Pixelated - Whoop, There It Is

Episode Date: April 2, 2026

Welcome to episode 94 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, Damien, Abner, and Will talk all about this week's Pixel 11 leaks, granting everyone an early look at what appears to be a strikingly familiar smartphone launch on deck for later this year. After a brief dip into some Android 17 Beta 3 thoughts, the crew discusses Google's upcoming display-less Fitbit band, clearly designed to take Whoop head-on with the help of Steph Curry. Subscribe YouTube Podcasts Pocket Casts Spotify Apple Podcasts Overcast 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. Timecodes 00:00 - Intro and Pixel 11 leaks 20:11 - Android 17 Beta 3 29:54 - Fitbit's upcoming Whoop competitor Hosts Abner Li Damien Wilde Will Sattelberg Read more Google Pixel 11 looks like another minor evolution in leak, slightly thinner [Gallery] Pixel 11 Pro leaks with the all-glass camera bar and thinner body, but same design [Gallery] Here’s everything new in Android 17 Beta 3 [Gallery] Multitasking ‘Bubbles’ now live in Android 17 Beta 3 update Google making screen-less Fitbit band & here’s Steph Curry wearing it Listen to more 9to5 Podcasts The Sideload 9to5Mac Happy Hour Electrek Space Explored Feedback? Drop us a line at [e-mail], leave a comment on the post, or reach out to our producer. And for even more Android discussion, dive into the official 9to5Google forums!

Welcome to Pixelated Episode 94. I'm your host, Will Saddleberg. This week, Damien Abner and I talked through the latest round of Pixel 11 leaks, a phone that looks pretty familiar for such a big anniversary year. What could be hiding under the surface and what could make us decide to upgrade

from the Pixel 10? We discuss. After that, we make a quick pit stop to look at Android 17 Beta 3, which is finally beginning to take shape ahead of Google I.O. Before ending on a discussion all about the upcoming Fitbit competitor to Whoop.

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and export tools mean you don't need to worry about leaving data behind on those other apps. Pixelated listeners can save 30% off an annual subscription to Proton Unlimited, which includes 500 gigabytes of cloud storage, custom email domains, a dedicated customer, support team and so, so much more. It's what's best for your current phone, not whatever you were using back in 2013. Upgrade to Proton today and save 30% on your annual subscription by heading to proton.me slash 9 to 5 Google or by clicking the link in the show notes. That's proton.combe. Thanks to Proton for sponsoring Pixel needed. So another week, another pixel or set of pixel leaks rhymed that on purpose. I'm very clever like that. We knew a lot about this device at a time.

We know that Google's not going to go too deep with redesigns for the Pixel 11 series, but what are you guys thinking so far, if you're thinking anything? The fact it's thinner, these phones look to be minutely thinner, am I correct? Yes. You're right on the pro. And technically you're right on the 11, but the, so both are dropping by 0.1 millimeters in thickness compared to their direct predecessors. But the 11 specifically will go back to what the 9 was. The 9 was also 8.5 millimeters. It was the 10 that went up 0.1.

So this one's actually just returning to where we were two years ago. That's basically nothing. Exactly. There's no way you feel it. Which is a shame because I do kind of think, I don't know, it's funny. I think the 10 pro feels thick. Well, the 9 pro and the 10 pro, I felt thick to me.

That said, I'm perfectly fine with the 10A, so I don't know what the psychology is there. I think it's a weight thing. Because I just, I grabbed my pixel 10, my regular pixel 10 yesterday for the first time. In like two months, because I was on the 10A for a long time,

and then I've been on the S-20, the small S-26, small, in quotes. And going back to that phone, it wasn't even the thickness so much that struck me because it is significantly thicker than the S-26. It was the weight. Like I was like, wow, I forgot how heavy this phone is.

Yeah, and it's not heavy. It doesn't feel substantial. It just feels heavy. There's a weight. There's a half to it, which is like we'll see if they're addressing that somehow this year. I kind of doubt it because, again, Yeah.

We are, this is the design for at least another generation. Maybe it'll change next year, but the phones, we, everybody should have a good idea of how these phones feel. Yeah. My biggest concern is, and they've, it looks according to these image leaks, that they're going to revert back to that all glass, all glass, if I can say it, all glass rather than metal camera. and I know that that was an issue with the Pixel 6 series

because there was like glare and like refraction with photos. So are they going to do something with that? Because I mean, I don't know. Is it a weak point as well? Does it mean there's more potential for scratching and dinging and potentially cracking the camera visor? Does it make any difference? Are we kind of nitpicking it?

