Pixel Watch 2 specs: Major battery life boost, Snapdragon chip

We revealed at the start of May that Google is planning to announce the Pixel Watch 2 alongside the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro this fall. 9to5Google can now report some key Pixel Watch 2 specs, including the processor, battery, and health sensor upgrades.

Pixel Watch 2 chip

According to sources, the Pixel Watch 2 will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset from the latest “W5” generation.

It’s unclear what level of customization, if any, is occurring, but the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 was announced last July and just arrived on the first Wear OS watch, the TicWatch Pro 5 which we’ve just reviewed. There’s also the regular Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 without Qualcomm’s co-processor that has, so far, primarily been used by Chinese wearable makers (Oppo Watch 3).

This 4nm SoC features four A53 cores at 1.7GHz with dual Adreno 702 GPUs (1GHz). In comparison, the original Pixel Watch’s Exynos 9110 is built on a 10nm process with two Cortex-A53s.

Google switching from Samsung Exynos for its second-generation wearable is very notable, and quite surprising. Conservatively, we were expecting the 5nm W920 used in the Galaxy Watch 4 and 5. Another possibility was the rumored W980, expected to show up in Galaxy Watch 6. The Pixel Watch is only one of Google’s product lines, so it would be premature to speculate how a change in wearables impacts foundry decisions on the phone side, with Tensor featuring much more customization.

Battery on Pixel Watch 2

The big impact of this change, according to what we’re hearing, is much improved battery life. While the battery on the Pixel Watch 2 shouldn’t be much larger than what we have today, Google is seeing over a day of usage with the always-on display (AOD) enabled. 

This is a significant upgrade and makes for an immediate improvement; the original is rated for 24 hours with the AOD turned off. That said, people today can keep the screen on and easily get through a day (but nothing more). The Pixel Watch 2’s battery life could conceivably let go two days without charging if settings are adjusted to conserve battery, which can be useful when traveling.

The new chipset is undoubtedly responsible for this boost, while Google has teased Wear OS 4 as featuring “several updates and optimizations to help your app run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.” Set to arrive in the fall, the Pixel Watch 2 is presumably one of the first devices to launch with Wear OS 4. 

Fitbit sensors + Pixel Watch 2

Lastly on the specs front, we’re hearing that the Pixel Watch 2 has similar health sensors to the Fitbit Sense 2. The most notable aspects of that Fitbit OS device are a continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) sensor for all-day stress management and tracking, as well as a skin temperature sensor. Other Fitbit devices measure your nightly skin temperature variation through “existing sensors,” but the Sense 2 offers a dedicated component, though it still does not surface actual temperature.

We expect to see the Pixel Watch 2 announced alongside the Pixel 8 later this year.

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