Pixelated - Who Watches the Pixel Watch?

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Welcome to Pixelated episode 114. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will discuss the Pixel Watch 5 as they look towards the present and future of Google's wearable efforts. Enjoy the episode? You can listen to our brand new weekly members-only Pixelated Pro bonus episode by signing up for 9to5Google Pro for just $5 per month. Sponsored by Proton Unlimited: Pixelated listeners can save 30% on an annual subscription to the company’s suite of privacy-friendly services by signing up using our link. Thanks to Proton Unlimited for sponsoring the podcast. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Overcast

Welcome to Pixelated episode 114. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, we're talking all things SmartWatch as we dive into our thoughts on the Pixel Watch 5, wonder where Google takes its wearables from here, and ask why the Pixel Watch gets a pass as wedding-appropriate attire. It all starts right after this message from our sponsor, Proton. Grab your phone and take a look at your app drawer right now. You've probably found yourself relying on these same old apps and services since the Nexus days, and what suited you best back then might not be the right choice in 2026. Luckily, Proton can help bring you into a privacy-first ecosystem built for our modern age.

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to 5 Google or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's proton.me slash 9 to5 Google. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixelated. I think this is a bit of a good one to kind of get into because we skipped over it last week because we had so much to talk about with the Pixel 11 series. We forgot about the wearable, arguably one of the, I think from last year anyway, one of the best wearables out there for wear OS owners. There's not that many right now, but the Pixel Watch 5.

What are we thinking in terms of like, this feels like a quiet addition to Google's lineup? It's just building on the fundamentals. I don't know. I know that you haven't spent as much time or any time with it apart from kind of gauging our interest on it, Will. But like, what do you want to know about the Pixel Watch 5? What do I want to know? I mean, I love any general impressions, obviously, you know, maybe even just like, well, I don't know. It's the hardware is so similar that it's difficult to say what I want to know about it.

It's identical. It's identical. And that is perfectly fine. Yeah. What I would say is I'm really into that it feels like the Pixel Watch, like with the four now and then onward, really hitting its Apple Watch era of we're going to rock this till the end. Like it's like, I know people have like tried to float, you know, leaks about the Apple Watch changing designs. previously or whatever, like, have maybe like requested it. But I think it's clear that like Apple sees a benefit to sticking with like the same

identical design for over a decade now. And I, I think pixel, I think Google with the pixel watch will find something similar. I hope that this is kind of locked in at this point where it's like, and not that there was, you know, you go back to the pixel one, it's not like, or Pixel Watch one, it's not like a radical, a radically different design. But I think the, the lack of bezels and. the curved glass approach and hopefully finally finding a charger that they're happy with. I think all of that kind of adds into a complete experience, like a user complete experience

where it's no longer like having to think about should you wait for the Pixel Watch 6. It's a perfectly good smart watch that you won't feel like you're getting skipped over if you pick one up. That is absolutely it. Google has found a foundation, a base design. I think we said last year at the Pixel Watch 4, that if we finalized it, that this was the tautonic ideal of what they wanted from the beginning.

I honestly can't think of anything else. They would want to change with the physical industrial design. So right now it's all about the internal specs, which right now, again, they're a good base with them to start building and adding AI features onto it. But otherwise, the fiscal design is, I'd be perfectly happy wearing this design for years to come. I think that's one of the biggest,

I'm a big proponent for Google sticking to a watch design, like having a round, I think it just fits, it fits in so many different places. And something that I will notice, or I have noticed, is, you know, when you go out somewhere, say you go out for lunch, you go out for dinner, you go for a run, you go to the gym, whatever it is. I do think Apple's watches stand out because they look like technology, right?

They look like technology. It's a square watch face. It's something that I think, unless you're really into watches in general, you see an Apple watch and you kind of make an assumption about what the person's decision-making process was and they bought it. I think with the Pixel Watch, I never really see that issue. I never really see the kind of, it looks like a timepiece. And I think that to me means it fits in more places. It doesn't feel out of place. Yeah. It's interesting that you say that because there was some,

oh man, I don't even know why how this ended up in my feed because it was, I guess somebody probably dunking on it. But there was someone trying to like dis on Twitter. Yes. To use a circle display. Did you see this too, Abner? Yes, yes.

Like, wow, what terrible design. And it's like, but like you're missing the forest. That was a bait. That was a bait. That was absolutely bad. As is everything on social media. But it's like, I am sure there are some people out there who genuinely think that, even if that person doesn't. And, and, you know, my answer to that would be it's like, I, there is an obvious, look, there's an obvious benefit to a square design, a square display the way Apple uses it.

