The original Google Pixel Watch had several shortcomings with bad battery life and underbaked fitness features our main complaints when we reviewed it a year ago. Thankfully, Google has bounced back and the Pixel Watch 2 is a much better smartwatch – even if you’d have a hard time telling them apart at first glance.

We’ve had the Pixel Watch 2 strapped to our wrist for two weeks and we are impressed. The watch lasts a day on a charge (table stakes for smartwatches), has slicker software, more health and fitness features, and is altogether a more rounded product.

• Subtle circular build
• One size only
• Bright, if small, screen

The Pixel Watch 2 has a delightful circular design that can masquerade as a regular watch thanks to a slim build that sits quite close to the wrist for a smartwatch, and a rotating crown button borrowed from classic watch design. Unlike rival watches such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, it only comes in one size, which is rather small – we prefer this to a wrist-dwarfing option though.

The original Pixel Watch was made from heavy but premium stainless steel, whereas this new model is aluminium. This makes it lighter and more comfortable to wear all day and night to take advantage of its sleep tracking smarts – without the silicone band the watch itself is a feathery 31 grams even with sturdy Gorilla Glass 5 protection from scratches and cracks.

As well as the crown there’s another button on the right hand edge, otherwise all input is done via the responsive 1.2-inch touchscreen. We found it big enough to easily read all text without boosting up the font size, but you can do that if you need. Because the screen is circular, if you are scrolling through a long text message or email then text naturally gets cut off at the top and bottom – not an issue on a rectangular smartwatch display.

It’s a shame there’s a thick black bezel around the outside of the screen that keeps it from reaching closer to the edges of the watch case, and we hope Google can push the boundaries to fit more information in on a future version, but because the software is mostly on a black background we mostly forgot the bezel was there because it blends in well.

Colours look great and pop on the bright screen, which you can set to be ‘always-on’ so the time and basic information is always there rather than the screen being black, but this does use more battery.

• Fitbit health tracking
• Requires subscription for full use
• Built-in GPS

The Pixel Watch 2’s health and fitness features are Fitbit branded because Google acquired Fitbit recently. It means you have to download the Fitbit app to view all your health data, and use the Pixel Watch app to control everything else.

We found walk and run tracking with the in-built GPS accurate and reliable, and it doesn’t take too long for the watch to grab onto a signal. It means you can go running without your phone and still track your route.

The wearable packs in a heart rate sensor along with ECG capabilities for detecting irregular heart rhythms, blood oxygen monitoring, and a skin temperature sensor – a few of these are gained from the Fitbit Sense 2, and means the Pixel Watch 2 can detect changes in skin temperature related to stress and other emotions. It’ll ping your wrist a little after it detects a ‘body response’ to ask you to log your mood. We found these notifications a little annoying, but it’s a good way to help track your mental health.

Wear the watch at night and it tracks your sleep, with the data viewed best in the Fitbit phone app alongside all your other metrics. If you pay for Fitbit Premium, it tells your what kind of animal you’re most like when sleeping and other interesting ways to delve into data – but you have to pay £7.99 per month for a Fitbit Premium subscription, which is a little galling when you’ve just forked out at least £349 for the watch. You do get six months free trial when you buy.

• Google Wear OS 4
• Intuitive navigation
• Only YouTube Music song downloads

Running the latest Google Wear OS 4 software means the Pixel Watch 2 is on the cutting edge of wearable tech. It’s compatible with any Android phone running Android 9 or newer, but it doesn’t work with iPhones.

The software here is excellent with thoughtful layout and intuitive navigation despite the small screen as you flick left and right through ‘tiles’ of information on weather, your calendar, heart rate, Fitbit workouts, and more besides – it’s all customisable via the app.

More than anything, the Pixel Watch 2’s software just feels fun. It’s light, has interesting aesthetics, and just feels relaxed. That might sound werid, but often Android can feel nerdy and inaccessible – not so here. It’s inviting to use. 

There are also tons of excellent watch faces to pick and customise, with data-heavy readouts that mimic mechanical watches down to the most basic digital watch displays imaginable. It means we could easily flick between preset watch faces depending on the day, our outfit, or mood.

There are limitations though, such as only being able to download music to the watch to listen to on a run with Bluetooth headphones via YouTube Music – which is owned by Google. Spotify users are out of luck, though there is a Spotify app to control the music playing from your phone. Third party app support is improving on WearOS, and we used the Pocket Casts podcast app alongside WhatsApp and the AllTrails hiking app with no issues.

Google hasn’t said how long it will keep the Pixel Watch 2 updated, but a report suggests it will only be three years – that’s much shorter than the seven years it is promising for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.

• Improved performance
• Just about one day of battery
• Fast charging

Google is using an updated processor in the Pixel Watch 2 and it shows, with much speedier operation compared to the first-generation model. Apps load quickly, software scrolls by smoothly, and – thank goodness – battery life is actually half decent now.

The first Pixel Watch could barely limp to a day of battery, and we had to turn the always-on mode off to get it there. Thankfully that’s not an issue now, and the Pixel Watch 2 lasts into a second day on a full charge – just. This is still a watch you’ll want to charge up every day, but charging is faster now with the strongly magnetic charger which can charge empty to full in 75 minutes.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 costs from £349 for the Bluetooth/Wi-Fi model. You can buy it from Google, Currys, , and Argos.

A version with 4G LTE costs £399, where you can pay extra for the watch to keep its data and call connection even when you don’t have your phone with you. This costs extra, and in the UK only works with EE and Vodafone.

The Google Pixel Watch 2 is one of the best Android smartwatches you can buy, and our personal favourite because it’s a little playful. Tech can be so serious these days, and Google hardware feels fun. That said, you might be tempted by the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 or Watch 6 Classic if you have a Samsung phone – and the latter beats the Pixel Watch 2 for battery life.

If you’re a Pixel phone person or have another brand of Android then the Pixel Watch 2 excels with all-day battery (even if it should be better than that), a lovely circular pebble-like design, great Wear OS software, and capable fitness tracking with tons of high-end sensors.

It’s a shame Google insists on making you pay for Fitbit Premium to truly get the most out of the Pixel Watch 2, though. We really like the workout, sleep, and stress tracking the watch provides, so you will definitely want to take this into account. But in a market without many great alternatives, the Pixel Watch 2 gets our vote for the best Android smartwatch available.