Google Pixel Watch 3 vs. Samsung Galaxy Watch 7: Which Android Watch Is Best? (2024)

Samsung used to be the biggest name in Android smartwatches, but Google is giving it some serious competition. The Google Pixel Watch 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 share an operating system, Google's Wear OS, and both work with Android phones of any brand, but there are some big differences between them. We're here to break them down for you.

Full Specs

Compatibility: Exclusive to Android

To start, both watches must be paired with an Android smartphone, so look elsewhere if you’re an iPhone user. Specifically, the Pixel Watch 3 works with Android 10 and later and the Galaxy Watch 7 works with Android 11 and later. In other words, if you have a newer Android phone, you have the freedom to go with either model.

It's important to note that both watches restrict some features to first-party phones. With the Galaxy Watch 7, you need a Samsung phone for many of its best features, including AI-based health insights, gesture controls, and snoring detection. For the Pixel Watch 3, having a Pixel phone lets you snap pictures from your watch and set up automatic call screening.

Winner: Pixel Watch 3

Size: The Pixel Watch Is a Bit Bigger

The Pixel Watch 3 comes in 41mm and 45mm sizes, while the Galaxy Watch 7 comes in 44mm and 40mm variants.

The two sizes of the Pixel Watch 3 (Credit: Eric Zeman)

The Pixel Watch 3 is thicker than the Galaxy Watch 7, at 0.48 inches compared with 0.38 inches, respectively. The Pixel Watch 3 is slightly heavier as well, with its smaller version weighing about 1.1 ounces versus 1.0 ounces for the small Galaxy Watch 7. For the larger models, you'll carry 1.3 ounces of heft with the Pixel Watch 3 versus 1.2 ounces for the Galaxy Watch 7. Given that both Pixel Watch 3 models are slightly bigger than their Galaxy Watch 7 counterparts, the slight weight discrepancy makes sense. If you like a substantial watch, the Pixel is a better choice, but if you optimize for comfort, you might prefer the Galaxy.

Winner: Tie

Price: The Pixel Watch Is Pricier

The Galaxy Watch 7 starts at $299.99, and the Pixel Watch 3 starts at $349.99. In both cases, that starter cost is for the smaller, Bluetooth-only version. The bigger Galaxy Watch 7 comes with a $30 price bump, while the larger Pixel Watch 3 is an extra $50. Jumping to an LTE model on the Galaxy Watch 7 costs another $50, but Google’s premium is again more expensive, as LTE models of the Pixel Watch 3 are an extra $100.

Winner: Galaxy Watch 7

Screen: The Galaxy Watch 7 Has Less Bezel

Brighter Pixel Watch 3 screen (Credit: Eric Zeman)

One of the Pixel Watch 3's big upgrades from the last generation is a much brighter screen. It doubles the brightness of its predecessor with the ability to output up to 2,000 nits. That extra brightness helps it catch up to Samsung, as the company’s smartwatches hit 2,000 nits last generation and stayed there for the Galaxy Watch 7.

With a narrower bezel (the black inactive border around the display) compared with its predecessor, the Pixel Watch 3 offers more screen real estate than the Pixel Watch 2, even on the smaller model. The bezel is still thicker than its counterpart on the Galaxy Watch 7, however, because the Pixel Watch 3 has a slightly bigger case but nearly the same size screen. The display on the small and large versions of both the Pixel Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch 7 are about 1.3 inches and 1.5 inches, respectively.

Both have AMOLED displays, and they should look about the same, but the screen on the Galaxy Watch 7 is technically slightly sharper with 327 pixels per inch (ppi) on the large model and 330ppi on the small. The Pixel Watch 3 has 320ppi on both sizes.

Winner: Galaxy Watch 7

Durability: The Galaxy Watch 7 Adds a Military Spec

The Pixel Watch 3 is made of 100% recycled aluminum. It has an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance and a 5ATM water pressure rating, meaning it can withstand submersion in calm water up to 164 feet deep.

The Galaxy Watch 7 is also made of aluminum and matches the Pixel Watch 3's durability credentials. It also adds a MIL-STD-810H certification, meaning it can endure extreme temperatures and environmental stressors.