I don't really know. It just feels like change for changes sake. would be so surprised if they have actual design reasons or engineering reasons that they keep changing the ball design. My guess is that on the lens I issued, because I actually included a note on that in my write-up of the Pixel 11 leak. You know, it's, it's my, my only guess is that Google has decided that they, they have, the way they have built this modern camera bar compared to the earlier version on the, on the pixel 6 that was evolved on the pixel 6. that was evolved on the pixel 7 to have a full cover. You know, we're already down on the pixel 9 and 10 to fairly slim, like, two-tone coverings. Like, the cameras themselves are actually not, like, separated at all, right?

And so I wonder if they just see this as a time, you know, they have done their testing. They have realized that they no longer need this cover and they're good to go. Or it'll be an issue again. It will have something to talk about that, you know, four generations later, was returned to this design that causes lens flares. It's one of those too, you know? My biggest takeaway, though, is that finally, fine, that I'm laughing, as I say it,

we're going to be getting rid of that temperature sensor. So they give if, they takeeth away, in the best way possible in a lot of ways. Because for me, the temperature sensor has just, I mean, it's a remnant of that COVID area that we had with the Pixel 8 series. I mean, has anybody ever used the temperature sensor beyond calibration maybe and a little bit of fun when it first around?

The people who find value from it, they like it. They find utility from it. I absolutely agree. It's not a mass market thing in the way that maybe Google thought would be. But, you know, it was a nice tool. It's another tool for your phone and another app for that. Well, I mean, maybe they'll continue that with PixelSnap and have a pixel snap accessories that can do that.

anyway and that to me seems like a better implementation. I don't know. I could be wrong. Well, and it feels like cost cutting maybe a little bit, right? Because if Google is looking at, you know, like, oh, well, this is a fairly, we know this design well, but we're trying to make sure that prices don't, you know, elevate. And I don't know the timeline of them developing this phone versus the RAM and storage crunch, but certainly even before that, we knew that there were economic headwinds coming for, you know, basically a year now, right? And so, um, So I think they've had enough time to look at that and be like, okay, if we want to hold steady at a, you know, at the prices we've been offering these devices, which is to say 800 starting for the 11 and a thousand starting for the smaller pro.

We need to we need to figure out ways to minimize the impact on on the bottom line of these phones and removing a fairly limited use case tool in the same way that, you know, I are blasting. which I would argue were more useful, you know, with the way of the dodo. Like, it feels very similar here where it's like, look, they tried something. It was clearly, you know, I remember reviewing the Pixel 8 Pro and being like, this is clearly an idea they had during COVID, but it is now 2023 when that, when the 8 comes out, right? And so, you know, it's launching a little late in terms of it having mass market impact. I remember being like, I bet in two generations this thing is gone. And apparently I was off by one generation, but I was close.

Yeah, I think the good thing is that they've, according to the leaks anyway, we don't know yet until we see some sort of something a little bit more official, is that the LED flash looks like it's drastically increased in size on the Pixel 11 Pro. Yeah. If that is true, then, I mean, I would call it a torch, you guys would call it a flashlight, but that means this could be one of the biggest and best flashlights on a phone I've ever seen without actually having a dedicated option. Like, for me, that would be amazing for utility. I would utilize that more than a temperature center. I'm not going to measure the temperature of my cup of coffee because I know it's hot. So it's kind of like this would be more useful to me.

So I don't think it's that much. I don't necessarily think I'll be so upset with it disappearing. But I kind of do agree with you, I know that there is going to be a very vocal minority of people who you possibly utilize it and would be disappointed. But yeah, I'm kind of hopeful that maybe this is the year that with PixelSnap, we're going to start seeing some decent accessories because I know recently they've, did Google confirm that the pixel snap charger can get firmware updates

through your phone? I wonder if there's some potential implementations that can have for accessories that can get firmware updates somehow through your device. Like, yeah, I can almost see that ecosystem develop more so than losing a temperature sensor I used twice during your review period. I definitely have used it. I used it at least once to check my temperature wall on a work trip just when you're feeling run down and you're like, do I have a fever? But I will say since then, because I'm not always carrying a pixel and specifically a pro level pixel on me, I've switched to just carrying an oral thermometer in my bag. They're like $5. I just keep in my toilet toiletries. You know, on the flashlight real quick, before, I want to ask you guys two questions

about these phones, like big picture questions. I had actually thought about this, but we saw Google like recently finally add like flashlight strength or you know the ability to really control the level without having to use a third party app. I would love to see if they are improving the flash on this, which you know, we're kind of speculating. But I would love to see them copy Apple's ability to change the width of the beam as well, right? Because on Apple's pro phones, you can adjust like a wider floodlight or a more narrow beam. And I would love to see that. I don't, I don't think any Android phone does that. I would love to see Google kind of fall on that lead because it is a nice, it makes it like a really nice flashlight

