Pixel Watch 2: Long Term Review! - What's Changed?

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In this 8-month Pixel Watch 2 review, we take a look to see how it's has held up over time. We'll talk battery life, software changes, and go over who this watch is good for 8 months later.
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Timestamps
--
0:00 - Intro
00:25 - Durability/build
3:30 - Software updates
4:54 - Battery
6:53 - Who is this for?
7:33 - Google ecosystem
8:14 - Fitness tracking
9:23 - I like the small form factor!
10:25 - Closing

[@jordanintheknow]

Hope you all enjoyed! Apologies for my battery rant😅

[@MichaelBTech]

Smashed the like button for the 🔋 rant 😁

[@mightyskull]

Hey Jordan, The links for the first 2 bands aren't right. They're the same as the Pixel Watch link.

[@MegaCynar]

Battery drain bug since October with workouts should not still exist. Google's support is awful for this.

[@idesign007d]

I bought mine PW2 1 month ago and I love it. Ideal for working out. I purchased a protection screen for them on Temu. PW2 looks nice on my not-too-big hands. Battery life: it holds till 10pm and I still have 40% battery and recharge PW2 before I sleep. I turned off AOD and it's ok. At night I turn on a bedtime. Overall I'm happy. 😀

[@BishopBrown-ng2ns]

I have the first Pixel Watch and battery life is fine. I shut down a lot of apps, etc to the basics. Skipped PW2, but I might consider Pixel Watch 3.

[@ruben79nyc]

Battery has been the same on my Pixel Watch 2 since launch. I'm definitely looking forward to upgrading to the Pixel Watch 3 XL as soon as possible for the larger size and hopefully larger battery.

[@matt_allen]

I got my pixel watch 2 3 months ago and I like it apart from two, very big annoyances. 1.the battery drain since the June update is horrible. It now barley lasts until 5pm after taking off the charger at 8am. Used to last easily until about 10pm. 2. Sometimes when I start a walk it won't connect to the GPS at all and sometimes will drop out during a walk.

[@Peterstarzynskitech]

That's brutal battery life. You can't even wear the thing to bed.

[@7techno77]

My 1st gen was terrible. Returned it, I usually get 24ish with 2nd , recent update has been worse.

[@richardnoble3989]

I had real issues with that GPS dropping out bug - Google trouble shooted it and eventually just replaced the unit. The new watch worked properly for a while but the same bug reappeared - some wonky hardware issue since they don't seem to be able to fix it with software updates/factory resets? I've never had another smartwatch do anything similar!

[@jordanthomson]

I find that if I install certain apps, it gets way worse and if I uninstall them it improves immediately. Very odd situation but I would recommend removing all the apps you don't actively use but might have been automatically installed and see if there's any improvement.

[@matt_allen]

@@jordanthomson I'll give that a go. Thanks 👍

[@Hisoneleg]

Love my pixel 2 watch. No damage at all and im using it daily minimal abuse

[@stewartoetegenn9751]

Love my PW2. I use a Spigen cover so it's in perfect condition. Battery life has been pretty constant, between 24-30 hours depending on usage. I haven't had an issue with skin reactions so have no complaints. The only time I don't use it is when I'm playing 5 a side football when my more robust Garmin Vivoactive 3 gets used. Keep up the great content!

[@love3w00ds]

I got the Pixel watch 2 at launch. Still works for me. Battery life is still about the same.

[@DrewPera]

My Apple Watch also has inconsistent battery life, so now I know it's not just Apple. Some days I go to bed with 50-60%, others I have to recharge it by the time I get home from work.

[@samuelegiochi6859]

Thanks for this video, as awesome as always 🎉 For the pixel watch 2 battery life, I can say during this month the battery quality is improve, starting from 24h battery duration up to now, 36h now, with no problems. I don't have always on display but I use it a lot with fitness tracking, notification and assistant

[@Rampage1979]

I received my pixel watch 2 when I pre ordered my pixel 8 pro and I love it.

[@michaelcabezas9148]

As someone who is more active than most, I average 1-2 hours in the gym and get around 11k steps a day. I've noticed that my battery life has worsened since launch, and just like you when I wake up my watch is dead. Hoping pixel watch 3 improves on this

[@slntshadow]

I've had 2x PW2 since launch. One had never done a factory reset. That battery life is still great! On my other one, I've done a couple factory resets with restore from backup and the battery has gone to crap. Only fix I've somewhat found is to restart the watch then charge up to 100% and then it lasts pretty decently. (Both are LTE versions)

[@craigbrown04]

I'm on the PW1 and agree with the battery drain issue, over the last few weeks, it's seems to be draining quicker

[@Betancourtdm]

One strange annoyance I have is that when doing a Fitbit Coach workout, the app does not display real time HR. Older trackers like the Sense 2 or Coach series do display this info.

[@Al3ksandrOrlov]

I got a gen 1 for £100 2 months ago, extremely happy, its an LTE/32GB model too

[@MrDemDon1]

Interesting and informative video. My Pixel watch 2 is still in the box and never opened. I am waiting to trade it in for the much larger and highly requested Pixel watch 3. I got it for free and never liked the smaller watch face so I continue to use my TicPro 5 for now daily.

[@mfwolf86]

Great long term review. Why do you feel like the smaller version of the watch would be better ?

[@don.wall_E]

I dunno if I buy I PW2 now, or just wait to see the PW3 and decide then!

