Pixel Watch 5 Review: The Pretty One

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The Pixel Watch 5 is a stunning, polished smartwatch that finally matches its looks with top-tier performance and a best-in-class Gemini experience. Battery life and gesture controls still have room to grow, but for Android users who want a beautiful and capable wearable, it's an easy recommendation.

The Good

1. Gorgeous circular design that's genuinely wear-anywhere
2. Smooth, lag-free Wear OS performance
3. Gemini on-wrist is the best AI assistant experience available

The Not So Good

1. Battery still doesn't reach five days
2. Gesture controls are inconsistent
3. Design may feel too dressy for everyday use

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I can’t believe it’s been three years since I last reviewed a Pixel Watch, but I guess that’s what happens when you become a parent during that time.

Time flies.

A lot has changed since I reviewed the first-ever Pixel Watch in 2022. But before I get to that and tell you what I think about the new Pixel Watch 5, I need to remind myself of what I concluded about the first generation.

I liked it, apparently. Far more than I expected to. The round face was the thing I focused on pretty heavily in that review; it was, I said, the best-looking smartwatch on the market at the time. It also offered a lovely user experience within Wear OS, and the Fitbit partnership was, in my own words, “a stroke of genius”. Oh, and Google Assistant on your wrist? The best example of such a feature by a mile.

I didn’t like the single size (it was too small for me), and the battery performance was a bit… meh, as the kids say. Ok, but not outstanding.

The eagle-eyed among you will have already spotted what’s changed since I made those conclusions, and the release of the Pixel Watch 5 felt like the perfect opportunity to see how far Google’s wearable has come.

What’s New and Pricing

The Pixel Watch 5 is powered by the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 and an M55 co-processor. According to Google, this means a 25% split in performance and a 50% slash in power usage. Oh, and there’s 50% more RAM, too.

The 3,000 nit display is 50% brighter than the one on the Pixel Watch 4, and is now domed. When it comes to the battery, Google doesn’t quote the size, but it is apparently slightly better than the one in the Pixel Watch 4. The GPS is also improved (twice as fast for route tracking, apparently), and sleep tracking is said to be 15% more accurate.

We now have a new ‘umbrella’ (sorry) term for features like blood pressure trends, insulin resistance trends, and breathing emergency detection. Google calls it the Health Guardian and, a bit like Samsung, they want it to be more proactive than reactive when it comes to helping you sniff out potential health issues.

Gemini works offline on the Pixel Watch 5, there are new generative watch faces, additional complications, and a Workout Builder is coming later this year.

The Pixel Watch 5 comes in two sizes – 41mm and 45mm, which start at £369/$399.99 and £399/$429.99, respectively. That puts it squarely, still, in Apple Watch competitor territory.

5 Things I Love About the Pixel Watch 5

Specs rarely interest me these days, and they certainly don’t with smartwatches. As always, I just want to get these things on my wrist and start assessing how they feel, look, and impact my day.

Here are five things that have really impressed me so far with the Pixel Watch 5.

1. The Circular Face

I’m a watch guy at heart, and as much as I love the Apple Watch, it’s always annoyed me a bit that it isn’t circular. Circular smartwatches just feel more like watches for me.

I appreciate that sounds daft. But I challenge anyone to pick up the Pixel Watch 5 and not admire how attractive and traditional watch-like it is.

It’s the pretty one. The one you can wear when you get dressed up and go to a wedding – and that’s something where many other smartwatches often come up short.

I don’t get dressed up very often at all, but I do appreciate how lovely the Pixel Watch 5 is, and that’s mainly because of the fact that it has a circular design. The Wear OS interface works beautifully within that form factor, and the fact that Google decided to start offering a second, larger size from the Pixel Watch 3 onwards means it finally looks right on my wrist.

2. Watch Faces

I love some of the watch faces Google includes with the Pixel Watch 5. Again, without wishing to bore you further about my circular watch obsession, that design choice really does lend itself to some brilliantly customisable faces.