alternative torch alternative Damien. Yeah, I think for video as well, though, let's look at it from a logically from a video perspective. You could have a fairly decent little key light on your phone. And I think the only phone that I've ever been really very impressed with was actually the nothing phone won with its glyph matrix. You could have diffused light from the back of a phone, which is genuinely one of the best features of that device. Yeah. And I think it's probably one of the areas that Google really needs to start taking the ball

and running with it a little bit with regards to the video options because I do think the video with video boost is exceptional. They need to start making a lot of things better locally. And if they can start making some of the functionality of the camera itself, do more stuff in camera, I think that could be really, really good. So in terms of the LED, it doesn't see...

I mean, we've talked. it into a bigger upgrade than it probably needs to be. And then it's going to end up just being a flashlight. It's just going to be like, oh, no, no. Yeah, yeah. But any little changes here is good because I do think Google has settled on a nice design that works. And obviously, we can see from the comments we've had from people who've been, hopefully,

people out there listening that you've said you've had on the posts that we've had on the website, a lot of you are really happy with this design. And I don't think Google should really upset things because I think we talked about it at length on the podcast. They've settled on a design that works. it's helping them eliminate hardware issues which have always been a problem with the pixel series up until about the pixel 8

like just stick with what you're doing make a consistent device if it means it looks the exact same within a few percentile like every single year I have zero problem with that like a good product stands the test of time and I think that the pixel 9 has proven that

well pixel 10 more so their design works it stands out even though it is a little bit iPhone-ish. Well, here's, and that's a perfect segue into my big picture question. Do either of you feel disappointed that it, what is an anniversary device, right, is, is a 10th anniversary device is essentially what we've already seen for two generations. Because if you compare this to the iPhone, which, you know, you sort of have to in a way, like the 10th anniversary iPhone was the iPhone 10, right? Which, which not just, didn't just completely change how like iOS works and

the iPhone works, but also like you could feel reverberate. I mean, like, Android's navigation system eventually just kind of ended up being very similar to how, to what launched on the iPhone 10 after the, that quick pit stop with the Android 9 pie's pill-shaped thing. Are you guys disappointed at all? Or do you think to your point, Damien, that this is, it's a, it's a good design and they should, it's, if they are working on fixing other things or improving other things, it's fine, even though it's an anniversary year. It's a good question. It's a, it's a good question. It It's a good question. I think... There's no right or wrong answer to this. I'm just curious what you guys think.

You can hear me be a bit deflated there. I do think I, you've kind of posed a question to me that I haven't really thought about. I think the Pixel 9 obviously was the rebirth. I mean, it was a re-rebirth of the Pixar series in a lot of ways. Like, it seems insane to say. It feels like Google's doing that on a more regular basis. I think trying to, like, I think Google would have ideally had a, on their 10th anniversary would have had an, an in Air quotes a Pixel 9 series launch because that reset everything again. I don't think they need to do that now.

I think the idea is that they've already done the reset. Let's just stay where we are. Let's stick with it. Stick with it. Yeah, that's the best way to describe it. And let's make the gains in terms of the software. Like, I think they've messed around too much in one side of the fence. Like, oh, we're going to do the hardware

and try and do the software at the same time. Now this unified team is all pulling in one direction. I think it's probably going to be more beneficial to them to think how they're going to integrate Gemini, how they're going to make Android a much more premiere experience on the pixel, which always has been, worrying less about what hardware features they're going to gimmicky hardware features are going to throw in and what redesigns they're going to do to try and differentiate themselves in the market. I don't think they need to worry about that now. I think the worrying needs to stop and

I guess the progressive ideologies that they want to put forward with Gemini and Android just need to take front and center, and I think that makes a bigger difference to the experience. And you can kind of see that with Pixel 10. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't get the full Gemini integration that we wanted, that, well, I say wanted that we expected. But Magic Q probably is that first. And I'm going to call it a beta.

I think it's more of a preview. Magic Q, as it was, felt a bit like a preview. But I'm thinking long game, maybe. I'm thinking probably way too far off into the future with this. Google is too, to a certain extent. So I understand why you would think that. I think if Google wants to do anything anniversary-ish for this pixel this year, it should be in the camera.

