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Pixel Watch 3

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Re: Pixel Watch 3

#71

Post by cogman10 »

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #51
ho_schi wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re into sport, I recommend Garmin. It shows notifications properly. Bonus, charge it once or twice in a week. It doesn’t try to be a smartwatch . No sport? I recommend a classy automatic wristwatch . Your movement winds it up. No charging. No apps. No updates. No battery. The spring is wind up by wearing, eight hours of wearing usually last for 24 hours. So sleeping without isn’t an issue and in worst case you…

Seconding the Garmin rec - though stay away from new 265/965/Epic, which have the same OLED screen and resultant "shake it all about" and then wait a blink to see the time issue as Pixels and Apple watches, and stick to Fenix/Forerunner x55 MIPS displays for weeks-long battery life with always-on display. And no need to update every 2 years.

I'm currently using a 965 and I love it. That said, I came to it from fitbit so maybe my views are warped.

Generally, just turning over my wrist to look at it works exceptionally well at showing everything, a firm tap works when that doesn't.

The 1 to 2 weeklong battery life is also great.

It's really one of my favorite watches.

My wife has the pixel watch 2 and holy cow does the battery on that thing suck. She never uses the sleep function because the damn thing is empty at the end of every day. Like 14 hours of battery life max in normal usage.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#72

Post by cogman10 »

Baeocystin wrote: post #48
modeless wrote: post #14

My Pixel Watch sucks and it's not because the screen isn't big or bright enough. The implementation of notifications is awful. It's actually faster and easier in many cases to whip out my phone to see a notification than to see it on the watch. Why? Because notifications are not shown by default. The watch vibrates but nothing is there on the screen but the watch face. To trigger a notification to actually show, you…

It is also maddening to me the degree to which sensor information is hidden, or simply not available at all. I got my Pixel 2 watch specifically for fitness and sleep tracking. A year on, and I am still completely unable to perform a spot SpO2 check. I'll get a nice, pretty and utterly unlabeled graph of my supposed saturations when I sleep, but that's it. It definitely feels like the people that make it don't actual…

If you are a data nerd, Garmin is 1000x better. It tracks everything and the app displays everything.

Some of the smart features aren't quiet as good... but like everything I've needed has worked great (like tap and pay).

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#73

Post by cogman10 »

jsheard wrote: post #16
drewg123 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I've gotten used to from my Garmin. It has a claimed 2 weeks of life, and I charge it once a week. I pointed out the 48hr life because I loved the MS Band, and I can't think of anything it didn't do that any modern smart watch does for me that I actually care about. And it got the same or better battery life as is typical in the market today. And on much worse hardware.

Is that a MIP Garmin or an OLED Garmin? I've heard that their OLED battery life is getting better with newer models but usually you have to make a choice between battery life and sunlight readability (better on MIP) or brightness and vibrancy (better on OLED) with them.

I have an OLED garmin (965). Battery life is about 1 week for me.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#74

Post by alexey-salmin »

CooCooCaCha wrote: post #19
drewg123 wrote: post #2

" all-day battery life " Ugh, Apple really has lowered expectations. In order to switch from my Garmin, I'd want at least a week.. Even my MS Band from 10 years ago had 48hrs of battery life.

Weird take. Do you think your Garmin and your 10 year old watch can do the same things as an Apple Watch? No. Apple Watches are more like mini-iPhones. For example, I can take calls from my watch without a phone nearby, which is more appealing to me than multi-day battery life.

Your take is much weirder for me. I barely even make calls on my phone nowadays but I use my Garmin watch many times a day. I also use them to track my sleep which would be very inconvenient if I had to charge them daily.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#75

Post by CooCooCaCha »

pphysch wrote: post #69
CooCooCaCha wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do use the mic and speaker for short and simple conversations. Overall I like that I can go on a run and leave my phone at home while also being able to take a call if I need to. Look, I’m not claiming it’s life changing. The way I describe the Apple Watch to people is that you can definitely live your life without it but the little conveniences add up. It’s silly that I’m getting downvoted because it’s true. The A…

> The way I describe the Apple Watch to people is that you can definitely live your life without it but the little conveniences add up. For a Garmin-style watch, the convenience of only needing a ~30min charge once or twice a month is pretty big.

I throw my watch on the charger when I go to sleep, so I don’t really seen the benefit. I’d rather have a more powerful device as a tradeoff.

If that matters to you then great but I take issue with putting all of these watches in the same bucket and pretending that they’re all the same except for battery life. It’s just not true.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#76

Post by vially »

For anyone considering buying the Pixel Watch 3, please keep in mind that Pixel Watch 2 has some long-standing issues where the GPS completely cuts out during runs or walks.

Some users believe it to be a hardware issue but it's still unacknowledged by Google and the forum thread where people have been discussing it has just been locked recently. Just mentioning it for awareness and visibility.

- https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Android-App/Google-Pixel-Wat...

- https://support.google.com/googlepixelwatch/thread/242833127...

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#77

Post by ClassyJacket »

modeless wrote: post #14

My Pixel Watch sucks and it's not because the screen isn't big or bright enough. The implementation of notifications is awful. It's actually faster and easier in many cases to whip out my phone to see a notification than to see it on the watch. Why? Because notifications are not shown by default. The watch vibrates but nothing is there on the screen but the watch face. To trigger a notification to actually show, you…

Android Wear is pretty much abandoned, which is ridiculous considering they're still putting out new Pixel Watches. It's insane that this OS has been around for a decade and pretty much not improved at all. The software still feels the same as it did in 2014 - slow, laggy, and badly designed.

Don't get me started on the insanity of making round smartwatches. You wouldn't make a round phone.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#78

Post by CooCooCaCha »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #74
CooCooCaCha wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird take. Do you think your Garmin and your 10 year old watch can do the same things as an Apple Watch? No. Apple Watches are more like mini-iPhones. For example, I can take calls from my watch without a phone nearby, which is more appealing to me than multi-day battery life.

Your take is much weirder for me. I barely even make calls on my phone nowadays but I use my Garmin watch many times a day. I also use them to track my sleep which would be very inconvenient if I had to charge them daily.

How is it a weird take? These devices serve different purposes, and their designs optimize for different things.

I like that my watch serves as a mini-iPhone, and I don’t mind charging it while I sleep. I like that I can install some of the same apps on my phone and watch.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#79

Post by ClassyJacket »

paxys wrote: post #18

I'm too locked in to the Apple ecosystem to switch, but I really wish they made a round watch. This one looks so good compared to whatever Apple puts out every year. A round watch face just makes so much aesthetic sense.

Round smartwatches make no sense and I don't know why anybody is making them. Scrolling content needs a constant-width display. If there was a square android watch I would get it.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#80

Post by archagon »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #79
paxys wrote: post #18

I'm too locked in to the Apple ecosystem to switch, but I really wish they made a round watch. This one looks so good compared to whatever Apple puts out every year. A round watch face just makes so much aesthetic sense.

Round smartwatches make no sense and I don't know why anybody is making them. Scrolling content needs a constant-width display. If there was a square android watch I would get it.

Most of the time, I’m not using my smartwatch for scrolling content.
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