Google’s Pixel Watch 24-hour battery explainer has some surprises

Google has shared details on how it came to the 24-hour battery rating it gave the Pixel Watch, but there’s one specific bit that might surprise you.

That 24-hour Pixel Watch rating by Google now has some context after the company updated its guide on how to improve the wearable’s battery life. There is the usual array of tips on what people can do to get as many minutes out of that battery as possible, but the really interesting bit is what Google reckons a typical 24 hours might look like.

Google says that its 24-hour battery life rating is based on a few things, including turning the always-on display off.

240 notifications280 time checksA 5 min LTE phone call.45 min LTE and GPS workout with downloaded YouTube music playback50 minutes of navigation (Google Maps) while connected to a phone via Bluetooth®️The watch configured with the default settings, including the Always-on display set to off

That’s notable because even Google prompts people to enable the always-on display during setup, something that immediately hampers its ability to meet that 24-hour goal. The fact that having the screen lit up all the time uses extra battery isn’t a surprise to most. But it would have been nice if Google could have reached that 24 hours without disabling it.

Whether any of that really matters might depend on your usage, though. Our Pixel Watch testing discovered that 24-hour number was about right, even with the always-on display enabled. Turning it off didn’t make a huge difference to the numbers, either.