I don't know if this is the year for a new sensor. The one we have is still very recent. But I think they want to do something new to make an homage. to the pixel name. I think it should be this year because I don't think that the obvious camera reads they were during

when they were at the pixel 2, pixel 3 computation of photography era. So I think that's where they should go in terms of pure hardware. But I think going forward with phones in general, it is all about the software

that it is all about the AI integrations going forward. And that's going to be the case for far into the future. the future. So I think if they do want to do something with the hardware front, it should be the camera. It should be the video as they were talking about. But this for the foreseeable future software is going to be the thing. Yeah. I hadn't even considered the camera. That's a great point because I don't remember the last time we really felt like Google made a generational leap

in their camera system. It's been a few years, I would say, since we felt like it was a massive step forward. I mean, the dream would be to Google to put a one-inch sensor at the very least into the next X-Exel. Like, could you imagine if they did that and try to go to a Chinese company? In the US, please give me a one-inch sensor. I do genuinely feel like Google could be the first to do it, like they were the first which is ridiculous.

I think that they were the first to add what is effectively mag-safe to a device 10 generations in, and nobody else has done that. We kind of expected Samsung to do it, and Samsung would have been the ideal candidate. And I do feel to some extent they are the ideal candidate for a one inch sensor and their global release devices. But it does almost feel like Google are kind of, and I was about to say Google have kind of got Samsung on the ropes. That's definitely not the case, is it? It feels like Google is really start, if it was, if it's a boxing match, Google is really starting to throw some body shots at Samsung, whether their teammates or not. Like, they're going to spar together, right?

So I think it definitely feels like Google is really starting to twist the night, whatever you want to call it, with regards to how they what's the way to describe it? I'm trying to try to find the best way to frame this. It isn't like... I mean, Google's found its identity, right? Like, and I feel like Samsung is kind of

missing an identity right now. They're, they make good phones, but like, you know, you can pitch the pixel to somebody really easily right now. You can be like, it's the AI phone. It's the gem on iPhone. Like, it's very easy to, like, paint a picture of what this thing is good at and what it's like, I don't want to say not good at because it's pretty much good at everything except for kind of gaming. But like, Samsung, you know, it's sort of the power user device. Like if you're looking at the ultra, but also the ultra's lost a lot of its power user elements. I mean, like, just this week alone, we saw when you I, we finally realized when you 8.5 or like removes third party font support, which is a very minor thing. But like to those, you know, uh, you know, 2000, Galaxian, people who loved that you could easily change your fonts on it, that's a bummer, right? And I feel like Samsung has never, you know, they have the Galaxy AI platform, I suppose, that they've built. But it's just, it's not, it's not really what, it's not as simple as what Google has.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, I do, I do genuinely think that Google is kind of like taking the, taking the fight to Samsung a little bit more so than it before, because I do genuinely think they're the biggest outright rivals in the US. I think a lot of more people are probably going to be making the switch from Samsung to pixel than iPhone to pixel personally. That's my read of it.

I don't know if there's any evidence of that, but it seems to be the case. So yeah, I do just continue what they're doing. I think there isn't much to talk about in terms of the hardware that's changing. So they're going to have to differentiate somewhere else. And if they can differentiate in the software, which I do think they're doing already. Everyone else has kind of zigged while Google zagged with material through expressive.

I have no problem with it, but that kind of leads us to another software release of the past few days, the last week or so, is Android 17 Beta 3, which is insane to say this early in the year. Yeah, I know. But it kind of is what it is. Wasn't a huge update in terms of this,

I guess, position in the, in the release cycle, the beta cycle. But there's some cool stuff here. I do genuinely think Google's making some big change, I say big-ish changes to common functions that we utilize every day. I don't know if you guys have been running it on any of your main devices or secondaries. I'm just on secondary. I could run it unstable since the QPR is effectively over.

Yeah. It's just going to be patcheries going forward. So I could want it unstable. But like you said, there's nothing significantly different right now. The screen, there's a new screen recorder that's now pill-shaped. It can float above your screen. That's something. So we're waiting for more blur.

And we did kind of get that this here with the widgets panel, with this beta, with the widgets panel. And I don't know if I'm liking it, to be honest. I don't mind it in the notifications, that's fine. But if you open the widgets panel, the four one by wrong pressing on anywhere on your home screen, you can clearly make out the back of the home screen, the background of the home screen. And I mean, this is not a UI you interact with often, but and the same can be set of the power menu, maybe not the volume menu, but it's it's

not the biggest fan I guess as I was expecting you know and this is the second time we've said this in the show but it does it's another one of the things that feels like change for the sake of change like I I don't feel you know I don't think I'm as negative as you are Abner or maybe negative is the wrong word but down on it but I

I can't say I'm like happy either it's just kind of like, oh, it looks like this now. It used to look like this. Now it looks like this. I don't think it, it doesn't necessarily clash with the rest of the, you know, of material three expressive. But at the same time, I wouldn't say it fits well with it either. So it's, it's a change that I guess I'm just, I don't see why they made it yet. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's just, we're pretty sure. I think I'd be pretty confident in saying right now that this change is just the system UI. I don't expect apps to start adopting it or anything like that for it to become materially express for apps. But I guess we'll see come I.O. Come new design guidelines. But yeah, that is an obvious UI change.

