Pixel Watch 4 review: after two weeks I’m convinced this is the only Apple Watch alternative

The Pixel Watch has always felt like one of Google’s side projects – a wearable device with a lot of potential, but always lacking in some areas. The first version got the design right but struggled with battery life. The second improved performance but still lagged behind the Apple Watch for polish. Now, with the Pixel Watch 4, Google’s finally nailed the balance.

This year’s model isn’t just a minor tweak – it features a number of small updates that make it feel like a proper evolution. The new domed Actua 360 display is brighter and larger, bezels have shrunk, and battery life has jumped massively.

It’s also one of the first smartwatches to support emergency satellite communications and features a serviceable design with a replaceable battery and screen. Fitbit health tracking remains deeply integrated, but now it’s backed by Gemini AI, which you can summon just by raising your wrist.

After two weeks of use, I’m convinced this is the most complete smartwatch you can buy if you use an Android phone, the best true rival yet to Apple’s long-dominant wearable and one of the best smartwatches you can buy.

Design & build: Is the Pixel Watch 4 comfortable to wear?

The Pixel Watch 4 is a masterclass in minimalist design. Smooth like a polished pebble, it’s one of those pieces of tech that, after unboxing, you can’t help but turn over in your hands just to admire the finish.

The 45mm model I reviewed is milled from recycled aluminium, but it feels dense and reassuringly solid – more like stone than metal. It’s 12.3mm thick and weighs 36.7g without the strap, and feels light and balanced on the wrist. The circular dome of glass gives it an almost UFO-like look.

The white fluoroelastomer strap that came with my review unit complements the silver case perfectly. It’s soft, supple, and supremely comfortable. Even after a full day of wear (and night of sleep tracking), it never pinched or rubbed.

The strap mechanism itself is clever, if slightly fiddly. Once you’ve swapped bands a couple of times, it becomes second nature, but most people probably won’t change them often anyway.

The buttons and rotating crown feel premium and well-engineered. Each click or turn has some satisfying resistance that adds to the overall sense of quality (its almost mechanical). It’s a reminder that Google’s hardware team has finally caught up to Apple in terms of tactile feedback – the haptics here are genuinely top-tier.

Not everything is perfect, though. The side-mounted charging port, while functional, is a blemish in what’s otherwise an almost perfectly seamless design. It’s a small compromise, but it does stand out on a watch that’s otherwise so sleek. It also means it’s incompatible with previous-generation chargers, which is slightly annoying for those upgrading.

Size-wise, the 45mm model might be a touch too large for smaller wrists – my wrist measures 16cm, and I’d probably have preferred the 41mm version. That said, the extra screen space and battery life is lovely (more on those later).

Overall, the Pixel Watch 4 feels less like a piece of tech and more like a polished piece of jewellery – albeit one packed with a lot of tech. It’s beautifully built, comfortable, and reassuringly robust, with the attention to detail you’d expect from a true flagship smartwatch.

Screen: What size is the Pixel Watch 4 screen?

The Pixel Watch 4’s display is easily one of the best I’ve seen on a smartwatch. The larger 45mm model offers a 1.4in display, while the 41mm version has a 1.2in panel. Both models use the new ‘Actua 360’ AMOLED panel, which is sharp at 320ppi and now hits an impressive 3000 nits of peak brightness (up from 2000 nits of the Pixel Watch 3).

The screen remains perfectly readable in full daylight, even when I was outside on a sunny October afternoon. It also dims right down to a single nit for comfortable use at night.

Colours are vivid, blacks are inky, and text is pin-sharp. Interacting with it feels natural, and even the tiny on-screen keyboard is surprisingly usable on the 45mm model.

The real highlight is the new domed glass, though, which wraps around the sides of the smartwatch. There’s 10-percent more active area (despite the physical watch dimensions staying the same) and bezels are 16-percent smaller, giving the screen a truly edge-to-edge feel.

The way it curves into the aluminium case reminds me of the fluid surface of a Ressense Type 3 (for mechanical watch nerds), where the watch faces flow over the glass rather than simply sit beneath it.

The domed Gorilla Glass 5 should be resilient enough (although I haven’t tested this during the review), but I’d have liked to see Google start using sapphire crystal for even more scratch resistance.

Pixel Watch 4 software: What is Wear OS like to use?

Wear OS has finally grown up – and on the Pixel Watch 4, it feels genuinely cohesive. Running Wear OS 6.0, the interface is slick, fluid, and far more intuitive than earlier versions.

Every swipe, scroll, and tap feels immediate, helped by the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 chip, which keeps animations smooth and power use low. During my review, I didn’t experience any lagging or stuttering.

Material You design language ties everything together beautifully. The updated Material 3 Expressive visuals make watch faces pop with colour, and system menus blend neatly with Google’s wider Android ecosystem. It feels much more grown-up than previous generations.

Notifications are neatly stacked, information-rich, and easy to act on, while widgets (or Tiles, as Google calls them) are quick and provide lots of useful information.

Of course, any Google launch in 2025 is going to be packed with AI, so the Pixel Watch 4 comes with Gemini as your on-wrist assistant. Just like Gemini on your phone, responses are quick and accurate. You don’t even need to use a wake word, simply raise your wrist to summon Gemini. I used it to check the weather, send a quick WhatsApp message, and ask for directions. All worked flawlessly.

It’s worth mentioning, too, that I absolutely love the selection of watch faces on the Pixel Watch 4. There’s real variety here – not just in colour or layout, but in personality. You’ve got big, bold designs that make the most of that domed display; sleek mechanical-style faces that nod to traditional field watches (reimagined in Google’s playful Material Expressive aesthetic).

