Google is holding its annual hardware launch event two months early this year, on August 13. Together with the Pixel 9 family (what will be more numerous than ever), the Pixel watch 3 is also expected to be unveiled on that occasion. For the first time, the Pixel Watch will come in two sizes – this is already confirmed by the FCC.
Today, a new leak sheds more light on the details, reportedly from a source within Google. The Pixel Watch 3 is said to use the Snapdragon W5 SoC, paired with a custom co-processor.
Google Pixel Watch 2
The 41mm Watch 3 gets a 310mAh battery, while the 45mm model gets a 420mAh cell for hopefully better battery life. The smaller Watch 3 has a display size of 32x32mm (instead of 30x30mm on the Pixel watch 2), the largest has a screen size of 36×36 mm and the resolution is 408×408 and 456×456 respectively.
While the overall design will remain unchanged from the original Pixel watch and the Pixel Watch 2, the bezels are finally getting a little smaller. According to this source, Google will shave a whole millimeter off the circular bezel, taking it from 5.5mm on the Pixel Watch 2 to 4.5mm on the Pixel Watch 3.
That’s still a lot of bezel, but it’s also (small) progress. Additionally, the new watch will also have improved screen brightness, peaking at 2,000 nits. That’s up from the Pixel Watch 2’s 1,000 nits. We’ll refrain from saying “twice as bright,” because perceived brightness doesn’t follow a linear scale, so chances are it won’t actually look twice as bright in real life. Still, it’s a nice step forward.
The Pixel Watch 3 will have UWB support, as confirmed by the FCC, and this will allow for precise device finding when used in conjunction with Google’s Find My Device system. This could also theoretically be used to turn your Pixel Watch 3 into a car key, if car brands are open to the idea – BMW, Hyundai, and Kia already support UWB for this purpose, but they’d have to specifically support the Pixel Watch 3 too, so we’ll see how that goes.
The 41mm Pixel Watch 3 will be offered in silver, black, and gold with different colored straps. The 45mm model will have a Hazel, black, and silver case.