There's a lot of stuff with location. Yeah, what about the both bubbles thing? How do you guys feel about that? Because I feel like this is something that we, the application developers and UI has tried multiple times. I just don't think I would ever use Bubbles. I just prefer a static application on a screen that I could reach for and know where it is. The thing with Bob, I remember first using Bob Holes on the original Nexus 7, chat heads specifically. Chatheads, yeah.

And then on like an HDC1M7. I was a bit more fond of it than than I am now because my current take on it is I don't want anything cluttering my screen I don't want bubbles it's not for me anymore

I can see the utility let's say with Google Keep like if you shopping risk example if you don't want the full app open or whatever or you're multitasking but it's just too crowded for me. I can't have anything on that for when it does. Yeah, I'm in the same.

I disable what is the, what's the edge stuff on Samsung? Well, chat heads for sure, but even the edge stuff. Side panel? Yeah, the side panels. I'm never a fan of that stuff. If I need to go find those tools, I will just find them. But when I want, you know, I want my screen to be as uncuttered as possible. I'm in the same boat as you, Abner.

the one place I would say I can see this helping is foldables I think I think Google's foldables in particular kind of need something like this and I think it will make a lot more sense there because also the bubbles can move into your dock so they do kind of stay out of the way in terms of clutter which I think is a lot more useful on on a on a standard phone like a pixel you know when you get your pixel 11 it's it feels a little more like I'll just open the full app yeah I think it just ruins my themes and I'm really strict about my themes. I don't want like random stuff ruining my theme. I just, yeah, I can definitely see the example you gave Abner

that you could use it for Google Keep and then maybe a recipe application. Maybe when you're cooking, I could maybe see this being useful in a cooking application. So maybe on a tablet, not that I would use the pixel tablet while cooking. You could potentially be watching something on Netflix and then have a recipe open in the bubble

and just constantly dipping back in a... and back out. So yeah, I don't know why Google hasn't used that as an example. They probably will when it comes out. But I think that could be kind of good. But yeah, this feels like a remnant of 2011 and we left it. We left it in that last decade. So I don't know why we're trying to redo it again 15 years later. And Google seems to have tried to want to do it with chat bubbles for such a long time. It feels like maybe, I don't want to disrespect anyone who's developing this, but there may be some people out there who are still on the dev team who are like, we're going to make this work.

No, I wanted this for a decade. I do think for a minority, for a subset of the population, I think chat heads are inherently what Android is to them. It's like something you cannot do on iOS. Yeah. It's like back in 2011, it was such an obvious thing. Like this was something Facebook introduced on their Facebook phone. It was something like it wasn't a system.

level thing. And then it did become one. That felt like the epitome of Android, anybody could contribute. If an OEM had a good design idea, Google, it incorporated eventually. So I think to some people, chat heads are like a big part of their Android experience, but at the same time, it's not for everyone. And we'll see how productivity apps may be used it or whatever. But again, Yeah, I mean, being positive, like if you kind of swayed my opinion there, I do think it's nice to see that in some respects, Android isn't getting rid of something. Like, it's a nostalgia trip. I think it's kind of nice that that hangs around. So, yeah, you might have convinced me there, I've been actually, to be honest with you.

Not that I would use them. Yeah, it is nice that we have remnants of the old Android there, which is kind of cool. I didn't think of it like that. And to the credit, it does work well. It does work really nicely. I quite like the fact that you have this like card style UI and the animations are nice. And Google's animation efforts in the animation space has really improved and some nice animations here in beta three.

