Google Pixel Watch 3 In-Depth Review: Best WearOS Watch?

Here's everything you need to know after in-depth testing of the Pixel Watch 3.

To many, the Pixel Watch 3 will be about a (finally) bigger size - now 45mm instead of the previous 41mm size. But to those into sports and fitness, it’s actually much more than just size: It’s the biggest change to the sports and fitness realm of Fitbit since…well…ever. The company has poured in tons of new features focused on training and training load, but especially running-related features. Sure, other sports benefit, but running sees the most new features.

To that end, I’ve been putting it through its paces over the last three weeks, pushing the watch into all sorts of athletically uncomfortable situations, to try and see how it handles from a performance standpoint, and a training load recommendations perspective. This includes the updated optical heart rate algorithms, which, to spoil some of this review, went from pretty good to industry-leading. This might be some of the best optical HR sensor plots I’ve ever put in a single review. But, not everything on the watch is perfect, as you’ll see.

Still, with this 3rd edition, Google is making the transition from ‘newcomer’ to ‘regular’ in the fitness watch world, and so I’m going to focus on all these bits here. This is a fitness/sports/etc focused review, rather than a general smartwatch review. Still, I’ll touch on most of the new smartwatch bits throughout this review, including the increased battery life claims.

With that, let’s dive into it.