Technologies

Google Pixel Watch: After 5 Months, Still the Best-Looking Android Watch

The Pixel Watch’s sleek, curved design and variety of Fitbit metrics make it a top choice. But it’s not perfect.

Android fans looking for a smartwatch that’s more stylish than a fitness watch but more functional than a hybrid watch don’t have many options to choose from. But the Pixel Watch manages to check that box, even if it doesn’t get everything else right.

I’ve been revisiting the Pixel Watch roughly five months after its launch, and my first impressions largely remain the same. Aside from its sharp looks, Google’s first smartwatch excels for its easy-to-use software and wide selection of Fitbit health metrics. The same downsides also hold true: The battery life isn’t as long as I would like it to be, and the bezels framing the screen are sometimes too noticeable.

Google Pixel Watch

$300 at Google

It’s still the best-looking Android Watch, with some caveats

The Pixel Watch’s attractive design continues to be its best attribute. That’s important, because a device that sits on the wrist all day (and night) needs to look and feel like something you actually want to wear. The rounded glass edges, stainless steel materials and soft pebble-like shape give it a more polished look compared to the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 or Fitbit Sense 2. As a person with small wrists, the Pixel Watch looks more natural than most smartwatches I’ve worn.

The Pixel Watch and the Samsung Galaxy Watch — Google’s Pixel Watch (left) has a more refined design than the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.

Lexy Savvides/CNET

But those benefits do come with some compromises. The Pixel Watch is only available in one size, which might not be suitable for those with large wrists or people who prefer bigger screens. Even though I like the Pixel Watch’s petite look, I do wish the screen was slightly larger so that it could fit more complications — what watchmakers call the little secondary dials, but on smartwatches are typically things like temperature and activity tracking. I typically wear a 45-millimeter Apple Watch Series 6 when I’m using an iPhone, and that screen can show six complications at once. On my favorite Pixel Watch face, I can only fit three.

The more pressing issue, however, is that the Pixel Watch’s bezels can sometimes distract from the design, as I wrote in my initial review. Most of the time, the software’s dark background blends in well with the watch’s bezels. But you can really see the bezels when using a colorful app or the Photos watch face.

Its battery life is about the same as rivals

Before Google announced the Pixel Watch, I hoped it would inherit Fitbit’s stellar battery life. Unfortunately, that didn’t end up being the case. The Pixel Watch can last for a little more than a day on a single charge in my experience, which roughly matches the battery life on the Apple Watch Series 8 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. After about 27 hours of use, for example, my watch had 12% of its battery left.

I had the always-on display turned off and mostly tracked indoor workouts that didn’t require a GPS connection while using the watch, save for logging a few outdoor walks. Both of those features typically drain the battery faster, meaning you’ll get less mileage out of the watch if you use them.

This isn’t a major problem if you intend to charge your watch overnight. But since I’ve been trying to get more sleep lately, I’ve been putting Fitbit’s in-depth sleep tracking to use. This has made it hard to know when I should carve out time to put my Pixel Watch on its charger. I even had to workout without my Pixel Watch while it charged on one occasion, making me feel like I wasn’t getting credit for my indoor cycling session.

Google Pixel Watch with photo watch face — Google’s Pixel Watch has noticeable bezels when a photo is on the display.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

The Pixel Watch works great with non-Pixel Android phones

Google has been positioning the Pixel Watch as a Pixel phone companion, but it works the same with other Android devices. I used the Pixel Watch with a Pixel 7 during my initial October review, but this time around I paired it with a Galaxy S23 Plus and then a Galaxy Z Fold 4. No matter which phone you’re using, you set up and manage the watch through Google’s Watch app, while I relied on the Fitbit app for keeping track of my health statistics.

Getting started with the watch was just as easy on a Samsung phone as it was on the Pixel 7. Since it supports Google’s Fast Pair feature, my Samsung devices were able to detect the Pixel Watch as soon as I brought the watch close to my phone, prompting me to install the Watch app immediately.

Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel Watch — The Pixel Watch has been positioned as a Pixel phone companion, but it works great with other Android devices too.

Andrew Lanxon/CNET

That makes the Pixel Watch appealing to a broader audience of Android users, but also means there isn’t necessarily anything about it that hooks users into Google’s specific Pixel ecosystem. Samsung, on the other hand, restricts the Galaxy Watch’s ECG feature to Galaxy phone users only.

Unsurprisingly, the Pixel Watch is not compatible with iPhones. But other Wear OS watchmakers like Fossil offer iOS support.