Nothing too drastic. It's not a massive update, more at four or five bigger features and then the rest are kind of like little tiny tweaks and stuff. But I think the biggest one for me is before we kind of wrap up the 17 beta three is I'm glad that they've finally separated the Wi-Fi and the mobile data toggles. and you can now turn or enable or disable Wi-Fi with a single tap, which is, I mean, hey, it worked in Android 11. I don't know why we had to get rid of it in Android 12

and we're waiting nearly four, five generations to get it back, but it's nice. It never made sense to me why they wanted to just call it internet. Yeah. So, yeah, another nice touch there, but I guess we're probably going to have maybe two betas, two further previews. Yeah, so I would.

wouldn't expect anything drastically. We're hoping for those blur changes. Yeah. Maybe a few under the head functionality changes, but there doesn't seem to be anything drastic. Yeah, this is getting locked down quickly to make it. So I'm glad that the blur stuff does, again, like we said, we're missing it in the volume panel,

we're missing in the power menu. I think the volume menu, when you do the faster side buttons, I think that will be the most noticeable change of people or when they interact with the blur. I'm glad it's coming now. rather than like QPR 2 with the next QPR 1 with the pixel 11. So I'm glad it's coming now instead of the VEtha. But yeah, that beta 3.

Yes, and we will be delving into that beta 3. Yeah, we'll be delving into beta 4 when that arrives in the coming weeks. And hopefully that deep dive in the coming months, which is scary to think that we're nearly half through the year. And that will probably be upon us. in early June. Hey, we're a quarter of the way through you. Don't scare me like that, all right?

Hey, so it's coming quickly. It's going quickly. I mean, IOs on the horizon. We haven't even talked about that yet, but yeah, that'll be for a future episode. There has been some other news, though. I mean, it's been a fairly quiet week in the drastic scheme of things, I guess.

But we have seen a potential development in regards to Fitbit. A lot of people love Fitbit Hardware. We don't really know what Google's doing with that right now. but Google seems to be making a screenless Fitbit band. And I think you have more details on this. I know you're all very passionate about your wearables, Abner.

You're a big wearable guy. Tell me a little bit of what this potentially means for us. So yesterday, Steph Curry, the basketball player, the Roy is basketball player, who is Google's official, his official title's Performance Advisor, which is announced like for Advasia as MBG, which is whatever. But yeah, he did a video teasing how changing the relationship at your health.

And he showed off a band, a fabric covered band, no screen. The design is, if you've seen a loop, it's pretty straightforward. I don't think there's much going on in that department. And then we had a report from Bloomberg about how Google is working on the screen. Fitbit. It will something you buy out like instead of the ROOP subscription model out of the box. They'll have some basic features.

But the upsell here is that Google wants you to do Fitbit premium to get the personal health coach. Yeah, screenless. I'm sure there will be a nice mechanism for switching bands. Hopefully the battery life is pretty good. But yeah, we've known

last October that Fitbit is working on new hardware. And apparently it's this. So the whoop thing, it is very popular. It is honestly a symbol thing at this point. You see so many athletes wearing it. It's just maybe start the symbol is too strong, but you see athletes wear it. And by extension, everybody else now wants it.

it's um we got to talk about whoop because because the the timing of this is fascinating like right before like a couple of hours before step curry posted this right whoop announced like a massive amount of fund of yeah right they they at a 10 billion dollar valuation um obviously uh Kevin Durant has been a an investor in whoop for like almost a decade um but but this round also included a bunch of athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and Rory McAlroy, but also the prune James. Yep. And so this, this felt very much like, like, okay, like whoops in the news, you know, at the very least the economic news for, for raising this, you know, this amount of cash, this, you know, almost $600 million. And then with these big names attached to it and all

of these sponsorships with whoop or these investors in whoop. Let's have our guy, right, come out and also advertise that like, hold on a minute. Okay. We're also working on this. This, okay, I think a launch is imminent. The thing we got is coming soon. But so, so they shot a promo video with Steph Curry, basically. Yeah.

I'm so sure this is, we should start a one-off promo video. This is going to be part of the actual announcement. I'm sure this thing is done. it again the hardware is nothing i don't think okay so who the sensors they have that what's that silicon battery thing that allows a 14-day battery life etc i in terms of the fitbit hardware i kind of think this is paint my numbers i think they're just taking the existing pixel watch four stack which is sensor stack which is pretty advanced by itself and they're putting it in ban format. I don't, I kind of be surprised if there's any hardware innovation on that front.

I think this is more of software play. I think the existing, what Google, the sensor stack Google has on the watch, Pixel Watch 4 is probably advanced and can derive enough data. So if you think, if Google is saving resources by just taking the existing stack and putting it in maybe a slimmer form factor. Cool. I think the banned system, it has to allow for customize ability. Battery life, I'd probably guess a week and kind of curious what magnetic charging they decide to use. They could honestly reuse it from charge six, Spire 3, the existing stuff, they can reuse if they want it to. So there is obviously a demand for the screen as form factor. Actually, let's discuss that.

Yeah. It's, I don't get it. Like, I try the loop. I also try. I reviewed it at, Indrid, please. Yeah. Was, I just wanted like a stupid small clock on it too.