There are minimal faces, and there are the info-dense options, crammed with metrics at data. I’ve spent far too long swapping between them because, honestly, I can’t decide on a favourite.

Overall, Wear OS on the Pixel Watch 4 feels refined and genuinely enjoyable to use.

Pixel Watch 4 health and fitness: Fitbit features explained

Health and fitness have always been central to the Pixel Watch, espcially since Google purchased Fitbit, but the Pixel Watch 4 takes things up a notch – not just with new sensors, but with smarter software that actually feels useful day to day.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve used it for everything from a quick run to tracking my dog walks and the occasional meditation session, and it’s been impressively consistent.

Heart rate tracking is handled by the same multi-path optical sensor introduced in the Watch 3, now paired with Google’s improved machine-learning algorithms. During a short run, it tracked my heart rate accurately and adapted quickly when I sprinted to the finish line.

Fitbit’s metrics, like Cardio Load and Readiness Score, help you see how hard you’ve worked and whether your body’s ready to do it all again tomorrow. After a few days of late nights of watching The Traitors Celebrity Edition, my readiness score dropped and the watch suggested a light recovery workout.

Sleep tracking is another highlight. It automatically detected when I nodded off, correctly logging my short, broken sleep after a long-night with a ill toddler. The new temperature sensor noticed slight fluctuations over a few nights too – a sign I, too, might be coming down with something.

One small annoyance is that these features required a Fitbit account and the Fitbit app on your smartphone, rather than working natively within Google Fit or the Pixel Watch app.

GPS accuracy is much improved thanks to dual-frequency tracking. On a forest trail, the route mapping was spot-on, even under heavy tree cover where some wearables wander off course. The watch also logged elevation changes accurately, which trail runners and hikers will appreciate.

Stress and recovery tools have matured as well. The body-response sensor occasionally nudged me when my stress levels spiked during a busy workday, prompting a short breathing exercise that did, honestly, help.

How long does the Google Pixel Watch 4 battery last?

I was genuinely impressed by how well the Pixel Watch 4 handled battery life. Google quotes up to 40 hours for the 45mm model and 30 hours for the 41mm version, both with the always-on display enabled.

In my testing, the 45mm unit comfortably exceed this, and I actually manged closer to 50 to 60 hours, depending on what I was using the smatchwatch for. Tracking workouts and using GPS obviously took their toll on the battery, but general notifications and light health tracking performance was very impressive.

With Battery Saver mode, it can stretch to even longer (Google claims around 72 hours), which is great for weekends away or when you forget your charger.

Charging is equally satisfying. The new Quick Charge Dock means you get from 0–50-percent in about 15 minutes, 80-percent in 30 minutes, and a full charge in roughly an hour. In practice, a short charge while I showered and had breakfast was enough to get me through a couple of days.

It’s not the week-long stamina of a fitness tracker or sports watch, but for a full-fat smartwatch with a bright 3000-nit display, 4G, and GPS, it’s very impressive indeed.

How does satellite SOS system work?

The Pixel Watch 4 features a satellite SOS system, making it the first smartwatch capable of contacting emergency services without relying on your phone or mobile network.

It uses geostationary satellites to send your location and key details to responders if you’re off-grid or out of signal range.

No, obviously, I didn’t need to try this out during my review period, so I can’t say how smoothly it works, but it is a feature that feels genuinely practical rather than gimmicky, especially for hikers, cyclists, or anyone who spends time outdoors.

While most users will hopefully never need it, having that extra safety net built into a watch is reassuring. It’s also impressive that Google includes it free for two years after activation (something even Apple charges for on its iPhones).

Google Pixel Watch 4 review verdict

After two weeks with the Pixel Watch 4, I can confidently say Google’s finally nailed it. This isn’t just a good smartwatch for Android users – it’s the first that genuinely feels like a complete, premium alternative to the Apple Watch.

The design is gorgeous: smooth, dense, and pebble-like, with a domed Actua 360 display that’s both stunning to look at and easy to read in any light. The build feels solid and premium, while still being comfortable enough to wear 24/7. The software finally matches the hardware too – Wear OS 6.0 feels fluid, logical, and mature, and Gemini integration makes voice interactions faster and more natural than ever.

Health and fitness tracking are top-tier, powered by Fitbit’s excellent metrics and improved accuracy. Whether you’re tracking runs, sleep, or stress, it feels genuinely helpful rather than just a barrage of data. Battery life is no longer a pain point, with the 45mm model easily lasting multiple days, and fast charging making top-ups painless.

There are small gripes – the side charging port spoils an otherwise perfect silhouette, and to get the complete fitness tracking experience, you need to download additional apps – but they’re minor.

Ultimately, the Pixel Watch 4 is sleek and very smart – it’s the first Android smartwatch that truly feels like a rival to Apple.

Google Pixel Watch 4 Technical Specifications

Screen	1.4in (45mm) or 1.2in (41mm) 320 ppi AMOLED LTPO Actua 360 display, 3000 nits peak brightness
Sensors	Compass, Altimeter, SpO2, ECG, optical heart rate sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, cEDA, skin temperature sensor, barometer, magnetometer
Connectivity	Bluetooth 6.0, Wi-Fi 2.4GHz & 5GHz, NFC, Satellite SOS, 4G LTE (optional)
Storage	32GB
Operating system	Wear OS 6.0
Battery	455 mAh
Dimensions	45 mm or 41mm