Google Pixel Watch 5 review: Same again, barkeep

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It felt like it took forever for the Pixel Watch to arrive back in 2022 and now we’re already on the fifth generation. I’ve reviewed almost every single model and the Pixel Watch 5 has been strapped to my wrist for the last few weeks to find out what it’s like.

The device launched alongside the Pixel 11 phones at the August Made by Google event and aims to keep its crown atop our best smartwatch list. In 2026, it has stiff competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 plus the freshly announced Huawei Watch 6 and Moto Watch Ultra.

In true 2026 fashion, it launched with a price rise, now starting at £369/$399 for the smaller model without LTE connectivity.

Things you need to know

Before I get into the more opinionated part, there are some factual things about the Pixel Watch 5 to cover apart from the price rise.

For starters, the design is unchanged from the Pixel Watch 4 (and to some extent, every other generation of Pixel Watch). I don’t see this as a bad thing, as last year’s model brought along key upgrades.

Primarily, it’s repairable for the display and battery and the charging contacts are on the side for the most recent fast charger.

What’s new this year is colourways. You can get the Pixel Watch in two sizes as normal – 41 and 45mm – but Google has done a switch in that it’s the smaller model which has an exclusive colour.

Canyon matches the Pixel 11 Pro models (not the Fold) and you can also get Fog, Olive and Obsidian in either size. Note that these refer to the strap colour so they are paired with Champagne Gold, Polished Silver, Pyrite (new) and Obsidian casings.

As you can see, I have the plainest option in Obsidian.

There’s also a Steph Curry Special Edition in the US, which is limited to the 45mm size, and it’s unclear whether this will launch elsewhere (the UK didn’t get the Fitbit Air version).

Things I love

I briefly touched on the design above, but it’s still worth saying that the Pixel Watch is very much my choice of style from the market. The circular pebble-like design, to me, looks and feels more premium than rivals and everything is in the right place. Whether it’s due a redesign shake-up is perhaps a debate for another day.

Onto performance and I’ve found the Pixel Watch 5 perfectly smooth while using it for the last month. Sure, it occasionally has a little stutter or think about something, but nothing concerning or unusual.

A new chipset would have been welcome rather than just an Accelerated version of the same Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen, especially when the Snapdragon Wear Elite is out there. Performance is fine, but a change could have significantly helped battery life.

On the battery life side, things are solid if nothing to write home about if we compare to some smartwatches which can last close to a week, or occasionally beyond. Why the likes of Google and Samsung can’t achieve this is beyond me when OnePlus has shown how it can be done.

The Pixel Watch 5 lasts me 48 hours with typical usage. That’s fine, particularly when you factor in the speedy charging and that much-improved dock Google introduced last year with the Pixel Watch 4.

It really doesn’t need long at all to juice it back up – mere minutes if you just need a top-up – and I’ve found the connection between watch and dock far less fickle than its predecessor.

As you’ve no doubt picked up by now, there’s little to say about hardware upgrades on the Pixel Watch 5. There’s more memory and storage at 3GB and 64GB respectively (50- and 100% more than before), but I haven’t found this affected my experience.

The differences lie more on the software side, and that means it’s more on the subjective side of things.

On the love side of the fence, I’ve always found the software on the Pixel Watch to be excellent – attractive, intuitive and feature-rich. I’ve never thought the circular display to be a handicap vs the Apple Watch.

The Pixel Watch 5 comes with Wear OS 7 and it’s more of the same. Google hasn’t done anything drastic to mean relearning an OS but also added and refined compared to previous years.

These tweaks and additions include revamped watch face complications and expanded gestures. I particularly find the latter useful and I’ve often got my hands full. You can flick your wrist to go back and double pinch does a whole lot more now, including scrolling and for hitting ok.

The Watch also gets At a Glance so you get small notifications at the bottom of the screen. Each day you’ll get it for Morning Brief as well as various other things such as an ETA when using Google Maps (anything that shows Live Update on your phone will work).