Winner: Galaxy Watch 7

Connectivity and Processor: Equally Stacked

The Pixel Watch 3 uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear 5100 processor with a Cortex M33 coprocessor and features 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The Galaxy Watch 7 has a five-core Exynos W1000 processor with 2GB memory and 32GB of storage.

The sensors on the Galaxy Watch 7 (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

Both support dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC for mobile payments, and optional LTE connectivity. They also have built-in GPS and run Google’s latest operating system for watches, Wear OS 5, which offers improved performance and power efficiency over the previous generation's software.

Winner: Tie

Battery Life: Both Require Daily Charging

The Pixel Watch 3 promises 24 hours of battery life with the always-on display enabled and up to 36 hours in Battery Saver mode. The smaller version has a 306mAh battery, matching its predecessor, while the 45mm version has a larger 420mAh cell.

Similarly, the Galaxy Watch 7 has a 300mAh battery in the 40mm model and a 425mAh cell in the larger 44mm model. In testing, the Galaxy Watch 7 only lasted 22 hours between charges with normal use and the always-on display enabled.

We haven’t verified Google's battery claims for the Pixel Watch 3 yet, but the Pixel Watch 2 exceeded its advertised 24-hour charge longevity, powering through 33 hours in our testing last year. While neither smartwatch is a battery champ, Google could get an edge here if the Pixel Watch 3 matches the Pixel Watch 2 in testing.

Winner: TBD

Health and Fitness Features: The Pixel Watch Is Catching Up

Both the Pixel Watch 3 and the Galaxy Watch 7 have a wide range of sensors and features to track your activity and health while you’re awake and asleep. The main difference is that the Pixel Watch 3 uses Fitbit for fitness tracking, while the Galaxy Watch uses the Samsung Health platform.

The sensors on the Pixel Watch 3 (Credit: Eric Zeman)

When you're exercising, both smartwatches can track your heart rate and heart rate zones, among other metrics like your pace and distance for outdoor workouts. For running specifically, both go beyond the basics with robust training features like the ability to race your past times on the Galaxy Watch 7 and create custom workouts with various segments, heart rate targets, and pace guidance on the Pixel Watch 3.

Both track a wide range of metrics while you're sleeping, including duration, quality, and stages. However, the Galaxy Watch 7 has the edge here as it can detect both snoring and sleep apnea, though you need a nearby Samsung phone to enable the former.

Aside from tracking individual metrics, both offer holistic insights into your health as well. The Pixel Watch 3's overall readiness score takes into account your heart rate and sleep data to help you quickly gauge how hard to push yourself for the day, and its cardio load metric tracks your training over a rolling seven-day window to calculate if you’re under or overexerting yourself. It pairs those two metrics to present a target load to help you set a specific workout goal. With a $9.99 monthly Fitbit Premium subscription, the Pixel Watch 3 offers even more fitness tools like training sessions and daily run recommendations.

The Energy Score (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)

Similarly, the Galaxy Watch 7 offers a daily Energy Score, which encapsulates all of your tracked fitness and sleep metrics into a single number from 0 to 100 and delivers a personalized wellness tip to help you improve your energy level. I appreciated Samsung's Energy Score and wellness tips in testing, but it sounds like Google’s holistic health insights might be even more in-depth. They will need to be for the Pixel Watch 3 to topple the Galaxy Watch 7 in this category, as Samsung’s smartwatch still leads in terms of the breadth of metrics it tracks, including Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs, an indicator of metabolic health) and body composition measurements similar to those of a smart scale.

Winner: Galaxy Watch 7

Is the Galaxy Watch Still the Champ?

On paper, the Pixel Watch 3 will have trouble taking the Galaxy Watch 7 off its perch, given that Samsung's smartwatch costs less and does more. That said, if the Pixel Watch 3 performs well in our battery life tests and if its holistic health insights prove more helpful than Samsung's, it could surprise.

We'll be putting the Pixel Watch 3 to the test soon, so check back for our official review. In the meantime, check out our comparisons of the Pixel Watch 3 against the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Pixel Watch 2 to see how it stacks up against other competitors.