[@stefanharms4429]

Need more Google watchfaces 😮

[@martinwi2890]

I switched from a GW4 and am generally happy. Battery life is fine and hasn't changed for me. However, coming from Samsung, I am missing so many small features which is super annoying. It's all little things like no audio cues while working out, constant and annoying requests if it should track my cycling "workout", although this is clearly turned off, no actual app drawer, apps opened through widgets don't appear in the recent app list and so on. Overall, the Pixel Watch is so much smoother and nicer to use, but it's still frustratingly immature. Also, mine has a bunch of scratches on the rounded part, which I did not expect so fast.

[@acemagic24]

I am using my Pixel Watch 2 for 7 months now.... - battery wise its still okay. It was definetly better and more consistant in the beginning. But I still dont really have a problem with using it for one day and one night before charging again. (but to be completly fair: I dont have a reference on other smartwatches and how their battery is performing. But I think its pretty solid.) - I got one bug with the Watch...or more the app idk: Sometimes the notications arent muted on my phone when I wear the watch....I have to turn the setting off and on again. - Sometimes the Watch is vibrating without any notification. Besides these two little bugs the watch is doing its job quite good. #teampixel

[@achtungjamie]

I’m switching from iOS soon. Is Pixel Watch 2 recommended over Watch 6 ?

[@imarchit]

Which phone will you be buying? If Samsung, then Watch 6 will make more sense.

[@superiortoall22]

Watch 6 is hardly better, if you're use to Apple Watches prepare to be disappointed with any Android watch. Really don't know what they're doing wrong.

[@eddietorres9732]

Get a Garmin, it will be so much better

[@DannyFenton217]

Not being able to use google messages if your phone is off or not nearby needs to be noted because that’s wild considering the Apple Watch can do this basic feature

[@markdevries5524]

Nice, thx ! Still love the Pixel watch but unfortunately, some (most) specific features are not available in Europe......

[@thatguy_bridger]

I've been back on forth on waiting to get a bigger version of the pixel watch if it comes out just go with the pixel watch 2, which right now, I'm going for the first

[@jevonsims900]

Dude, you sound like Google employee

[@brandonrogers917]

Mine has been fine, battery is okay. But one problem so far is every few days the screen absolutely freaks out and I have to hard reset it. Looking into it it doesn't seem like a uncommon problem.

[@mtbiker1123]

I have Pixel Watch 2 LTE and as time goes on the battery life keeps going way down. I just bought more chargers with the stupid pins off of Amazon so I have more options to charge 2-3x a day which is ridiculous for a smartwatch!!! I HATE HATE the battery life. Might go to Samsung watch depending on if the 7 pro happens. Can't wait to find out when Unpacked happens July 10

[@parthsb]

I still cannot understand, why we are not able to charge our watches on the back of the phone. Anyways I have been using PW1, no complaints at all, except the small screen. Battery life some days randomly malfunctions, otherwise it's ok.

[@maxim_b774]

Is it worth switching from pixel watch 1 to 2?

[@AkashSansanwal]

In a month some days in a week the battery will perform good will go 30hrs otherwise some days will die in 24 hrs

[@vilkotesarml]

I have pixel watch first generation and it gets me through the day okay. I still have some juice through the night but I don't care about sleep tracking because I have nest hub 2 gen.

[@vernon44427]

Bad battery drain lately and my phone started haveing the screen with yellow lines and cant see anything when you wake it. Bought a galaxy 6 watch til the pixel 2 fixes itself lol

[@flakes369]

Needs a week long battery :)

[@YumeFox]

As someone who used to own an Apple Watch, the Pixel Watch 1 I got with my 7 Pro has been a disappointment, to say the least. It's not the hardware, it's not the software, it's the lack of third party support. Checking in to places on Swarm, checking my bank account's balance, reading the news, an actual Telegram app. All things that just do not exists on the Android Wear side. It is basically why I barely wear my Pixel Watch to begin with. If you can get a PW for like, 150-200 euros, yeah, consider it. It's a fun little gadget. But for the full price of 399 or 449 euros, I would really not buy it. I really hope they can get this issue solved, but it'll be a long road to get there.

[@djs4329]

Awesome info🎉

[@angelolewis419]

im thinking of getting the amazfit balance and their new smart ring instead. i value battery and healthy and limited smartwatch

[@rodrigofernety]

i enjoy my pixel watch

[@bilbobaggins9488]

I got the watch for free and I still have buyer's remorse

[@hexijosh]

Oddly enough, my pixel Watch 2 has started having really bad battery drain just in the last week. I always used to make it through a day and a half. And this week my watch has been going dead by the time I get home from work

[@imarchit]

Definitely a bug due to the recent update. Happened with my GW4 a few months ago, reset helped. It's easy as well in case of GW, in 15 minutes I was done with reset and recovery.

[@newfnshow031]

Google is terrible at battery life... every item they make constantly needs to be charged

[@Peterstarzynskitech]

The pixel watch is nice, but based on the comments, the battery life is trash.

[@rockbottomwriter]

Battery like is not good. It doesn't make it through the whole day. This is disappointing when compared to other manufacturers.

[@GiladSteinberger]

Awful battery... Everyday charging is just a nightmare

[@eddietorres9732]

The battery life is hot garbage, I like the watch but the battery is just horrible. I am getting rid of it, I'll just use my Garmin. Very disappointed in the execution

[@thatguy_bridger]

First?

[@jordanintheknow]

You are my friend thanks for the support 🙏🏽😊

[@hakdaddy]

Call screen on pixel watch is another MAGA only feature by Google 🙄

[@Techfanatic73]

Garbage product. If you break or crack the screen it's not replaceable. Period. You have to get a new watch. Huge difference from a apple watch that you can replace the screen if it's broke. It's disposable. Great video though. Just not something I would buy. Also Google is the worst tech company there is for support