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Google is gearing up to launch its first ever smartwatch later this year. The company confirmed the existence of the Pixel Watch at Google I/O in May, with the launch slated for this fall. In anticipation of its arrival, the Fitbit app has begun making room for the wearable. A recent APK teardown of the app, conducted by 9to5Google, revealed the preparations and also hinted at the watch’s rather meager battery life.
Rumored Pixel Watch battery life doesn’t impress
According to the new report, version 3.65 of the Fitbit app contains in-app text related to reminders about charging the Pixel Watch in the evening. “Get a notification before your bedtime goal if your Pixel Watch battery is too low to track a night’s sleep,” the text reads. It’s a toggle that, when enabled, will notify you to put the watch on charge ahead of your bedtime so you have enough battery power to run it throughout the night.
“Time to charge your watch,” the notification will say. “You’ll need at least 30% charge to track a full night’s sleep”. Assuming that Google means about eight hours of sleep when it says full night’s sleep, the battery life of the Pixel Watch doesn’t appear to be too good. A 30% charge is only enough to run the watch for eight hours. This suggests a battery life of about 24 hours, something we have heard in earlier rumors too. That’s far, far lesser than the reported 80 hours of battery life on Samsung’s newly-launched Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Even the smallest Galaxy Watch 5 model is said to last twice as long as the Pixel Watch.
Of course, this is just speculation. Google may still offer longer battery life on its first smartwatch. Perhaps the reminder is there just in case. After all, it is rumored to have been working on the wearable for years. So the company should have perfected the product in most aspects by now. However, the very idea of users seemingly needing a reminder to charge the watch every evening isn’t quite reassuring. The Fitbit smartwatches don’t have any such reminder thing. Let’s hope for the best.
Google is nearing the launch of its first-ever smartwatch
The Pixel Watch will launch this fall, alongside the Pixel 7 series of smartphones. Google has yet to officially announce a launch date for new products, but rumors are that they will go official next month. This sighting of a Pixel Watch reference in the Fitbit app is another indication of a nearing launch. We should hear more about Google’s fall hardware event in the coming weeks.