30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker. I don't want to charge my watch every day.<p>I've been using the Garmin Forerunner for a few years now and the battery life is 2 weeks!
The charger on the 4 both sucks and blows. Countless times I’ve taken it off the charger to find 0%.<p>The nice strap they showed in the adverts broke instantly when I took it out of the box. Two pins sheared right off the in the middle of the band.<p>WearOS Apps are trash.<p>I wish I had gone garmin. ;(
If all you're looking for is a step counter in your watch, check out Casio ABL100WE. The battery lasts for two years (CR2016).
I have the pixel watch 4 and I also hate charging stuff. But I put some double sided tape under the charging cradle and I just put it there at night which I think is good because then I always know where it is as well. So im used to it now. Plus you can buy an extra for travel ex. So im happy with it so far.
My Apple Watch broke, I replaced it with a Casio with an Ollee Watch board. It doesn’t have the fancy features but it’s so nice to not have to ever think about the battery life! I wish the firmware was open source, there is a few features I would like to tweak a bit
If it charges fast enough this shouldn't matter. You just charge it while you take a shower and as long as it charges enough for the day it fine.
Daily charging for normal use isn't so much an issue once it becomes a habit, but battery life during extremely long (24+ hour) activities is pretty much a make-or-break feature for me.<p>I've done some 50ks and while truthfully I may never do an ultra that requires that much battery life, choosing a device that can't almost feels like admitting defeat. It's kind of stupid but I know I'm not alone in that thought process.
I felt like you as well: I like to track sleep and my heart rate during sports and with the pixel watch it felt like I had to almost plan these events (and more annoyingly while travelling) around the charge state of my watch, until I realized I had two separate requirements: notifications (which I don't care about during sports or sleeping), and fitness tracking.<p>Unfortunately the solution ended up being paying google more money and getting a Fitbit air (which I can use for sleep tracking for an entire week-long trip without bringing a charger)<p>And only wear the pixel watch for my awake hours, which a 30 hour battery life is more than enough for, even if I forget to charge it for a night or two.<p>Another bonus is the Fitbit air is a lot more comfortable to sleep in, but of course I no longer care about the charge of my devices.
The problem is that 30 hours slowly becomes far less over time with software bloat and battery degradation. What I hated when I had a watch with a tiny batter like this is that if I wanted both sleep tracking AND the ability to track my morning workout, I absolutely had to remember to charge before bed. If I forgot, I'd wake up with a dead or almost dead watch and have to delay my workout.<p>I went though a number of android wear smart watches ~10 years ago and had the same problem with all of them. I absolutely loved my Garmin 945M. I had it for years with hardly any battery degradation and it typically gave me 70-80% of the advertised battery life for many years until it was accidentally physically destroyed (caught the watch on a heavy backpack I was taking off, which ripped off the watch pin anchor from the case).<p>The Fenix 6 I have now is not nearly so good. It advertises 2 weeks of battery and I'm at 53% after only 4 days or so. I blame this partially on their crappy iOS support where you cannot filter apps out, so every #$%#$%^ slack message I get buzzes my watch. I had a Pixel phone when I had the 945, where you can filter out garbage notifications. This is really Garmin's fault, since apparently Coros and Pebble can filter notifications on iOS. I'll switch to one of those when this Garmin dies unless they fix their iOS support.
I still have the Pixel Watch 2 and it's much the same, battery barely lasts a day, if even that. I didn't know this going in. I had purchased the Pixel 8 I think it was and saw the watch was heavily discounted if I bundled it in so I did. Will never buy another one. I'm a heavily sleeper and need multiple alarms sometimes to wake up and would often use my watch alarm to supplement my phone. So it became a nightly routine of making sure I didn't forget to charge my watch before bed, lest it dies in the middle of the night.
I was very surprised by work put into making replacing the battery easy on the Pixel Watch 4. They designed in screw actuated clamps for the back face. Hopefully this carries over to the 5th edition.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/3pQWBFBIU2U?si=HEefZLDiIurcBj5K&t=61" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/3pQWBFBIU2U?si=HEefZLDiIurcBj5K&t=61</a><p><a href="https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+Watch+4+Battery+Replacement/197169" rel="nofollow">https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Google+Pixel+Watch+4+Battery+Re...</a>
I hate having to charge my Apple Watch. I don't want to charge it when I'm asleep because I want sleep tracking. I don't want to charge it when I'm away because then I can't keep an eye on the time without getting my phone. I don't want to charge it when I'm at home because I'll forget to put it back on before I go out or to sleep. If only there were a way to supply it power without having to take it off... or it could charge in less than like two hours...
Yeah, Apple Watch definitely needs faster charging. It wouldn't be as big of a deal if it both lasted longer, at least 3 days to get through a weekend, and could charge to a meaningful level in 15 minutes or less so I could just throw it on the charger in the morning and by the time I'm out of the shower and dressed have it be at ~80%.
My WiThings ScanWatch lasts a full month. But it's not a phone-on-my-wrist, it looks more like an analog watch and just has some sensors in it.
Same my 4 year old Huawei watch still goes 2-3 weeks. It seems to be the devices with simpler OS's that last longer and the wearOS and apple equivalent struggle to do more than a day or two.
Especially when Garmin and some other watches last a week or more.
Keep in mind Google owns Fitbit and Fitbit has watches with 7 day battery life.<p>Pixel is for techies, Fitbit is their health tracking product.
Yeah I've been using Gadgetbridge[1]-compatible Amazfit watches and they last at least a week and have most functions I want from a smartwatch. For more complicated stuff I just use my phone.<p>[1]: <a href="https://gadgetbridge.org/" rel="nofollow">https://gadgetbridge.org/</a>
It's less of a big deal than I thought it'd be.<p>I switched from a Garmin to an Apple Watch - which has less battery life - for some development work I had to do and it turned out I barely noticed.<p>Charge phone, charge watch, charge headphones just became a nightly checklist.
I guess it's dependent on what you're using the watch for. I like the sleep tracking and various overnight metrics. Find keeping an eye on RHR and HRV is one of the best early signals for overtraining.
But unlike headphones and your phone, you want to wear your watch at night to monitor sleep<p>At least that's a major selling point for these smart watches
> 30 hours of battery life is a deal breaker.<p>Also quite funny considering they are highlighting the sleep features of the watch quite a bit:<p><i>"When it's time to recharge, Pixel Watch 5 and Google Health Coach elevate sleep tracking with 15% more accurate sleep stage detection, bedtime automations that automatically pause audiobooks when you drift off, and a dedicated bedtime watch face. When morning comes, Smart Wake ensures you wake up feeling refreshed. By monitoring your heart rate and movement during the 30 minutes leading up to your alarm, Smart Wake identifies optimal moments of lighter sleep to gently wake you before your set alarm time."</i><p>Sounds neat, but uh, how are you supposed to use any of that and also use the watch as a watch with a 30 hour battery life?
I just charge mine as part of my nighttime routine, sometimes it's only five minutes, sometimes it's 20. In the morning I just throw it on the charger while I'm showering/brushing my teeth. It's almost never full, but it never dies.<p>I thought about the Fitbit air, but being able to see your heart rate is kind of nice.