Google Pixel Watch being worn — Andrew Lanxon/CNET

The same downsides still exist, possibly with some new ones

Aside from the battery life and the bezel, there are two shortcomings that might be important to those who regularly use their watch for health and fitness tracking.

First, the Pixel Watch can’t automatically detect and launch a workout while on your wrist or provide notifications for high and low heart rates. That may be important to consider for those who want to keep a closer eye on their cardiac health.

These are drawbacks that existed at launch, but some users have reported new issues since then. A few Pixel Watch owners have said that alarms set on the Pixel Watch have gone off minutes after they were supposed to, as 9to5Google has reported. For what it’s worth, I use the alarm function on the Pixel Watch often and have not experienced this problem. A Google spokesperson said the company will be updating the Pixel Watch’s Clock app through the Play Store in the coming weeks to address these alarm issues.

The Pixel Watch will evolve over time

But perhaps the biggest revelation that’s become clear over the last few months is that the Pixel Watch will continue to evolve over time, much like Google’s Pixel phones. Google has launched a couple of new features, like fall detection and Fitbit’s Sleep Profiles, the latter of which is available only for Fitbit Premium members and provides deeper analysis of your sleeping patterns. However, both features really just bring the Pixel Watch up to speed with other watches from Apple and Fitbit rather than introducing something wholly new.

The bigger takeaway is that companies like Google, Apple and Samsung are all finding new ways to bring compelling features to their respective smartwatches via software updates rather than just hardware. Apple’s WatchOS 9 update last fall, for example, brought better sleep tracking and more metrics for runners. Samsung, meanwhile, brought improved camera remote controls to the Galaxy Watch 5 and will soon launch cycle tracking.

The Pixel Watch’s classy design and Fitbit health tracking still make it a standout choice for Android device owners. It’s far from perfect, but I’m looking forward to seeing where Google takes it next.

Technologies

Why Are Switch 2 Games So Expensive? Trump’s Tariffs May Not Be Sole Factor

It still comes down to money.

Wednesday’s reveal of the Switch 2 had a lot of buzz from Nintendo surrounding its successor to the Switch. One shocking bit, though, was the high price of its games. There’s a lot of confusion, especially with news of President Donald Trump’s increased tariffs on many trading partners, including Japan.

After the Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo released the full details of the upcoming console and games on its website. The price of Mario Kart World shocked gamers and led to some disdain, as the $80 MSRP was $10 more than what most new games cost today. This led many to wonder if this would be a new normal for game prices due to Trump’s tariffs or if Nintendo was just being greedy. The answer, however, might be something completely different.

Are Nintendo Switch 2 game prices hiking?

To start, some details need to be cleared up. Some people have posted on social media that the price of Nintendo’s Switch 2 games, at least in the US, will be $90. That is incorrect, as of right now.

One X user posted Switch 2 EU prices for Mario Kart World, which start at 80 euros for a digital version and 90 euros for the physical copy. Typically, US and EU games match in price, which caused some to assume that this pricing would be the case for the US.

Nintendo Switch 2 games will be more expensive physically than digitally.
Mario Kart World will be 90 freaking euros phisically. pic.twitter.com/iXuRwzlFqH

— Centro LEAKS (@CentroLeaks) April 2, 2025

US retailers, however, already posted their Switch 2 game prices, and Nintendo-published games are listed at $80.

Will Trump’s tariffs cause the Switch 2 to cost more?

As for Trump’s tariffs, that is unlikely to be a driver of this price bump. Tariffs are not applied to digital goods, and when the prices were published, there were no tariffs on Japan. Plus, games are similarly expensive in other countries like Canada and the UK.

With that cleared up, why are Nintendo games on the Switch 2 so expensive? One likely reason is game storage.

Read More: All the Nintendo Games You Can Update to Switch 2 for Free

The Switch 2 uses what Nintendo calls game-key cards, which are Switch 2 cartridges that don’t have all the game data on the cartridge itself. This helps save on production costs as storage is expensive. The original Switch cartridges went up to 32GB of storage, which doesn’t seem like a lot these days, with some games taking up 100GB or more of storage, but this is for the original Switch. Only a few games, like The Witcher 3, went above 32GB because the graphics for the Switch weren’t on the high end like with a PC, PS5 or Xbox Series console, where a Witcher 3 install size starts at 50GB.

