All the ways Google’s Pixel Watch saves power and extends battery life

Abner Li | Oct 8 2022 - 5:45 am PT

The Pixel Watch has a 294 mAh (typical) battery that’s officially rated for “up to 24 hours,” with Google employing a number of software features to save battery life.

To protect and “extend battery life,” the Pixel Watch will pause charging if the Wear OS device “stays plugged into its charger for 4 days or longer.” This is called Battery Defender and one sign – besides a notification that appears when “waking or picking up the Google Pixel Watch from the charger” – is that your wearable “remains at 80% or less.”

To continue charging further than 80%, remove the watch from the charger and then place it back.

Meanwhile, the Pixel Watch has a handful of “modes” to save battery/power. If you don’t wear or charge the Pixel Watch “and it’s inactive for 10 minutes,” Full Doze Mode will turn off the display and disable all modem radios: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and LTE. Google notes that “your watch will have no network access,” which means Find My Device will not show an updated location. Additionally, it is “not available on Google Pixel Watch LTE with Verizon plan activated.”

Full Doze Mode will turn off when you wear your watch on your wrist or when you interact with your watch.

Using your watch, like during an active phone call, will pause the doze timer.

The others can be controlled by users, starting with Mobile Mode on the LTE Pixel Watch. There are two options (Settings app > Connectivity > Mobile > Mobile) that Google’s support article says to consider if your device is “losing charge too quickly when connected to the network.”

Automatic: Only connect to cellular radio when there is no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity.
Off: Completely turn off the cellular radio.

There’s also Bedtime mode “for less battery drainage and minimal interruptions overnight when you wear the watch for sleep tracking,” while Battery saver disables the Always-on screen and Tilt-to-wake.

Note: Your watch will come with the Tilt-to-wake feature set to Off.

“For the most power-efficient location,” users are advised to enable Google Location Accuracy: Settings > Location > Google Location Accuracy > turn on Improve location accuracy. The company also says Screen timeout (how long before the display turns off) can be shortened.