Pixel Watch vs. Apple Watch Series 8

Google has given the Pixel Watch a characteristically minimal and clean design, with the device housed in an 80%-recycled stainless-steel circle frame with a side button. It comes in three colors — Matte Black, Polished Silver, and Champagne Gold — each of which comes with its own particular strap design.

While you could argue that it doesn’t really take any design risks, its compact size and tidy sculpting help to distinguish it from the established design offered by the Apple Watch Series 8, which doesn’t really depart from the squircle form of the Apple Watch 7. This means you get a choice of two sizes (41mm and 45mm, as opposed to 41mm only for the Pixel Watch), a choice of different materials (aluminum and stainless steel), and a wide variety of bands. Again, nothing spectacular or out of the ordinary, but this design has worked well for Apple up until now, so it’s understandable that it isn’t departing from it just yet.

The Apple Watch Series 8 features an always-on LTPO Retina OLED display, with the 41mm version having a resolution of 352 x 430 pixels, versus the 45mm model, which offers 396 x 484 pixels. By contrast, the Pixel Watch houses a 1.2-inch AMOLED display, with a resolution of 450 x 450 pixels. Both offer around 1,000 nits max brightness, yet some may be put off by the fact that the Pixel Watch’s screen is noticeably smaller than even that of the 41mm Apple Watch 8, which comes with 1.69-inch display. What this means is that the Pixel has tangibly larger bezels than Apple’s device, something which may detract from its attractiveness for some.

Still, the display itself offers a similar pixel-per-inch density to that of the Apple Watch’s display, and given that it boasts a relatively new design overall, this balances out the large bezels.

Winner: Tie

The Google Pixel Watch is powered by an Exynos 9110 chip, as well as a Cortex M33 co-processor. The 9110 is constructed using a 10nm manufacturing process, which is worse compated to the 7nm process used with Apple’s S8 chip (a smaller number means you can pack more transistors into the same space). As such, it’s likely that the Apple Watch Series 8 will operate a little more smoothly and quicker than the Pixel Watch, with Apple claiming that it’s 20% faster than the Apple Watch 7.

In keeping with its uncluttered design, the Google Pixel Watch offers the core range of sensors you’d expect from a smartwatch in 2022 without trying to be as comprehensive as the Apple Watch Series 8. Namely, it comes with a blood oxygen sensor, an electrical sensor, and an optical heart rate sensor (in addition to very standard stuff such as a compass, altimeter, and accelerometer). In tandem with a Fitbit Premium subscription, which is offered for free for six months, this lets you track everything from the quality of your sleep to your heart rate.

This is good, but it’s overshadowed somewhat by the sheer wealth of options provided by the Apple Watch Series 8. In contrast to its predecessor, it adds a new skin temperature sensor designed to detect very subtle drops in body temperature, as well as a sensor underneath the display to track temperate changes during your sleep, both of which are aimed at detecting illnesses early and assisting with ovulation monitoring. On top of this, it keeps the ECG, SpO2, heart rate monitor, and other sensors from previous generations, making it very powerful as a fitness and health-tracking device.

Winner: Apple Watch Series 8

There’s not much in it when it comes to special features, with both boasting largely the same perks. For instance, each has an always-on display, Emergency SOS functionality, fall detection, and the ability to pay for stuff at stores (via Google Pay and Apple Pay, respectively).

That said, each has a couple of features that are a little unique. The Apple Watch, for example, also includes crash detection, which uses a combination of the watch’s sensors and artificial intelligence to detect car accidents and automatically call 911 for help while providing your location and alerting your emergency contacts (only if you don’t respond to a notification within 10 seconds). As for the Pixel Watch, it has been IP68 and 5ATM certified, whereas the Apple Watch has only IP6X certification, although Apple does affirm that it’s also water-resistant up to 50 meters, like the Pixel.

Winner: Tie

The Pixel Watch is now available for preorder from Google, starting from $350 for its base model with GPS. There’s also the option to have it with cellular LTE connectivity, which will cost $50 extra.

The Apple Watch Series 8 is available in the U.S. and over 40 countries. The base model with GPS connectivity and 41mm case size costs $399, while models with cellular connectivity start at $499. The 45mm model starts at $429, while its cellular sibling costs $529.