How Google arrived at Pixel Watch 3’s 24-hour battery life and 36-hour Battery Saver

Like last year, Google is still touting 24 hours of battery life on the Pixel Watch 3, and this is how it arrived at that figure.

Google is not differentiating between the 41mm (307 mAh) and 45mm (420 mAh) models, though we’ve found the latter to be much better than the specs sheet advertises. The tested usage profile is unchanged from last year:

• 240 notifications
• 280 time checks
• 5 minutes of LTE phone call
• 45 minutes of LTE and GPS workout with downloaded YouTube music playback
• 50 minutes of navigation (Google Maps) while connected to a phone via Bluetooth
• (For Pixel Watch 2 & 3) 7 hours sleep with Bedtime mode
• (For Pixel Watch 2 & 3) Always-on display turned on

The Actua display is more efficient by going down to 1 nit minimum brightness on the always-on display and there’s a 1 Hz refresh rate, while Wear OS 5 also plays a role.

• Related: The Pixel Watch 3 is using its battery for more features, like Loss of Pulse Detection

What’s new with the Pixel Watch 3 is Google touting that the Battery Saver mode (from 100%) will get you “up to 36 hours based on the following usage”:

• 60 mins On-demand connectivity 
• 240 Notifications
• 280 Time checks
• 5 mins LTE Call
• 60 mins Workout GPS (no music)
• Always-on Display set to Off

Notably, tilt-to-wake now remains enabled in this mode, which is aimed at long weekend usage when you don’t have a charger available. Compared to the Apple Watch, the Pixel Watch does not have a good accessory ecosystem around power. 

More on Pixel Watch 3:

• Google posts Pixel Watch 3 ‘solios’ & ‘seluna’ factory images
• Pixel Watch 3 (41mm) review: Just enough screen, more than enough Fitbit 
• Google sticking to three years of Wear OS updates on Pixel Watch 3