As noted, we get more complications with the Pixel Watch 5. They’re easy to add, colour choices are typically Pixel-lovely, and I’m a particular fan of the watch faces that feature the seconds gently rotating around the edge of the screen.

It’s aesthetics – I get that. But it matters with this type of tech.

If you’re weighing up smartwatch options on Android, our Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 review is worth a look before you decide.

3. Performance

I remember the first Pixel Watch being no slouch; it was impressively smooth and buttery for a first iteration, and held up well against the gold standard – the Apple Watch.

Apple’s wearable remains the gold standard in terms of sheer butteriness and responsiveness, and I’m pleased to report that the Pixel Watch 5 sits alongside it. I’ve not experienced any lag, stuttering, or “hang on, did I actually press that button?” annoyances. Wear OS just works, and it has the added benefit of looking great.

That last point isn’t just an aesthetics thing. Smartwatches are made not just to tell the time and keep you abreast of notifications, but to tempt you to dive into health metrics. I want to do that on the Pixel Watch 5 because the cards, UI touches, and aforementioned smooth operation are a joy to look at and interact with.

4. Google Health

Google Health is the companion app for the Pixel Watch 5, and it’s essentially a rebranding of the original Fitbit app.

I’m not an original Fitbit app user, so I can’t comment on the complaints that emanated from that community following the app rebranding, but I know it wasn’t popular.

As a fresh user, I have to say it’s great. I first encountered Google Health while testing the Fitbit Air (which I’m still wearing to this day), and it came along at a point in my life when I really needed it. Having experienced a rather significant health event (I’m fixed and recovering, thankfully), the presence of an app in my life that listened, remembered, and was able to set goals without encroaching on the doctors’ orders was – and still is – comforting.

It isn’t as detailed as Garmin’s app, or the overall Whoop experience, but for someone like me, who now takes his health more seriously than ever but doesn’t want to be bamboozled by numbers and terminology I have to look up on Google, it’s nigh-on perfect.

5. Gemini on Your Wrist

Three years ago, I noted that the presence of Google Assistant on the original Pixel Watch was the best example of a digital assistant attached to your wrist.

That’s still the case, but the situation has changed slightly. Google Assistant is no more – we now have Gemini. Which, let’s be honest, is basically Google Assistant brought into the year 2026.

This is good news. Gemini is utterly superb and still the best digital helper out there. That might change as Siri AI emerges, but at the time of writing, if you want to call on a large language model from your wrist, Google offers the best experience.

Curious how Siri AI stacks up against Gemini? We put it to the test – read our Siri AI hands-on review for the full breakdown.

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What I Don’t Love

It’s not all roses. No tech is.

For as pretty as the Pixel Watch 5 is, it can be a bit too pretty for me. As noted, I rarely dress up, therefore, the instances where I need something fancy-looking on my wrist are few and far between. Google’s smartwatch is jewellery-like all of the time, and as much as I like the bigger size, I’m more of a purposeful, rugged-ish watch kinda guy.

The Pixel Watch 5 includes gesture controls, where various hand and finger movements can be used instead of touching the display. It works great when it works, but I found it a little inconsistent – to the point where I might as well just be touching the display.

The battery performance? It’s still ok. Definitely better than it was three years ago, but I think we’ve reached a point now where Google, Apple, and Samsung really need to start offering us at least five days of battery life on their smartwatches.

Conclusion

The Pixel Watch 5 is the pretty one that’s just as capable during marathon training as an Apple Watch Ultra. That’s where we are with smartwatches these days; they’re all very capable, and they all track the same stuff.

This means it comes down to the smartphone you use (the Pixel Watch is only compatible with Android-based devices) and, of course, your preference for design.

The Pixel Watch 5 isn’t the one I’d pick simply because I prefer a different type of watch design, but for the people it suits, it’s one hell of a buy.

Shop the Pixel Watch 5 below!