Like, you do get more, you get corners, you get more of a display. It is more of a computer on your wrist. The downside is that it's a computer on your wrist, right? And it stands out. You wear it to a wedding and you're like... Yeah, it looks ridiculous, isn't it? Take that off, man. No, it's, yeah, that is so interesting.

There's absolutely been like culture style pieces about whether you should wear a watch, an Apple watch to a wedding. It is so in the culture. Yeah, I mean, other than the fact that it is obviously the most popular smart watch around, but it's like, yeah, you really like shouldn't. You probably shouldn't even wear a pixel watch,

but at the very least that blends in the aesthetic. I did. I did. I did was the best my friend's... Did you get away with it or did nobody say anything? No, he didn't say anything because it looks like a normal watch. Do you know what I mean? It looks like a normal watch. No, no, I'm joking. But that's exactly my point, is that this is... You have to think about what you're using the device for. So if you want to critique Google, like if I'm taking this person at the word in it, or that, you know, and again, I agree

with that. It's not. But if you were to take this, right? It's like, okay, sure. You have to scroll a little bit more to see an entire text. exchange between multiple, you know, like a group chat or whatever. But again, it ends up blending into your wrist better. You know, the times I've had one, I've certainly never gotten a compliment. I've never compliment on an Apple Watch and I've never seen someone give someone else a compliment on an Apple Watch. You know, that's a really good point.

When I wore both of my, both of the, because I had both the Gen 1 and the Gen 2 Moto 360s a decade ago, I would get compliments on that watch all the time working at the video rental store I worked at. Like, I'm not even joking. Like, genuinely probably... That's so cliche. That is so cliche. That I worked at a video rental store.

Yes. It's, uh, I feel incredibly lucky that I, uh, that I managed to squeeze that one in considering that this, we're talking about 2015. Like I should not have been able to work at a video rental. Yeah. 100%. Family video. It was a, it was a Midwest chain, uh, that had probably, oh man, I don't remember.

Hundreds of locations. They were secretly, uh, They made their money on the real estate market. They owned all of their stories and then they would lease out the other in the suites. They would lease it out to like ZoomTan was all, was the one that was always there. But there was like they would always lease out the other spot or two to make money and then essentially subsidized the video rental market that they had had going since the 90s. And that all worked well and good.

I mean, it was definitely dying. By the end, by 2019, they were selling cricket phone plans, CBD oil and all sorts of other things. I was no longer working there, obviously. And then COVID hit and it accelerated their demise and they did not make it out. They died. That's a shame. That's a shame. But yeah, from a design perspective, I think all that Google needs to do now is just continue making iterative improvements. I think they've nailed it. For the first time in a long time, I'm wearing a 421 millimeter watch. I've only opened it about three or four days ago. It's been on my wrist on and off over the last three days. I know Abner spent, he's had it on. Literally, he will have had it on since made by Google effectively.

So he's the guy to ask about all the intricacies. But what I will say is that the pyrite color, which sadly, for some reason, the watch is overcharging on the other side of my room, the satin pyrite case. I've got the box in front of me so I can see it with the olive band is something I wouldn't necessarily have chosen. But I can definitely see Google leaning more into the satin-y-type finishes. I honestly think it doesn't matter. Like all the colors. No, it could be one color and it doesn't matter. There's just such a sliver of color on the sides.

And it's partly because how big the watch face is, how edge to edge, all that. Like, I honestly don't think it matters. I do, now you've said that, you have kind of made me think about it a bit more. But I do like the fact that there are options at the very least. Like I think when you look at Apple Watches, there is a lot more metal on display, isn't there? So I think that does age it as well.

And given the shape, given the shape being square, this doesn't have that issue of, oh, we have to decrease the bezel size because, well, Google has. But at the same time, the bezels aren't necessarily that distracting because they don't make up so much of a key component of the pure design. There's no metal around where the bezel is. and there's, I think you don't have like the inset because there's a bezel on the edge is a whole thing,

but I do think they kind of mastered it last year with the four and they've just continued to run with the ball. If I was to be critical, like we kind of were, or people would be potentially with the Pixel 11, I don't necessarily think you can put those same critiques over here that it is the same, because like we say, watches, you don't want them to change every year.

They've added some new watch faces, which is kind of cool. And yeah, I don't think there's anything you can really complain about. I like the fact that potentially we're going to have more compatibility in the long term with bands. I hope that's going to help them in the long run because it means more brands can get on board. And that band that you buy for the Pixel Watch 3 and 4 is going to fit on the 7 and 8 by the time we come to upgrade.

