The Pixel Watch 5 Makes One of My Favorite Watches Better, but More Expensive

The Pixel Watch 5 is a refined version of its predecessor, which was already a favorite of mine. But its $50 price hike might be a tough sell when many of the new watch’s best features are coming to older models too.

I got to spend a few hours with the Pixel Watch 5 in a press briefing — just enough time to get an idea of how it’s changed from last year’s Pixel Watch 4. Walking into Google’s demo room was like stepping into a rainbow. Each station had its own vibe, matching the shades of the new lineup: the Pixel Watch 5, Pixel 11 and Fold phones, Pixel Buds and Pixel Tags. I saw stations in peach, lilac, olive, lime, black and my personal favorite, bright pink.

The parade of colors — especially the almost blindingly bright pink, which I couldn’t stop staring at — momentarily distracted me from the fact that, aside from new band options and a new metallic finish called pyrite (a gold-and-silver blend), the watch itself hadn’t changed in the slightest. At least on the outside.

Google’s Pixel Watch 5 starts at $399 and is available to preorder. It’ll be in stores starting Aug. 20.

Google Pixel Watch 5 in Matte Black, Polished Silver, Satin and Pyrite.Carly Marsh

Pixel Watch 5’s welcome, but familiar design

I love the minimalist, bezel-free circular display, with nothing interrupting the curved glass except the rotating crown and side button. It still comes in both 41-mm and 45-mm sizes, and the domed display makes it feel more like a statement piece than a tiny computer strapped to your wrist.

My biggest complaint also hasn’t changed. That beautiful curved glass isn’t especially forgiving if you’re accident-prone. I managed to scratch my Pixel Watch 4 when I took a tumble during a trail run in the first month of testing, and the Pixel Watch 5 has the same Gorilla Glass 5 protection and the same LTPO AMOLED display with 3,000 nits of peak brightness and 320ppi resolution.

Pixel Watch 5’s battery and processing power 

Under the hood, the Pixel Watch 5 gets an updated Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated processor, which Google says boosts CPU performance by 12% (over the previous generation). Google also bumps RAM from 2GB to 3GB (a 50% increase) and doubles onboard storage from 32GB to 64GB.

The Pixel Watch 5 has the same round, all-screen design and bubbled display like its predecessor. René Ramos/CNET Group

The Watch 5 also has a slightly larger battery than its predecessor: 465 mAh versus 455 mAh on the 45mm model. In practice, though, this shouldn’t translate to a longer battery life. Google says the battery gains mostly offset new AI capabilities like offline Gemini, and you can expect anywhere from 30 to 40 hours of use with the always-on display enabled.

Pixel Watch 5’s offline Gemini 

Gemini is still one of my favorite reasons to use a Pixel Watch, as it makes interacting with its small screen largely hands-free. Whether I’m checking train schedules while sprinting for the subway or asking for nearby coffee recommendations during a walk, talking to the watch is often faster than poking at a tiny touchscreen.

Raise-to-talk isn’t new, but the assistant can now handle more tasks offline, even when the watch is disconnected from your phone. That includes simple actions like starting a workout or setting a timer without relying on a data connection.

With Wear OS 7 (preloaded on Pixel Watch 5), Google is also positioning the watch as the hub for its growing wearable ecosystem. From your wrist, you’ll be able to manage Gemini-enabled earbuds, smart glasses and even Google’s new Pixel Tag trackers for objects like suitcases and keys.

Pixel Watch 5’s health and fitness features

While the Pixel Watch 5 uses the same GPS and health sensors as previous generations, Google says improvements to its machine learning algorithms significantly boost accuracy, not only on the Pixel Watch 5 but also on older supported Pixel Watches.

The watch has the same dual-band GPS system introduced on the Pixel Watch 4, but Google says it’s now even more accurate in dense urban environments where tall buildings often interfere with GPS signals.

Google even says that the Pixel Watch 5 outperforms the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Garmin Fénix 8 Pro, which seems like a tall order considering these are dedicated sports watches that retail for twice the price. I obviously couldn’t verify these claims inside a demo room, but I’ll be putting it to the test for my review.

Likewise, I’ll need some time to test Google’s assertion that the Pixel Watch 5’s sleep and recovery metrics are now 15% more accurate than its predecessor.

Pixel Watch 5’s workout Builder

Workout Builder lets you create custom strength-training workouts on the Google Health app that sync directly to the watch, guiding you through each exercise, counting reps, timing rest periods and nudging you through your routine.

Workout Builder showing videos in the Google Health App, while the routine plays on the watch.

All Pixel Watch 5 owners get free access to Google’s library of exercise videos, ranging from bodyweight movements like planks to dumbbell and kettlebell exercises. You can even filter workouts based on the equipment you have available. Ranking your workout effort after the fact helps the watch learn your threshold and adjust your next workout accordingly to challenge you more (or less) to match your current level. 

If you subscribe to Google Health Premium ($10 a month), Google’s AI coach can build a workout for you from just a photo of your equipment. I tested this in Google’s demo room using kettlebells, resistance bands and slam balls.

After snapping a photo, I asked Gemini to build a 20-minute circuit. Within seconds, it created a workout complete with step-by-step instructions and instructional videos, which I could immediately launch on the Pixel Watch.

What impressed me wasn’t the AI-generated workout itself. Plenty of AI fitness tools can already do that. The difference is that Google’s solution bridges the gap between planning and actually exercising by pushing the routine directly to your watch, where it guides you through every rep and rest interval in real time. That’s been one of the missing pieces for AI coaching, and it’s the feature I’m most excited to test further.

Pixel Watch 5’s Health Guardian  

Google is also introducing Health Guardian, an expansion of its existing emergency safety features.

Building on Loss of Pulse Detection, Health Guardian can recognize signs of breathing emergencies, including events related to choking, pneumonia or drug toxicity, as well as persistent (and potentially life-threatening) drops in blood oxygen saturation. If the watch detects one of these emergencies, it can automatically contact emergency services and share your location with your emergency contacts.

The Pixel Watch 5 has new health features that will help flag potentially serious medical conditions.

Pixel Watch 5 tracks blood pressure and insulin resistance 

The watch will track blood pressure and insulin resistance trends over time. 

Rather than diagnosing medical conditions, these wellness features are designed to identify longer-term trends that could signal elevated risk for hypertension or diabetes. At the time of publishing, these features have not received FDA clearance and won’t be available at launch. Google says they’re expected to arrive in a software update later this fall on the Pixel Watch 5 and Fitbit Air.

Pixel Watch 5 bottom line

Only time and real-world testing will tell just how noticeable some of these gains actually are, but for now, the Pixel Watch 5 feels like an iterative upgrade to an already well-rounded smartwatch and one of the best smartwatch experiences running Wear OS 7 in the market.

The lack of a significant battery improvement, combined with the fact that some of its best new health features and accuracy gains are also coming to older watches, makes this a less obvious upgrade, especially at $50 more.

Vanessa Hand Orellana

Principal Writer

Vanessa is a lead writer at CNET, reviewing and writing about the latest smartwatches and fitness trackers. She joined the brand first as an on-camera reporter for CNET's Spanish-language site, then moved on to the English side to host and produce some of CNET's videos and YouTube series. When she's not testing out the latest health tech, you can catch her on a hike or trail run with her family. See full bio