Even if it was like a, like a monoclome thing that just showed the time, like a cheap watch. Do you roll? Yes. Abner, that was exactly my complaint. I was like, I am fine with this being displayless, except for the fact that, like, I either have to wear it with a watch, which means. means I'm wearing things on each of my wrists, or I have to abandon the fact that I wear a

watch, and then I'm going to spend months just like looking at my wrist, thinking that there's a watch on it, and just look at like cloth, like cloth and a clasp. And it's, it's, it was frustrating. And it didn't really feel like the metrics I was getting. And now, this was a few years ago, this was on the loop four. I have not tried the boop five. But, but, but, and they have improved a lot of, you know, back when I reviewed it, it was very, very. cardio focused and if you wanted to use it with weightlifting, it really wasn't very good at it. It has gotten a lot better at that from what WOOP users in my life have told me. But yeah, I mean, I was a little frustrated with it at the time just because I think it needs,

and I feel the same way about Googles. I wish it just like just a little, I agree, like an LED, just a bunch of little LEDs in there to just give me a time and I would be a lot less frustrated about the lack of a display. Isn't that a bit like an old Fitbit then? Yeah, basically. A little bit, yeah. I mean, that's kind of what Whoop is, I feel like trying to do is like bring that.

But they're very insistent. They'll never put a screen on it. Well, they were insistent that, and this is what's so interesting, is that they were insistent that they would, you know, keep this exact same pricing. There was a controversy a year ago with Whoop when they announced the Whoop 5 that,

and bear in mind that I'm trying to remember details from literally 11 months ago. But, you know, They wanted to charge like twice the price of the original subscription or something like that for this new hardware when the original promise was that you would pay this yearly subscription, which is like... And you get the new hardware. But you get the new hardware when it's ready. You don't have to worry about paying anything else. And the subscription at the time, I think they only offered one plan.

And it's it's like gym membership pricing. Like you're paying... It was $240, I think, a year, which is, you know, there are obviously many more, you know, there's more expensive gyms than that. But that's like, I would say the average price of a gym in the U.S. It's now up to $2.40 a year. Plus for the top grade. Oh, yeah, they have three plans now. And they do have a cheaper one, which gives you a pre-owned Woop for.

But if you, if you want the newer ones, you're paying either $240 or $360 a year. And you can't even do month the month anymore. It's, it's, it's, I think Google can really, you know, they sort of missed their opportunity to, to hit while Woop was, uh, WOOP had a bunch of people angry at them because Woop ended up kind of fixing some of the issues people had with that renewal process. But it was a year ago. But I do think they can undercut Woop on pricing. And that's, that's crucial. Yeah.

I do wonder if that, yeah, that is a way that they can do it. They can tie people into a Fitbit subscription. Health Connect might be useful. Because obviously, it's going to work with every single piece of soft like Strava. I don't know any other applications that people use Fitbit, Strava. you name it. Literally you name it. I can't remember anymore.

Basically, my interpretation is that going back to what Abna said about release date, surely this launches alongside the home speaker, which is expected in the next, what,

a minimum couple of months. Spring. They said spring. Yeah. So, yeah. So I think it definitely feels like this is timed

for that perfect launch period around the new home speaker. But then again, again, how does this tie into that? I mean, I guess there could be some opportunities to differentiate between this and what, because there's a Gemini stack that can tie in. And there's some stuff there. So right now, Google has the Inspired tree, which is like $100 and the charge six, which is 160. The Inspired tree is often discounted to like $60, $70. So, and that has a screen. So I think this would be placed the Inspire at around the $100 mark, which is

decent, I guess, especially if we have multi-day at least a week of battery life, especially without the screen. So I think that's what that sorts in. I do hope that they make a charge seven to keep just continue the form factor. Same senses, but you want a screen. You want like Google Wallet, NFC stuff. So I can clearly see that being the obvious lineup.

So from a strategy perspective, Yes, they should have something cheaper than the pixel watch. Some people don't want a smart watch. That's fair. But I do think the future is everybody wearing a health band to improve your health, to improve doctor visits, et cetera, et cetera. So I think the strategy makes sense here. I can see where they're going.

And I do think the launch is sooner. I think it's a spring launch. I think this is the first half of the year. I'm sure. I'm sure all the promo materials are already shot at that kind of thing. So, yeah, I think this is coming soon than later. Yeah. I mean, I do wonder what this does to the rest of the Fitbit lineup.