Switch 2 games are going to be bigger in size — there is little doubt about it. CD Projekt Red confirmed it would put its Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on one 64GB cartridge, and there will likely be other games to surpass that 64GB. With the max size of the cartridge doubling in size, it adds to the price of the physical card, as not only does storage have to be bigger, but they will need to transfer data faster. That can get more expensive for physical copies, unlike optical discs, which are still the same price whether it has 20GB or 100GB on the disc.

What does all this mean for gamers?

This leads to a dilemma for publishers: Put the entire game on the physical card and sell it at a loss, increase the price of the physical copy with the full game on it or use the game-key card to have a card with minimal storage, requiring gamers to download the entire game.

Read More: The 17 Best Nintendo Switch Games Right Now

It appears that Nintendo went with door No. 2. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise, knowing the company. Anyone who wants to save money on games knows that Nintendo will seldom bring the price down of its own games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, for example, is 8 years old and is still full price on Nintendo’s website.

According to an industry analysis from Niko Partners, this new pricing could become the new normal in a couple of years when it comes to physical cartridges.

«While there has been some sticker shock regarding the price of games increasing from $60 to $70 or $80, these price points are set to become industry standard over the next two years, especially so for Nintendo first-party games,» Niko Partners said in a statement Wednesday. «One reason for the higher price is the increased cost of the new and faster Game Cards themselves, with higher capacities being more expensive to manufacture than a PS5 Blu-ray disc.»

Nintendo didn’t respond to a request for comment about the higher price of its games.

That said, this doesn’t explain the lower price of Donkey Kong Bananza, which comes out in July; that’s listed on Nintendo’s site for $70. This could mean the game isn’t using a larger storage card, but that can’t be said for sure until the game comes out. It’s unclear how things will change in the future.

Technologies

Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-orders in US Delayed Due to Trump’s Tariffs

The Switch 2 launch is still happening on June 5, and preorders outside the US seem unchanged.

Nintendo Switch 2 preorders in the US were to start April 9, but it appears those plans have changed due to the new tariffs imposed this week by President Donald Trump. It’s unclear if this means Nintendo will also have to increase the price of the Switch successor, which currently starts at $450.

Nintendo said Friday that it’s delaying Switch 2 preorders in the US, but its June release date is unaffected.

«Pre-orders for Nintendo Switch 2 in the U.S. will not start April 9, 2025 in order to assess the potential impact of tariffs and evolving market conditions,» the company said in a statement. «Nintendo will update timing at a later date. The launch date of June 5, 2025 is unchanged.»

Nintendo didn’t indicate if preorder dates outside the US would change, but Eurogamer reports that preorders are live at various retailers in the UK.

A tariff of 24% has been applied by the US to goods from Japan. Were that rate to be applied directly to the Switch 2’s announced price, it would rise to $558, but it would be up to Nintendo how much of the tariff it will pass on to consumers.

This is a developing story.

Technologies

Twelve South’s Foldable Wireless Charger for iPhone and Apple Watch Is Up to 27% Off at Amazon

This handy accessory makes it easier to travel with your Apple gear and stay charged wherever you go.

Whether you’re traveling for business or off on a wonderful family vacation, charging your stuff shouldn’t be something you have to worry about. Taking extra chargers and cables can be a pain, and they all take up space in your bag. But the handy Twelve South Butterfly SE charger is a compact alternative that can wirelessly charge an iPhone and an Apple Watch at the same time. And it’s available with up to 27% off right now at Amazon.

That top line discount applies to the pink version, though the white model is only $7 more and other colors are seeing 15% off the usual $100 price tag if you have a strong preference. It’s not clear how long the discounts will last, though.

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money.

The charger itself offers a way to wirelessly charge a iPhone and Apple Watch from a single AC outlet, and you can even charge your AirPods when your phone is done, too. And because this is a Qi2 charger you’ll get a full 15 watts of wireless charging for compatible devices — including the best iPhones.

When you’re not using the Butterfly SE, it folds up so it can be slid into a pocket, bag or luggage without taking up too much space. It really is the perfect partner for people who like to travel light.

Unfortunately, this charger doesn’t come with an AC adapter in the box, so you’ll need to provide your own. Make sure it’s rated for 20 watts or more. If you need to buy one, Apple’s 20-watt USB-C charger is just $15 right now.

Why this deal matters

We all carry multiple devices around with us these days. Anything that can make charging them more convenient is a win in our books, especially when you’re traveling. This charger takes up little space when it isn’t being used and charges quickly when it is.