I think that's probably a better way of thinking about it. But it's a good design. I don't have much to say beyond I have already put it into Do Not Disturb. mode on a regular basis because I realized how in tune with my Fitbit Air I've become. I'm so not used to vibrations right now. Yeah, I am the Air guy now. I think I do I do kind of like feel myself waning with the Pixel Watch already because I'm like I want to go back to the Fitbit Air and that's not a criticism of what the Fitbit, sorry, the Pixel Watch 5 does well. It's more that I really, really love the Fitbit Air and I don't want to get rid of it.

well all I have to say is that whatever bad you're wearing on the Fitbit Air is shit because we have the best ones state side right now okay this feels like a personal attack on me specifically can you go into more details of why you're attacking me for that having a place because I haven't seen this in person yet so just today when we're recording on Thursday Google announced a special edition. After Steph Curry, they announced a special edition band that's right after Damien's heart. It is a Pokemon Sleep integration, special edition, that basically gives you this nice dark blue band

with a Pikachu, sleeping Pikachu tag label on it, and the idea is that you can use the existing sync with the Pokemon sweep app, which is like a game slash sleep tracker thing, gamification of your sweep, which is honestly a good idea, and it's only available in the US and Japan. Frustrating, really frustrating.

I think this is one of those collapse I do hope Google is more willing to do with their product portfolio. Oh, they absolutely, They absolutely have a, they know they have a hit with the, with the format, with the style of the Fitbit Air, which is ironically more so than the watch, which you think they would have done this with the watch first actually. But no, this, this sweet tracker is what's letting them, this design and form factor is what's letting them do it. I do, I do wonder, I do wonder just obviously, without going too in depth about, what the watch does well and the Fitbit does poor and vice versa. I do wonder how that's going to affect this year,

because obviously last year we just had the PixelWatch 4, Google hadn't updated, or the Fitbit side of things, hadn't updated much in the previous few years. We had the Fitbit Ace LT for kids, which I guess was WearOS. We now have the Fitbit Air and the Pixar 5 on store shelves at the same time. I think there's probably going to be this really strange situation now where we have people who would ordinarily be, like myself, who ordinarily would be interested in the pixel watch

looking at the Fitbit Air and potentially thinking do I need the Fitbit sorry do I need the Pixel Watch like could potentially I keep the older Pixel Watch for a little bit when I want to wear a smart watch and maybe get a Fitbit Air

to kind of keep me going a little bit longer that's how I would feel about it if I was just going in as a because I purchased my Fitbit Air that's a personal unit I have a review unit at Pixel Watch 5 I have my own personal pixel watch 4 ordinarily I wouldn't even consider the watch five

I would be set for a few years with the four and the Fitbit Air would be my main if that makes sense and if I wanted to wear smart watch the watch four would come out when I needed it to Yeah, let me push back on you with this Not to say that you're wrong but just to ask you this Would you feel that way had you not had like a Fitbit Air unit Like if you if the Fitbit Air had just come out

And you were you were working any other job and you would test it Would you have went out to pick it up? and like realized how much you liked it or would you have just stuck on the on the smartwatch train because it's what you're used to and you did you would not have realized oh i actually do want to go away from notifications and have a little bit more of a simple fitness tracker is this a lesson that is difficult to learn unless you are willing to sink money into both products do you know what that's fantastic question i think i okay so i can't i can't fully answer you from a completely zero, point of zero. So I think knowing what I know now and how I want to curb a lot of people out there are kind of in the same situation,

we're trying to curb our smartphone usage over reliance on certain technologies that we kind of, I guess we indulge upon a bit too much. What I would add is that I think the price point of the Fitbit Air is so, it's just a gadget, It's a gadget in the pure sense of the word. We haven't had that in a lie from Google.

Well, home minis a bit old, so we kind of do. But it is just like a... We haven't had a full holiday season with it yet. I'm sure that price is going to drop significantly. And I think it's going to be even more of a success during that holiday period. Most definitely. I guess I just like...

It's more of an interesting question than me trying to say Damien is wrong. I don't think that at all. I think it's awesome that he, that, no, genuinely, I think you've, I think it's great that you've, like, had this realization of what you want on your wrist versus what you don't, but, like, you know, I don't know. I think it would be, I guess there's no way for you. Do you think most people will go down the route of having a smartwatch and sticking with it?

