What you need to know
- Google announced several new Pixel devices at its annual Google I/O developer conference.
- We asked our readers which Pixel device they were most looking forward to.
- Of more than 1200 votes, 42% say the Pixel Watch was the most exciting announcement at the event.
Google surprised us when it chose to announce a whopping six new hardware devices during its I/O keynote last week. The company is known for teasing its devices a little early, but it’s not even summer yet, and Google is already giving us a look at its fall lineup. This strategy could work in its favor, however, according to our latest poll.
We asked our readers what their favorite Pixel announcement was, and out of more than 1200 responses, the Pixel Watch stole the show with 42% of votes, despite being several months from launch. In second place was the Pixel Tablet, which won’t even launch until 2023, followed by the Pixel 7 series, which will debut this fall.
It’s no surprise that the Pixel Watch would steal the spotlight. The once-elusive smartwatch had been rumored for years as fans yearned for Google to launch its own first-party hardware for Wear OS. These rumors started ramping up last year, eventually coming to a head when a prototype device was found in a Chicago restaurant. Since the cat was already out of the bag, it made sense for Google to just outright say that it had a watch on the way.
That said, the company was fairly mum on details. We know what it’ll look like and that it’ll come in LTE variants. We also know that Fitbit integration will debut on the Pixel Watch alongside a new Google Home app (finally!). However, we don’t know what the battery life will be like, what sensors it will feature, how much it will cost, and most importantly, how it will compete with the best Android smartwatches.
A recent rumor points to the Pixel Watch being powered by a four-year-old chipset found in older Galaxy Watches. This is reportedly due to the amount of time it took for Google to develop the watch and the chipset that was available at the time. The chip shortage may also have had a hand in this decision.
That said, nothing is official yet, and Google may have figured out a way around this. Wear OS 3 is supposed to be much more efficient, and the company has been hard at work over the past year getting the update ready, so it’s had plenty of time to optimize things. Still, if it is true, it’s understandable that some fans may not be too happy about a new Pixel Watch running aging hardware.