Google Health – which replaces Fitbit and Google Fit – is worth a shout here, too. This completely overhauled system might be hard to get used to for long-time fans of those previous apps but I like it. It’s great at collecting and relaying data, from steps to sleep and much more, as well as accurate GPS tracking.

It’s also been helpful at times to ‘talk’ to the Health Coach in certain situations, primarily to temper its expectations of my fitness. Rather than just egging me on (or pestering, like most fitness devices have done over the years) to hit a goal regardless of the consequences, I can explain why I might be feeling extra tired or too busy.

This two-way street system (using Gemini) makes it far more amicable and realistic. It is, however, one of the key things you need to pay for the Premium subscription to access.

Things I don’t love

To stick with the software side of things, there are some features I’m not so keen on.

Google has added raise-to-wake for Gemini, so when you lift your wrist up to check the time, the screen glows blue at the bottom, waiting for a command or question. However, I found that Gemini very rarely registered what I said.

Scanning through the reviewer’s guide, I think I wasn’t close enough to the device (4-inches apparently), but this feels unnecessary. And the experience I had before having the luxury of checking the guide was just pure frustration. Below you can see what Gemini looks like when you fully launch it.

Not that I relied on it when using the Pixel Watch 4, but it’s also a shame that improved smart replies (autocomplete without you even typing, if you like) is limited to Pixel phones, the latest Pixel 11 models too. The same is true for Proactive Suggestions.

I found more AI woes when trying the new ‘create your own watch face’ feature, which utilises Google’s Nano Banana engine. I asked for a Victorian pocket watch style and got the below. After a few more attempts, I gave up, realising that it can only change the style of the numbers rather than make a whole watch face.

It’s less of an issue now I’ve been testing the Pixel Watch 5 for a while, but key health features weren’t available at launch and have just started rolling out as I publish this review. They include Blood Pressure Trends and Insulin Resistance Trends.

Less important is the default strap. It’s comfortable for sure, but I still don’t like the design choice to tuck the strap underneath itself. It means my skin gets pinched every time I awkwardly thread it through the hole and often have to start again as it’s popped off the notch in the process.

The price is the final thing here. The Pixel Watch 5 now starts at £369/$399 for the smaller 41mm Wi-Fi-only model and rises to £499/$529 for the 45mm LTE. It makes for a dilemma which I’ll tackle in the verdict below.

Should you buy the Google Pixel Watch 5?

I’ve always been a big fan of the Pixel Watch line; they are my go-to smartwatch on the Android side of the fence. However, the smartwatch has hit a bit of a wall in key ways.

This is a market-wide problem in 2026 due to component prices, so you’ll see similar elsewhere. The issue is the ‘previous-gen conundrum’ where the Pixel Watch 5 is more expensive than its predecessor but doesn’t drastically add much to the party.

It means – particularly during sales like Prime Day and Black Friday – as well as many retailers giving it a new lower price, you can get a better value deal on the Pixel Watch 4. Even new Health Guardian features like Blood Pressure Trends and Insulin Resistance Trends are being added to it.

Is the Pixel Watch 5 a great smartwatch? Yes, but unless you really need the latest improvements and perhaps a colour to match your Pixel 11, there’s not a strong argument for splashing out this year.

Specs

• Wear OS 6
• 41 or 45mm
• Actua 360 display, AMOLED, 1-60Hz, 3000 nits peak
• Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated
• 3GB RAM
• 64GB storage
• Heart rate monitor
• SpO2
• ECG
• Skin temperature
• Microphone
• Speaker
• Wi-Fi 6
• Bluetooth 6.0
• Satellite SOS (LTE models)
• Ultra Wideband
• Dual-band GPS
• eSIM
• NFC
• 332/455mAh battery
• Quick Charge Dock
• Gorilla Glass 5
• IP68/5ATM
• 31/26.7g (without band)