I think people who are already in the smart watch, like, ecosystem, and I don't even mean, like, the pixel watch ecosystem, I just means that they, over the last decade plus, they have a smartwatch. A smart watch or two and they're used to it or whatever. Yeah. Would not be, would not feel pushed to try the air to see if they want to do that. But that's actually like kind of my broader point, which is that Damien, I think that makes your experience really valuable. Because I think you can sort of inform those shoppers who wouldn't otherwise want to drop.

You know, I agree with you. I mean, $100 at full prices, like, as we talked about at the time, like a really fun gadget price, like entry level price. that I think is like really easy to dip into. And you can totally see, you can imagine this thing at $75 on Black Friday, like a perfect like, you know, upper, upper tier stocking stuffer, but still a stocking stuffer.

But I think Damien, you're, you being able to kind of speak to like, hey, like, I do this for a living and I realized I don't need a full pixel watch. I think is valuable insight for people. Yeah, I think, I think kind of, going back to the basics with it as well I don't know if you guys ever tried the me band here the Xiaomi me bands

and stuff of the back in the day doesn't so aggressively so they've had some fantastic products but the problem is is I always found when I wore those back in the day smartwatchers were never really especially on the Android side of the fence I'm sure we can all agree and listens out there you probably

agree with here we've always kind of felt like we were waiting for the next smart watch that kind of solves problems i battery life performance all that kind of stuff and it's only maybe since the latest wear chips have really kind of done a good thing and made smartwatches actually decent on on android when i was trying the me band when i was in that me band era sorry it was almost a case of like oh the smart watch is going to get better so this is a stopgap whereas i we now know what the fully realized smart watch is in the grand scheme of things in terms of like battery life the form factors

all that kind of stuff, that sometimes just going back to basics is refreshing. And I think that's the biggest thing for me is that now when I've picked up the Pixel Watch 5, it has been very, very difficult to take the fit bit off my wrist. And I'm not going to dual wield them because I can't have anything on my right wrist. It has to be on my left. So I'm kind of like in that weird situation where it's one or the other. And I'm opting to go for the smaller inconspicuous device that is, is very reminiscent of those

Xiaomi Mi bands from however long ago, five, six, seven, eight years ago. But they were always kind of trying to be a middle ground for smart watches. You know, they'd have a screen, they'd have notifications. But just going back to basics

has been completely refreshing. And that has coloured my own interpretation of what I expect the Pixel Watch 5 to be now, whereas I didn't have that at all last year with the Pixel Watch 4 is fantastic. I think if you want to get a Pixel watch on discount, go get the Pixel Watch 4, you're not missing out on anything too drastic. That's a great, that's actually a good, a good point, just because they are so similar and

and the prices are what they are. I mean, you could pick up both. You could pick up a Fitbit Air and a Pixel Watch 4 and still, and you'd be very happy. Probably the price of the Pixel Watch 5, yeah. That's it. Yeah, I think, I think that's kind of where I'm at this year. And you could argue the same for the Pixel 11 series. Like, you could get the Pixel 10 and a Pixel watch 4 and probably cost the same as a Pixel 11 on its own.

So, yeah, it's a, that's a harder thing for me. Okay, it's just, I just, it's so annoying. I just love camera looks so much that I'm like, I'm like hesitant to tell people to do that. But at the same time, like, A, it's a software feature that I don't fully believe Google when they say they're not going to bring it to different to older hardware. B, they should bring it older hardware. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't believe Google. Like, you can say that. I know that's their excuse.

I don't believe that the Pixel 10's ISP couldn't do camera looks. Like I don't... If that's true, then Jesus Christ. It's a mix of the ISP and the tensors TPU, which there's on paper. There are TPU upwards. Yeah, I just don't.

I... They need a selling point. I think Google is filled with smart engineers who could figure it out, and I think they are using this as a reason to push people to a device that is otherwise identical. until last year.

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Just to go back on the Fitbit Air before we talk about camera books, camera looks a bit later. You can absolutely do wheel the Pixel Watch and the Fitbit Air, which I did ridiculously, like Twossey and the Pixel Watch era. basically I think the band that performance group ban the default band on the Fitbit Air looks really nice it just looks like a band it doesn't look like a piece of technology

that's how I could get away with it I had the FDBit Fipit Air Band and I have switched it out because I stained it and I've managed to get to we're now reaching a point where on Amazon there are actually some good third

party quality band. So I have got this kind of like replica Steph Curry one, which is genuinely you would not be able to tell apart from the kind of the metal, I guess, loop mechanism is technically not the right colour. But I think you can get almost one-to-one replicas. And genuinely the quality is phenomenal. Like they feel the same. They have the same kind of like strength on the Velcro. I cannot fault some of the accessories that are available for a bit of air. I just hope it continues because I want this to be a smash hit because if Google can continue to build upon the Fitbit Air and maybe have an Air 2

with like I don't know more health metrics and still continue to have this band format I don't ever seem like I will okay I'm going to make a really bold claim now I think if Google continues to improve the Fitbit Air and impress a lot of the functionality in terms of like fitness features that are probably found on the Watch 5 and Watch 4

