playback destinations straight from your wrist—seamlessly toggling between Bluetooth headphones, Pixel phone speakers, Google Cast groups, or smart displays. Granular Per-App Media Controls now let you decide whether the media player UI automatically pops up when audio starts playing on a per-app basis.

General system-level optimizations have improved overall battery efficiency by up to 10%. Last but not least, the Material 3 Expressive UI refresh brings redesigned toggle switches, thicker control sliders, and improved Always-On Display interactions.

Overall, the Pixel Watch 4 is a noticeable step up over the Pixel Watch 3, even if it isn’t a groundbreaking, revolutionary shift.

Conclusion

The Pixel Watch 4 is a great smartwatch. It’s fully equipped with modern hardware, solid battery life, great software features, and access to the latest Android wearable ecosystem.

Upgrading makes a lot of sense in North America, where Google offers generous trade-in programs, especially during launch windows. Unfortunately, countries like Germany and Austria were left out of these trade-in promos for this generation—which is puzzling, given that both regions had solid trade-in offers for Pixel phones. Furthermore, the lack of official Google device insurance in these countries is disappointing, whereas US customers have easy access to it.

Ultimately, the Pixel Watch 4 represents an evolution rather than a revolution. If you are upgrading from a Pixel Watch 1 or 2, the Pixel Watch 4 will feel like a massive leap forward. Moving from a Pixel Watch 3 to a 4 feels less dramatic, but the faster charging, improved battery life, and noticeably brighter, larger display still make it a worthy upgrade. I just wish we had better native watch faces.