The pixel watch is real heres. What we know about it, which isnt as much as you might think Music. So at google i o, which is googles developer conference. The pixel watch was finally announced. This is a real product. Thats coming out in the fall and for anyone, whos been looking for some sort of new advanced android compatible smart watch that was made with the type of hardware focus that googles pixel line has this? Is it now? Is this going to be everything that youd expect? As kind of an apple watch, killer or apple watch competitor for the android set lets see, maybe not exactly the way that you think so the pixel watch was shown off and we got to see a glimpse of what it looks like. It looks very apple watch like except it has a round display much like the rest of the wear os watch line, the design details, look even more refined. This is very curved, has a domed display, it has a crown. Much like the apple watch looks like another button and it looks like it has a lot of sensors on the back those we dont really know much about yet and im super curious. One thing that this watch has thats a big one is fitbit. This is a fitbit featured watch. This is something that is the first product or fruit of the collaboration between googles, hardware, team and fitbit, which google acquired a couple of years ago.

Last year, google announced a whole revamp of its watch lineup with wear os 3, but it was kind of a half step move. We got the sense that there were a lot of big changes coming and fitbit indicated that it would start moving on to wear os watches in the future. Last year we had the samsung galaxy watch four, that was the watch. That was the first to get wear os 3., but it was kind of a funky hybrid because it has wear os 3, but it also had a lot of samsung software and health features and services. So it was a watch that was probably the best android watch. Last year, but it wasnt quite the wherewest watch, a lot of people might have been expecting now. A year later we get this watch its coming out in the fall and its going to come out alongside the pixel 7 and pixel 7 pro phones, which we only got a brief look at so the pixel watch. We know a little bit more about again its a full featured wear os watch its going to have fitbit on it, though we dont know to what exact capacity and its going to have cellular or cellular option thats something thats common in wear os watches, but its Not been on any fitbit watch before so thats a new feature and we dont know the price. So i got a chance to talk to the head of fitbit and the head of googles wearables james park, about where things are going to be headed.

Whats interesting about the vision for fitbit, similar to where google is looking at the rest of its hardware. Lineup is the term ambient computing. Now ambient is basically just where you know everything kind of lives everywhere and thats, something youve already, probably seen on a lot of your devices, whether youre in the apple landscape or the google landscape or the amazon alexa landscape. A lot of things talk to each other were used to that, but thats where the pixel watch may play a really big role in where googles trying to head. We look at things like google, pixel buds or the pixel buds pro and the ability to pair with the watch and switch between that and a phone. Much like you know, apple does with air pods and the apple watch and were kind of used to with samsung and others in the landscape, but theres that theres also, google assistant theres also the ability for this to potentially live other places and thats, where it also Gets interesting because, while fitbit is going to be on the pixel watch, itll be curious to see where else fitbit shows up already uh theres been some nest: experimentation with sleep tracking, whether some of those features become kind of fitbit features or whether fitbit services tie into Other things in the google smart home well have to find out, but i imagine thats part of the plan, also for music. The ability to pair with some of googles, music services and have a better music system for fitbit users seems like a plus here, but this is aimed to be a premium watch.

This is something that already has been stated to be a premium device by james park by rick, osterlow whos, the head of hardware, google, so expect a premium price, and it looks like the rest of fitbits hardware lineup, for the most part will still be there or At least the trackers so that you will be able to get more affordable products so much like the pixel lineup, it looks like itll be a premium product. Although you know the pixel budget phone lineup does seem like its aimed. You know at a lower price, so it doesnt look like thats going to be the case for the pixel watch. What about premium? Well, i did find out that you know theres a subscription plan already for fitbit fitbit premium and it looks like thats still in the works for how it works with pixel watch. But we dont know exactly how, but just keep in mind if you havent used fitbit before that there is this premium service that you pay for each month. That is the doorway to a lot of the insights and extra features that youd probably want to use with. Fitbit fitbits not alone in this regard, most wearables now are moving to subscription models. Apple has fitness plus amazon halo has subscription theres fitbit, and it does seem like a like a growing trend in all of this im, not wild about subscriptions for wearables now fitbit does have some some more basic features that do work without the subscription itll be interesting To see how all that plays out with subscription will this have all of the high end health sensors that the other high end fitbit products? Have we dont know the things that have been discussed at this point are heart rate and sleep tracking? Those keep showing up in what google is talking about with the pixel watch thats what james park talked about with the pixel watch, so you can expect that those might be the two biggest features in what are coming as far as things like ecg.

As far as things like, you know, fitbits more experimental features like um eda, which is a electro dermal, skin response for measuring potential signs of stress or temperature sensing, its not clear that any of those are necessarily showing up. But if you do look at the back of the pixel watch in the photo, not only do you see a variety of led markers which suggest you know the ability to check for blood oxygen or get richer heart rate, but it does have that metal plate which Makes me think of ecg also their eda sensor has that type of conductivity. I dont want to speculate too much, but it does look like a pretty advanced back as far as what youd expect out of sensors, but we just dont know. So what we do know is that itll be premium. We know that its going to have fitbit – and we know its probably going to be one of the most interesting android watches thats coming out this year. But there may be more because the whole idea of wear os and is supposed to be this landscape of other compatible watches. I mean fossils, got wear west watches. Some of those are going to get warehouse, 3. youve got samsungs watches and we dont know whats coming this year. So there are a number of other ways that you could go and when i think about the pixel lineup, i think about it as a way to introduce new cutting edge features that eventually make their way into other products.

Will fitbit make its way into other watches. Its possible, but we dont, really know from the past how things will shake out in the future. Maybe the pixel watch does become the place where fitbit lives in the wherewest landscape. I guess well have to find out and im really curious what the price is, although if you look at most of the watches that are out there, they do tend to fall in a pretty similar territory. So i wouldnt be surprised if the pixel watch landed about where the apple watch and samsung galaxy watch 4 are at and that the cellular has the bump up as youd expect. I guess well have to wait till the fall to find out more details. The things i think about again are music about interconnectivity. I also think about google fit because google fit and fitbit remain separate and it looks like thats going to still be the case now how much those really talk to each other. They may not, but you might find other ways that fitbit starts to be recognized by other google services and, if i think about what id really want from this, i probably want that more than you know, blending google fit and fitbit because im not really sure id Use, google fit it was kind of a stand in for for something better, but a fitbit is able to be. You know you can pull those stats and get that information or have it interact with other services and do it in a way that keeps the data still separate, as google has been promising.

That would be really interesting, uh and and thats pretty much. What im? Looking for i mean the smartwatch landscape is pretty straightforward at this point, but i think what fitbit brings to the table as far as insights. As far as some of the more advanced sensor features and some of the more advanced research that theyve been doing, it really makes it an interesting product, challenging apple, challenging samsung, for where health tech is going to be heading on our wrist thats. What we know so far, let me know if you have any thoughts down below and those are our initial thoughts based on googles, pixel watch, which is real and coming pretty soon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4dE-OqDG-8