I probably won't go back to those I will just stick with this lineup. I do not care enough for the screen now, which is crazy to think. I would never have said that a year ago. So, yeah, I'm sorry for kind of derailing this and making this a Fitbit Air loving, but I think it's kind of, pun intended,

time to talk about that when we have these two products on the shelves competing for your money, and one is that a lot cheaper. Yeah, again, just to close out the Fitbit Air, I'd just say, Damien doesn't have the right band anymore and that's what to drive him mad.

All right, okay. Okay. That's bullying now, in the workplace. Uh-huh. So, the Pixel Watch 5, I am no longer really touching the screen for anything. The gesture,

they did a big gestures upgrade in terms of allowing allowing you to control the device without, you can use a double tap gestures and the flick gestures. in many more places across the UI, and that is the primary way I've been using my Pixel Watch 5.

So instead of... And the key thing is you can also customize gestures. So instead of having the double tap on the watch screen open your most active notification, you can now use it to score your feed. So that means I don't have to swipe anymore. you can now use with thanks to the Adagrant's software

paradigm, you can now you can play pause music without doing anything or you can change that gesture to easily skip tracks. So all of that, and the biggest thing for me is alarms, you can now, instead of snoozing an alarm, you can end it with double tap. So those three things have really meant

that I've, one, I'm, staying on the watch face and not really opening apps, which I think is like a key thing, like out of glance means that I can just live on basically live on updates and notifications. And it just feels futuristic as heck. How much of the, how much of the, I forget the inner glanced notifications,

are you seeing though on a regular basis? Are you seeing them quite regularly? Because I haven't, I've seen like two. compared to on the phone where I honestly kind of think Google barge to wipe updates the rollout for how long it took Google Maps to bring it and third-party adoption

it is, they're so much more active on the watch with like stopwatches and stuff, music controls, when you do maps navigation, it's a much, it's a much better officially it's called out of grants,

but it's the and the pinnings is basically live updates, and you can do a lot. Which ones have you been seeing? I've only seen maps so far, and that's because I've just used it to kind of get around, just to test it to see where it's going on. But yeah, that's all I've seen so far.

I'm surprised I haven't seen it with media notifications, but then again I'm thinking about it. I haven't actually played a podcast or anything like that with the watch on, but I will obviously cost in the next few weeks, and I'm hoping to use the maps. I mean, to be quite honest, where they actually quite like how Google, to give them,

I know you said they botched some of the integrations with live updates, but I actually quite like some of the stuff they did with the Pixel Watch three and the four last year when you navigate and you get the notifications or the,

yeah, that was the best one. So it was one of the best ones because obviously when you're whizzing around in a city that you don't know and you're in the back of a cab or something or whatever it is and you can see it. I think that's kind of useful. So I'm excited to test,

I'm going to test it out, I'm going to build, in for ether on Friday next week. So I will briefly be able to test it for a couple of days, see how it gets on. I'm excited. I'm excited, yeah, even though I'm a Fitbit Air guy. So we'll see how that goes. Maybe I'll strap it to my ankle, a bit like an ankle tag for like a prisoner, but see how we get on with that. So the other things I found is that I am using Lays to Wake more on this. Okay. So, so, this is the thing that

what the behavior that the Pixel Watch 5 has generally changed so from every single wearer smart watch to the beginning I have disabled the thing where if you rotate your wrist the screen automatically turns on tilt awake I think is what

it's currently called I have disabled that for 10 plus years of wireless devices partly because to say battery and two I didn't like the screen like fully lighting up from the aOD um because i use those gestures so much now i've enabled uh tilt awake so that i can immediately when i look at the screen when i tilt the screen towards me immediately wakes and i can start engaging with the a other grounds thing additionally i can

also use that for um ways to talk with jemini so that has it's as told which i wasn't expecting and it's going in with the Pixel Watch 5, but these mixture of gestures and accuracy improvements, they've absolutely changed how I use my watch. It is, I barely touch it anymore, and that has the side effect of making the screen feel bigger since you're never really tapping or covering the touch targets or whatever.