Is this how they differentiate now? Like, I think they kind of got wear OS sewn up in the Pixel Watch. Is this a bit of a more wider play for, to kind of position Fitbit as its own thing, more so than it being. cut down smartwatches, which is effective for what they are. So, yeah, I mean, there's definitely some interest in it. I don't doubt that people out there want something that is unobtrusive, a bit more, I guess it is fashion conscious.

I know there's some, I mean, Google's first party accessories for the Pixel Watch are pretty nice. So in keeping with those style choices, I think it'll be a differentiated between that and the WIPP band. Would either of you wear it, though? Would you downgrade from a smart watch? No. I don't on off.

to be honest with you, I go on and off. Sometimes I go through phases where I won't wear a smart watch for a month at a time. And then sometimes it's glued to my wrist. I'm kind of indifferent. So maybe I would. Maybe this would be something that I would wear instead. But I do agree with you that when you are wearing a smart watch, you have that feedback that you want.

I mean, I don't have notifications on anything. So this wouldn't be a bridge to notifications, which is what smartwatch is for me. Yeah. Just how the fitness tracking works is. I mean, I don't even know how what works. To be honest, I've not. no knowledge of the service, no knowledge of the hardware,

apart from it being a little bit of like a... It's not too dissimilar from what you would... It's just you're kind of using your phone to control everything as opposed to, but you can start workouts within the app, at least, again, when I reviewed it a few years ago. It's not, you know, and that it's got... Whoop kind of, I think, was the first

to really do recovery scores and things like that. So it's got all of that built in. I don't think any of the, like, AI held stuff. Yeah. I don't think that's unique to any one company. It's not. No. It's just that was the first time I ran into it.

I agree. But right now, I think it's anybody's game. I think Samsung is going to make a very big push. What's the next one? The nine, the Galaxy Watch nine. I think the teasing is that it's going to be a very big health play, bigger than past years, especially with the Qualcomm chip on device AI models. So I think going, I think the trend.

wearables is there's an even bigger health focus going into the future? I think, you know, for me in terms of wearing this, the reason I was so quick to say no is just because I can't speak for what other people get out of their wearables. I do mostly wear a smart watch for, for, you know, fitness tracking and mobile payments. Those are like the two things. And then like, which I know I can pay with a, but it's really like, I can't, I can't even envision myself switching away from an LTE watch because I've gotten so used to like in, you know, it's literally, I've gotten two runs in over the last week in terms of going outside and Buffalo has defrosted. It's warm enough that I can go run outside again instead of, you know, at the gym on a treadmill.

But like when I, you know, since switching to LTE smartwatches exclusively, when I go outside and run, I don't take my phone. And I love that freedom. And that is not something whoop offers me. I love that I can control, you know, my music and my podcast. or whatever and still get notifications and all that without having to keep my phone on me. And it's just not here. Yeah.

Yeah, I do wonder where this lands in terms of the kind of person who's running around with a pixel or an Android phone. Because I does feel like- It's a new audience. It's for a different audience from the pick. Like, once you have notifications on your wrist, I don't think you want to ever lose that. I think it's very hard for most people to downgrade. So Google's targeting a new audience with this.

or like with their historical lineup with the Fitbit trackers versus the Smart Watch. I think Fitbit Smart Watch is a completely dead unless they do like a surprise, like a super fitness rugged thing. I think they would do that with Fitbit rather than Pixel Watch. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I guess we have a few potential weeks, months, whatever it is, before this hits the market and we get to see more, learn more,

hopefully get our hands on it and test it out for ourselves. But yeah, I think it's interesting to see new hardware. Let's just put it that way. Because usually we don't tend to see many. We've had Pixel 10A and now we're in a drought ahead of the Pixel 11 series with the Google smart speaker. The next version, hope to come soon as well. I don't think it's going to be too far away from that in terms of a Fitbit launch. It would kind of make sense to have something in and around the same period.

But yeah, yeah, it's new. It's always good to see Google experiment. new form factors or new versions or form factors that we know exist out there in the wild. So yeah, I can't say I'm unexcited. I can't say I'm drastically excited, but I'm happy to see Google making something that might not be for me. It might be someone out there who's listening right now. But yeah, I don't know if there's anything else you guys wanted to add or you had some

ideas on pricing, but they just have to be whoop. That's all. I think if they can undercut whoop, they're in a good spot. This can't be more than $120. Yeah, yeah. Surely, surely. but yeah hopefully

Steph Curry will be unveiling that on stage at some point and we'll get to see this full ad because he's throwing a basketball around like it's like is his job

which I assume it is I just want to say thanks guys for joining me I know we've had a bit of we've been all over the map with this one pixel Android Fitbit

the perfect trifector of Google's products and services which we don't get very often so yeah thanks for joining us and I will speak to you soon bye

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