Plagiarism disclaimer #1: I only discovered that FastCompany used the same title for its Pixel Watch review after writing mine. Whether I copied the title or not, one thing is for sure: the Pixel Watch hasn’t fixed too many things in the six months since its launch in October 2022.

Plagiarism disclaimer #2: An alternative title for this review could be: "An Option for Those Who Are Bad at Math."

Tempted by the $200 discount offered by Best Buy, I purchased a Google Pixel Watch to pair with my Pixel 7. After three days of normal use with some sports tracking, I can only say it falls below expectations in both hardware and software aspects. What's unexpected is how chaotic the software inside runs, given Google's claim to be a better software company than Apple. I think a refined version with better software and hardware requires another 1-2 years of waiting before it can justify its $400 price tag.

Firstly, the price tag for this watch is just a down payment for your future investment in it. The watch comes with a free 6-month access to Fitbit (huh?) premium features, including basic sleep analysis which is normally offered for free on an Apple Watch or others. After your 6-month "trial" is over, you will need to pay for a premium membership for as little as $80 a year.

Simple math shows that just three years of subscription can buy you a $249 Apple Watch SE, or five years of payments could buy a $399 Apple Watch Series #. Both offer better features and are even cheaper considering the "down payment" you've already made for the Pixel Watch itself.

Only if the Pixel Watch was offered for free, would it be a good enough deal for me.

Let’s get to the software part, where Google should excel. When I was going through the setup process, I couldn't believe how complicated it was just to have the sports tracking up and running. There are three apps you need to download to enjoy the ecosystem; the Pixel Watch app, which is the main app that connects to your watch and allows customization of watch faces; the Fitbit app, which does the sports tracking and analysis; and the Google Fit app, which presents your health data with a better UI, though it contains less information than the Fitbit app.

However, if you think three apps are enough, you're as naive as I was. It turns out, for Fitbit to share data with Google Fit, you need to install a plug-in called Health Connect, which serves as a platform to collect and share health data between all the apps. And the sharing access is managed in each app's settings independently.

Finally, if you're lucky enough to figure all this out before using all the leftover battery from the factory, you can put it to charge and lose track of your sleep during the first night of owning it.

On the second day, you might take it for a quick swim. Before getting into the pool, you turn on swim mode to keep track of your performance. The watch face blacks out after counting down, and it then looks as simple as the cheap digital watch you can buy from Decathlon. The screen shows nothing but current time and a digital stop watch that’s counting how long since you started tracking. Don't worry, the advanced chipset and algorithm are still keeping record of everything; it's just not accessible to you until you get out of the water and unlock it to check.

One good thing is, it automatically and secretly records your walks and they magically show up in your workout history. The Apple Watch’s walk workout notification seems unnecessary compared to this.

On the third day, when you think everything is at least running as it should, you and your wife are suddenly woken up by the default ringtone at maximum volume from your Pixel phone. At this point, you might think this watch should be better named the Aliexpress Watch, as neither the alarm nor the bedtime schedule is synced between your Pixel phone and the watch. They're managed separately. I simply don’t think anyone at Google is seriously using the Google hardware ecosystem.

There are other horrendous and miscellaneous things that get me frustrated, and I don’t want to go into more details, such as the tile design that requires me to swipe through three screens to start a workout, or a loading bar after tapping any button in the Pixel Watch app, or the sometimes non-existent charging UI, or the fourth ECG app you need to download separately on your watch’s app store. It can be really, really bad considering this is a product that was launched in 2022.

The hardware part is definitely not as bad as software if you don’t care how inside looks like. Buttons are sturdy and easy to reach, albeit weaker vibration that could make you miss 70% of the notifications. Yay! Work-life-balance!

So, what’s good here? There is certainly something to note.

The Google Pixel Watch definitely feels more comfortable on my wrist, and is even less burdensome than the already comfortable Apple Watch. There's a certain joy in switching the band on and off, accompanied by a satisfying clicking sound. The watch faces, though limited, are perfectly rounded, offering a fresh look that diverges from the old-school square design.

My conclusion?

If you have been eyeing it for some time and happen to come across a tempting discount or clearance price, by all means, go for it. Ultimately, you may regret things you haven’t done (not buying this watch), but you shouldn’t regret things you have done (buying this watch). YOLO.

However, I strongly advise you to keep the receipt and box safe, just in case you decide to return it after a week.