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Pixel Watch 3

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Re: Pixel Watch 3

#111
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't hate my Pixel Watch (yet?) but dear God, getting a text message notification that doesn't actually show you the message is a baffling step backwards coming from a Fitbit.

Fitbit has the same behaviour they're describing where the screen only turns on when it detects that you're holding your wrist up. I personally don't have a problem with that behaviour and find it to be a natural gesture. Maybe the Pixel watch isn't as good at recognizing it.

I have always-on display turned on. So the screen is always showing something, just not anything important, like the notification I just got, or the next turn on my navigation route, or whatever.

If you ever used a watch that did show notifications automatically with an always-on screen and then went back to one that doesn't, you would probably notice that it's way slower, and also there are many times where you can see the watch screen but it's not convenient to do a gesture.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have failed to comprehend the allure for precisely this reason. I've looked at adopting the Apple Watch a few times now, but as a person who struggles with insomnia and finds sleep tracking valuable, I'd have to buy a separate device to use with the watch because of the battery life. Or, I could just keep my current Fitbit which consistently lasts a week and gives me good enough information.

People make it out to be some big deal, but I don't really understand. I have an Ultra 2, and it goes an easy 2 days on a single charge. I wear it all day and all night (for sleep tracking), and put it on the charger when I get in the shower. When I'm getting dressed, I put it back on and it's good to go.

Same here. It's been great, and I'm on the Ultra 1 still.

I will say it wasn't great when I had the non-Ultra. It was fine at first, the watch would last a full day, but like 2 or 3 years later it would struggle if I did a lot of exercise in a day to make it to the time I go to bed.

I also recently went on a 5-day backpacking trip and it was a struggle to keep my phone and watch charged with an external battery. If the ultra lasted even 3 days instead of just 2ish on a charge this would have made it way easier. By the end of the trip to save charge I just gave up charging the watch.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#114
post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fitbit has the same behaviour they're describing where the screen only turns on when it detects that you're holding your wrist up. I personally don't have a problem with that behaviour and find it to be a natural gesture. Maybe the Pixel watch isn't as good at recognizing it.

I have always-on display turned on. So the screen is always showing something , just not anything important, like the notification I just got, or the next turn on my navigation route, or whatever. If you ever used a watch that did show notifications automatically with an always-on screen and then went back to one that doesn't, you would probably notice that it's way slower, and also there are many times where you can…

Interesting, I don't use always on display and I could see how that would be annoying if I did.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#115

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…

With the original Wear OS, you could check your notifications at any time and even scroll through them, all without touching the watch. The gestures were amazing. They eventually took them away, for reasons that I cannot comprehend.

yeah, I've been a wearOS owner from the beginning. I wish I has the early OS on the current Galaxy Watch 7 hardware... that would be nearly perfect.

Having said that, I don't think I've been happier than with the GW7 I have atm. It does what i want, I can wear it all day and all night and charge it back to 100% in the time it takes me to have a shower get a cuppa and be ready to walk out the door.

Its giving me interesting data on sleep and heart rate etc etc (though if I'm honest I'm not sure I'm really using that data for anything)

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#116
post #76

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.fit…

Genuinely don’t understand why Google continues to produce these products and refuse to support them. Do they just know there’s a contingency of anti-apple users who will buy their devices regardless of extreme usability issues?

Anti-Apple users have plenty of places to get their hardware and firmware updates from, few users are going to look this deep into getting a device though.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#117
post #76

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.fit…

Genuinely don’t understand why Google continues to produce these products and refuse to support them. Do they just know there’s a contingency of anti-apple users who will buy their devices regardless of extreme usability issues?

Apple has its own issues. And if I'm not mistaken, you need an iPhone to use an Apple watch, but you can use a Pixel watch with either an Android phone or an iPhone. Of course, Samsung, Garmin, and others also make campatible smart watches, so if I were in the market, I would certainly be comparing alternatives.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#118
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just recommend no watch at all. Once I got a cell phone, wrist watches lost all appeal to me other than being a fancy piece of mechanical or digital jewelry and I have never seen the appeal of smart watches, despite working with technology every day. I'm sure they are useful for a subset of people, but this idea that everyone should have a smartwatch boggles my mind.

I have a smartwatch and it really helped me break my "phone addiction". I used to get a notification and check my phone in case someone needed me urgently. Then I'd just mindlessly open reddit or HN and start browsing. Now I just glance at my wrist and ignore it most of the time. I also leave my phone lying around all over the place. I used to religiously carry it with me which made it much easier to get distracted.

I have this use case too. I use my watch's WAN capability to go out on dates with spouse sans phone. If the world ends (server goes down...) I'll know about it and meanwhile I'm fully attentive and present.

Plus you can wear clothing that doesn't accommodate a phone without needing to put it on the table.

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuinely don’t understand why Google continues to produce these products and refuse to support them. Do they just know there’s a contingency of anti-apple users who will buy their devices regardless of extreme usability issues?

Apple has its own issues. And if I'm not mistaken, you need an iPhone to use an Apple watch, but you can use a Pixel watch with either an Android phone or an iPhone. Of course, Samsung, Garmin, and others also make campatible smart watches, so if I were in the market, I would certainly be comparing alternatives.

Android wear watches only work with android these days

Re: Pixel Watch 3

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wrote above that preferring a week-long battery life for a watch over an ability to make calls and install apps is a "weird take". For me it's exactly the opposite, I take the week-long battery any time. So if anything at all is weird here I'd vote for your viewpoint.

Congrats you completely misunderstood. Preferring a week long battery life isn’t weird. What is weird is saying an Apple Watch is inferior to a 10 year old watch because of the battery life, when these are different devices with different purposes. Think about this for a second, would Apple purposefully gimp their watch’s battery life or maybe, just maybe, there’s more going on.

> Think about this for a second, would Apple purposefully gimp their watch’s battery life

Yes?

Design a device with just enough to get through the day, forces getting replaced in a few years when battery degrades. Apple is a hardware company with the capability to optimize battery life but they don't since 80% health on a batt that lasts a week won't force a replacement for most customers.

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