It just feels like there's something so assistive about using the watch this way when you don't really touch it. you just talk to it and you just like, the double-tap gesture is basically that thing. I feel like with smartwatches, though, do you think sometimes they're a little bit overburdened by the fact that you're using touch on such a small screen?

Yes, absolutely. It sounds to me like you're very much singing the virtues of like hands-free control on something that is technically at the end of your hand. Yeah, I think there's definitely something to be said about it because, like I say, we've seen improvements over the last few years, but this is something that probably is going to benefit most people, especially when you're working out and stuff like that. Your hands aren't always able to,

you're grabbing a hold of a weight or something like, or you've got something in your hand and you don't want to touch the screen or you can't. So it's good to see Google making these efforts and attempts to really improve the hands-free gesture stuff. I'll have to try it out over the next few days and see how I get on. I always quite like the addition to the double-tap gesture.

So have you even noticed any improvements in that when you're using the double-tap? Is it like more accurate, faster or does it just feel almost the exact same? I think there's a learning curve to it that once you get used to it, you can make it a bit more subtle. You don't have to be so exaggerated. The natural instinct on your first set up is to be exaggerated with it.

But as you get to know what works, you can definitely minimize it and you don't have to bring your thumb and four fingers so hard together. Yeah, I must admit, I felt like I was clapping. like in one hand clapping when I was first started doing it because it would be a bit weird of like oh I don't want to it doesn't want to work fully and I'm there like almost slapping out in public and it just looks really weird

so I'm glad that they've made a change to that again a lot of this stuff I really need to delve into as I say I'm still in the early phases I feel like even though it is a review unit I definitely feel like someone who's picked up a retail unit and it's kind of learning the experience a little bit again which is kind of cool because I didn't necessarily have that

with the pixel 11 and stuff you're so in depth and getting into the intricacies that you don't have the, I guess, the whimsy of testing it out in your own terms and in your own time. Yeah. What do you think about the AI generation? Because I have a few thoughts on this. I'm kind of unsure how I feel about it. I have a watch face I like and I stick with it for years and years.

But it's if you don't want an infill down. And if you don't have to have, like, all the possible complications in the world, it is for you, but especially if you, like, a minimalist watch face. I think the thing I've tried doing is, like, on the weekends, I switch to, like, a more minimalist watch face. And I do admit it is fun for that. The Gen. A.I. Watch face is a fun for that. And Ben had a lot of fun, customizing it and keeping things fresh.

it does feel like we could probably have more to come from this. Like I'd love to see custom complications. Like true custom complications would be phenomenal. Like I think that is where I see the real value in it rather than just the numbers on the screen. It just doesn't feel like that fits Google's approach right now though, right? Like I don't know.

Like so much of their AI generation stuff is really focused on like more surface level visual customizations than like I'm talking on pixel too and so I don't know maybe that changes over time maybe they start leaning into more more advanced uh stuff but yeah I I feel like that's just where they are right now with personally I think they should go in the opposite direction and they should lead into this new partnership or revived partnership but I don't I don't remember I'd have to look back and see how many times they work together but get a get a Pikachu watch face on there man get a

get an officially licensed Pokemon watch face on there after the Fitbit Air Sleep, Pokemon Sleep Edition. Like, that's what I think. I, you know, I, I don't know. I think it would be, if we're going to go with stuff that doesn't have a lot of complications anyway, I think that would be

a lot of fun. Yeah, I don't know. It does surprise me. We haven't seen more kind of like brand partnerships with this. Like, isn't everybody do Facer? Like, I feel like I know about like what's that the vault Amazon Prime.

Fallout. Fallout, yeah. I feel like Facer, they have the lock on that, but I absolutely agree that Google should expand. Yeah, I guess these first party worlds are better, aren't they? Sorry, I think you probably agree with me, the first party options are way better

and they're less battery intensive than Facer. Yes, correct. Yeah, I guess, and my other point would be that if Google can make, or excuse me, Facer can make deals with, and I'm now reading for the website because I couldn't remember how many brands. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Star Trek,

the Smurfs, MTV, SpongeBob. I mean, look, a lot of this is, a lot of this is paramount, obviously. But World of Warcraft, Doom, Fallout, Atari. There's a sick Tetris one I actually didn't know about that I kind of want to download now. But, like, if Faser can make these deals, like Google can make these deals.

