Pixel Watch 3 not using Wear OS hybrid interface for 100-hour battery life

Earlier this year, new Wear OS 4 devices started claiming up to 100 hours of use due to a new “hybrid interface.” According to a new leak, battery life on the Pixel Watch 3 will remain the same.

According to retail materials from Android Headlines, the 41 and 45 mm Pixel Watch 3 tout “24 hours of battery life with always-on display,” which is identical to the Pixel Watch 2.

However, the product comparison touts “Up to 36 hours with Battery Saver mode,” with last year’s wearable not making a similar claim. 

We should keep in mind that the PW3 has a significantly brighter screen at 2,000 nits peak brightness, while even the 41 mm model gets “10% more screen than the Pixel Watch 2. (On the 45 mm, it’s “40% more screen.”) The Pixel Watch 3 is expected to use the same Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 chipset. Elsewhere, Wear OS 5 includes power optimizations, and Google previously said “running a marathon consumes up to 20% less power” compared to Wear OS 4.

The Wear OS hybrid interface uses an application processor (AP) and microcontroller unit (MCU) for a dual-chipset architecture. As a result, Google touted “fundamental design changes to the platform” that improve performance and power. More tasks can be offloaded to the lower-power MCU, including viewing the watch face and Tiles, sensor data processing, and bridged notifications from your phone, as well as triaging alerts and quick replies.

That said, the Pixel Watch has used a co-processor from the beginning for per second heart rate measurements. 

Meanwhile, there’s “20% faster charging” when comparing the 41 mm PW2 and PW3. This “Charging speed [is] based on testing with fully drained device batteries,” with the USB-C charging cable with contact pins is unchanged from last year.