Review | Google Pixel Watch review: elegant, petite, but its shape divides opinion and for sports users the software is fiddly
- After years of seeing Android partners launch smartwatches, Google finally has its own, and it looks more like a standard watch than most
- However, its round screen makes reading and typing text harder than it should be, the processor is not as good as the Apple Watch, and the software is fiddly
In September 2014, the first Apple Watch came onto the market and quickly went to the top of wearable device sales rankings, where it has remained until today.
It was also the year that Google presented the first version of an operating system for smartwatches, at that time still under the name Android Wear.
Smartwatch makers who have used the Google software include Asus, Fossil, HTC, Samsung and Huawei. But no one has come close to the level of the Apple Watch, not even the Swiss watch pioneer Tag Heuer, which tried its hand at an Android smartwatch in 2015.
Google has not built a single smartwatch in all these years, but at the beginning of October, the first Google Pixel Watch arrived, after years of anticipation.
Design and hardware
Opinion is divided on the appearance of Google’s first smartwatch. For some, the classic round shape of the Pixel Watch with its curved watch glass is reminiscent of the elegant Bauhaus wristwatch from 1961. Others say the Pixel Watch is boring, precisely because it looks so much like a conventional wristwatch.