And like, I don't know, I, again, not to make an Apple Watch comparison, but like, I think their partnership with peanuts and the way they lead into Snoopy. Disney. And Disney, yeah, they have the Mickey Mouse stuff too. It's like I just think like Google should not skip out on that. They're fun. Like you don't have to replace all of the like more, you know,

complication filled information dense watch faces with just because you're adding a character. But I think they're space for both. And I don't know. That's kind of my dream of like just seeing them finally lean a little bit more into, into fun now that we it feels like the hardware and the software are really settled for the first time on WearOS and not so much with this watch

but over the last few generations like we we have a concrete base to work off of and now we can really go crazy there's a street fighter two one maybe I should get into Facer that's what I'm wondering yes do it I think yeah I think I think Google's missing a trick as well like

with Pokemon and as someone who's spends a lot of time collecting cards and spending an inordinate amount of money on them, is anything with the Pokemon logo on will 99 times 100 it'll sell. And I can guarantee that the Fitbit Pokemon Sleep Watch may end up selling out and may end up getting scalped online for double the price. So people are so kind of ravenous for Pokemon stuff that there is no doubt in my mind if Google made a,

even if they may, like I've seen these on Etsy and I wish someone could get them here in the UK for cheap, you could get watch bands that were etched with specific Pokemon and you can get them in different colours. And I want one of those for my Pixel Watch, but I'm not willing to pay. I think it would have cost me like $75 to ship over here to the UK. I'm not doing that.

But if Google can do that with watchbands, they will sell like hotcakes and people will want this. And there's a lot of like people who probably would give up their Apple Watch for a Pokemon branded watch. And even if it was just watch face and bands, I'm telling you, just do it. Absolutely. Hey, they had that. What was the app on the Pixar Watch 4 called?

The one you could play with Soli. Soli, yeah, yeah, yeah. Picchu and Skor Bunny and a few other other at the startup, Pokemon. Okay, yeah, yeah, right. I knew there was a partnership there. I was like, it's in the back of my head. Yeah, exactly. Can you remember what the app was called, Abner, that it got discontinued?

Yeah, it was just like, it was kind of cool. Pokemon, hello. Yeah, yeah, Pokemon, hello. That was it. And I mean, they did the, you could, you could, um, you could, put AR Pikachu on things in real life, like, they've done it. It's a world's big as IP.

Tie yourself to the world's biggest IP. I don't see any negatives that can come from it, apart from everybody scalping the hell out of it and we can't get hold of these products. But yeah, that's by the buy. So that's my marketing advice to Google. Just make a Pixel Watch 5 limited Pikachu edition and it will sell.

You're not thinking big enough, Damien. Pixel 11, Pokemon edition, Pikachu, fully embrace it. that's how that's how the pixel you have and finally sells out Pikachu yeah Pikachu yellow I don't know I feel I feel like if they put Gengar on the back of it I would probably buy one I would probably pay three times the price to get hold of one there there's a lot of people out there who will pay for their favorite

Pokemon and yeah it watches are an easy easy win as well because you go out and people buy like swatches with I don't know masters of the universe swatches and stuff like that so I could I could definitely see Google branching out. And they've done it with the Fitbit. There's no reason why they can't do it with with other products as well in the lineup. Also, Pokemon has watches in it, as I just shared

with both of you in Slack. Like the games. Is that the Pokedek? What is that supposed to be? So that's in Diamond and Pearl that is the like it's the device you're given that I think as part of the...

Okay, the reason I'm not saying the name is because in the game it's a literally Pokemon on watch, but they, it's a portmanteau that has spelled P-O-K-E-T-C-H. And I've truly never known if I should say it, poke-p-p-ch, poke-ch, poke, but like, poke-a-p-poka, it's poca-watch, it's, I don't know, right? Like, it's gibberish. Um, but it's, uh, it was always the bottom, in diamond-prone platinum, it's the bottom screen on the DS is, is always your, what is on your, pocich, poach, poach.

I know, stop. Ridiculous. It's a ridiculous portmanteau. But like, I'm just saying there's a, you know, there's, there's, there's a context they could feed into. There's, there's a predecessor that they could, they could be like, look, we brought it into, into the real world that you can walk around with, uh, people love Diamond and Pearl. Not me. There are, there are. But people, people love them.

