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Pixel Watch 5

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Re: Pixel Watch 5

#81

Post by edent »

I overheard a conversation between someone on the Pixel Watch team and a woman I know. He was quizzing her at a party about what features she used - which were pretty much step counter and payment. He somewhat dismissively sneered, "Well, you're not exactly a power user, are you?"

I'm trying to imagine what being a "power user" of a watch is like. Can anyone enlighten me?

I think smart-watches are much like Alexa. What the user wants to do with it is almost totally at odds with what the company is selling. Alexii are mostly kitchen timers, song players, and light switches. No one is a "power user" constantly installing skills and using it for anything which increases the product team's engagement metrics.

The same is probably true of watches. Alerts are nifty - but cumbersome for replies. The health stuff is useful - but only for a subset of users. Seeing the time is great - but if the battery lasts less than a week, who wants to keep that screen on?

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#82

Post by boelboel »

bravura wrote: post #28
impulser_ wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it charges fast enough this shouldn't matter. You just charge it while you take a shower and as long as it charges enough for the day it fine.

You sound like the sales rep at the Apple store. I was perplexed. Meanwhile, I had to wonder how many people take showers that are over half an hour every day.

Many people with long hair and lengthy (body) skincare routines take showers which take half an hour daily. Probably depends on what you include in the shower time.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#83

Post by impulser_ »

breppp wrote: post #68
impulser_ wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually wake up place my watch on the charger grab the clothes I'm wearing go brush my teeth take a shower get dress and get ready for the day then grab the watch off the charger and it fully charged everytime. I don't get the people that need to wear it 24/7 for days at a time.

> I don't get the people that need to wear it 24/7 for days at a time. I think that's kinda expected when the device itself is supposed to give you the illusion it is always there tracking your health (even when sleeping)

Missing 15min of data isn't going to change anything.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#84

Post by hnlmorg »

dfee wrote: post #79

i was wondering recently if i could ditch my iPhone for (just) an Apple Watch. i know i can't fully ditch it (an Apple Watch needs an iPhone for management). but, i'm curious about the concept nonetheless: what would it be like to ditch a smartphone for a smartwatch?

I have a friend who misplaced his iPhone for a weekend while away in another country and used his Apple watch eSIM for everything.

It wasn’t as convenient as having a phone but it was still far far better than being without anything entirely.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#85

Post by xandrius »

dzonga wrote: post #72
tuckwat wrote: post #2

30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day. I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!

garmin watches are unbeatable for battery life - my Pixel 5 - would last close to a month. now it's close to 2 weeks since it's pretty old now :(. but Garmin software sucks. my next watch will be an Apple Watch.

Apple watch, even with most things disabled barely makes it to the next day. Pretty but etrash.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#86

Post by mvanbaak »

SirMaster wrote: post #36

Interesting they are still going with round. Most of the UI shots look awkward on a round screen with anything not in the very center getting cut off a bunch.

I was discussing this with my wife 10 minutes before I saw this comment.

watch / time / clock looks and works so much better on a round interface. notifications / text / buttons look and work so much better on a square interface.

So, use a watch on one wrist (round, good looking, etc), and a smartwatch on the other wrist (square, functional, 'computer')

There's no way you can mold the two together into one 'have it all' form factor

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#87

Post by varispeed »

I never understood these watches. I have Galaxy Ultra Watch and I found it is pointless (bought 2 years ago). Doesn't last a full day. So I cannot e.g. track sleep because it is charging or I cannot track something else because it is charging. Then too much information on tiny screen. I can just whip out my phone for that. I even preferred checking time on the phone.

Now, I got Pebble Time 2 and I think this is it. Just enough bells and whistles and battery lasts for weeks. Love it!

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#88

Post by shikshake »

dfee wrote: post #79

i was wondering recently if i could ditch my iPhone for (just) an Apple Watch. i know i can't fully ditch it (an Apple Watch needs an iPhone for management). but, i'm curious about the concept nonetheless: what would it be like to ditch a smartphone for a smartwatch?

I tried it a few years ago and it was just annoying enough that I went back to my phone after a couple weeks. If you search online I’m sure you can find write ups from people who tried this out.

Re: Pixel Watch 5

#90

Post by varispeed »

gavinray wrote: post #8

Most useful bit of the announcement, coming to all Google wearables it seems: Blood pressure, sleep breathing, and insulin sensitivity trends > Built on state-of-the-art Health Foundation Models trained on billions of minutes of sensor data from opted-in users and rigorously validated against gold-standard clinical measurements, these models power three new monthly trend summaries: blood pressure trends, sleep breath…

Combined with poor battery life, this is quite pointless.

I can imagine that would be okay if the watch lasted for a full month, then you could buy two watches and swap them out every now and then.

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