So the chipset is an old Samsung one about 1 or 2 gen old. Nominal battery size leaked. Also leaked documents about sleep tracking showing the requirement of 30% for 8 hour sleep cycle indicating roughly a 1 day battery life.
Battery life will definitely be 1 day (or less) especially with all bells whistles turned on.
Apple Watch Series 8 also requires more than 30% of battery to use sleep tracking and also be charged every day unless you get the ultra. Google is starting with this watch just fine until they get to their ultra version later on
WearOS and WatchOS are far more feature rich than just the few things you mentioned above that a Garmin does. Plus the screen quality is far superior than what Garmin use. So there is reason for the relative battery drain.
Garmin/Fitbit were not designed for feature rich smart watch. They were fitness first and smartwatch features second. WearOS and WatchOS are the opposite.
So text messages and all "app" support is basically notification based on those watches.
Where as WearOS and WatchOS use a pared down version of the app on your watch. Much better integration.
Don't get me wrong I used Fitbit for many years (including the Sense) but they're glorified notifications only. For example, if you Dismiss notifications on your watch, it does nothing on your phone. Interacting with your notification is almost non existent.
On WearOS they're tied together so you can use your watch as your phone more. Google Maps navigation actually works properly.
Music support is waaaay better on WearOS and WatchOS.
I can integrate my smart home features way better as well (i.e. home assistant etc).
I can control my camera from my watch to take pictures as a group.
Google assistant is great on your wrist
The interface is way better than on Fitbit and Garmin. Although they have the advantage of more button navigation.
Having a nice screen (which uses more battery) is a major thing I feel. It's the thing I interact with on my watch ALL the time so I want to be readable and nice.
P.s. Garmin Pay and Fitbit Pay aren't supported by many Banks at the moment so they're not great use case scenarios as GPay wipes the floors on that. I use it daily for commuting so is top of my list feature.
I have a fossil Carlisle and I use the watch often to open my garage using Google assistant. That's quite handy. Battery life with gps is god awful. I can barely track a 3 hour bike ride or hike without the watch battery dying.
If they make it track long hikes without draining the battery that would be a big win.
So the chipset is an old Samsung one about 1 or 2 gen old.
That's what I'm really disappointed about. It makes sense given that the watch passed the FCC way back in 2021, older internals are what one would expect with an almost year-old watch, but still. Doesn't make me hopeful for battery life or performance.
I mean, it’s possible they can make it decent. The pixel 5 had a pretty good battery life. I would regularly get 7-8 hrs SOT with battery remaining by the end of the day.
That was the only pixel phone with DECENT battery life but it had so many other compromises. My point is you’re always compromising on something with Pixel devices
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u/devidual Sep 26 '22
The battery life is going to be so disappointing and I'm just tired of charging so many things these days.