Well, I mean, this is a G-Shok collaboration. I don't know if it was early this year or if it was, if, I think it was July or something like that. And I saw that instantly. Yeah. I know in the UK it was about £250. So you can only imagine what they get in reviews-wise on, sorry, the price-wise on like secondary market. So, yeah, like, I mean, hey, it sounds like I'm all four people scalping Google products,

but I'm thinking more like Google. I'm like, hey, get your money up, guys. Like, what I'm actually saying is Google could do this? What if this was widely available and I could buy it easily? Yes. Okay, I rescind everything I've said. But, yeah, hey, if it's a month. money spinner. It's a money spinner. If Google want to be the number one

spot-wise. He wants to buy 10 of these and then move them and go back to that. So he's going to fund his Japan trips. Why are you giving them the secrets away? How did you work this out? You're right. This should be in the bonus of episode. Sherlock Holmes is. You've got to pay to hear this. Yeah, this is, yeah, I think I think overall though, it's a solid watch. I don't think there's really a great deal of true in-depth analysis. We can give the batteries. Okay. Who should upgrade. So Pixel Watch 3,

Pixel Watch 4, you should not upgrade. Pixel Watch 3. No. That's an easy no. Probably not unless you get like a good deal. If you get a good deal on it, that's fine. But yeah, I would say one or two.

I mean, you're still using one fair play because the battery must be at a trooper sure. Yeah. Must be lost like an hour. One was not a great watch to, in my opinion, the Pixel Watch 2 was the first good

pixel watch. Yeah. The degradation on the bat, the one got so hard when you charged it. Yeah. So I would jump ship for sure if you have a one. It's going to be a better experience like night and day.

And then even two, you know, if you want to hold on to it for one more generation, I would understand. But I don't think you'd be making a bad decision upgrading your two. Just don't look at the new one yet because the screen looks comically tiny on the Pixel Watch 2. I don't know how he used that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, hey,

if you're on another brand as well you're using a Samsung watch if you like the look of it I think it might be one to consider but I just find with Samsung watches they're a bit more I guess they feel more utilitarian they don't feel classy

and I do think that the Pixel watch since the 3 series has been a really classy watch and it's a good wearable if you do want something that maybe fits into more places doesn't necessarily it's not rugged by any stretch

of the imagination hey it can take a little bit of a beating I've scuffed mine a little bit and it's been fine but yeah if you're throwing weights around weight room with reckless abandon and you're throwing them down like hey go get something else because you will probably take a chunk out of that display but for everyone else i think it is a really good option and we have less options now right what else you're going to i'm not going to suggest

anyone goes and buys a i would ordinarily say the one plus watch three is a good option but hey you're not getting support for that so pixel watch five and it's probably where you need to be going in the next couple of years or pixel watch six or seven so what's it what's what's you your initial verdict then, Abner, because I want to hear your thoughts on this, because this is probably like the easy and hardest product to review, I guess, this year? Yeah, it's so much of it is software, and so much of it can presume we come back to at least the Pixel-Rge 4, the processor that's faster by 12%, which the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 accelerated is comical on so many proportions. I yeah so I okay the watch faces aren't probably going to be ported back because that's the thing that Google keeps that's fine they can have one of those I guess but like the gestures and the functional stuff they have to come they absolutely have to come to the pixel four generation and like you were saying that makes the pixel watch for a possibly great deal once it hits that discount territory have we seen any discounts on it yeah I don't think I've seen many

major discounts at this point. Yeah. Maybe we'll see some in the next couple of months around that Black Friday era when the... I said the thing I hope they don't do is like they take out the Pixel Watch 4 but they keep the Pixel Watch 3. I hope they don't do that.

That would be weird, wouldn't it? That would be weird. Yeah, so stay tuned for discounts. I think it makes all of the watches a better purchase. Like, yeah, discounts make everything a better purchase, right? So, yeah, that's the Pixel Watch 5. I guess that kind of rounds out our initial reviews of the Pixel 11.

and watch five series. Like, it's been a strange one. I think we'll probably do some more deep dives into these in the coming months. We'll probably revisit this in like a three or four weeks time when we've spent an inordinate amount of time with devices. I know Will's still probably as of this going live, I think his Pixel Watch, Pixel 11 Pro Excel review is going to be ready. I finished my draft as like half an hour before we started recording.

So it's coming in hot, but it's, it's, uh, I like it. I think it's a good review. I'm proud of it. So yeah, as I say, that's Pixel Watch 5. Go check out all of the reviews on the website. We'll leave links in the show notes below or I hope we will. And we're going to head over to the Pro Teer. Now we're going to just shoot the ship, talk some random stuff, get into all of the machinations of whatever's happening in the news and just, yeah, kind of ramble for a little bit more. If you want more of this, definitely come join us over there. I love to have you. And as always, we'll speak to you next week.

Bye. Bye. to Pixelated, a 9-to-5 Google podcast. If you enjoyed the show, we ask that you rate and review it on the podcast platform of your choice, and help spread the word by sharing the show with friends or on social media.