Last year I picked up a used Pixel Watch 2 LTE for $70 from Amazon and honestly never took it seriously for sports tracking. Always assumed it was the budget option and probably inaccurate, especially for swimming. There were even a few posts floating around saying you shouldn’t swim with it at all because it could break under water. So I kept using my Apple Watch for workouts and just wore the Pixel for everything else.
Last Monday I finally decided to test it. Wore both watches for the same pool session and logged everything.
The session: 1,000yd freestyle, 25yd pool, ~27 minutes
What they agreed on:
Duration: Pixel 26:48 / Apple 26:41 — basically identical
Distance: Pixel 0.91km (≈995yd) / Apple 1,000yd — nearly spot on
Lap count: Both got 40 lengths
Heart rate: Pixel 124 bpm avg / Apple 125 bpm avg — 1 bpm off
Where they diverged:
Calories: Pixel logged 165 cal, Apple logged 302 active / 350 total. Almost double. Both had the same biometric data so this is purely algorithmic. Apple factors in resting metabolism more aggressively from what I understand.
Effort scoring: Pixel gave a cardio load of 24 with 31 active zone minutes. Apple rated it Moderate (5/10). Different scales but same conclusion.
My takeaway: I was wrong about the Pixel Watch. For swimming at least, it tracks distance, laps, and HR just as well as the Apple Watch. The calorie gap is real but that’s a methodology difference, not an accuracy issue. As long as you’re not mixing data from both watches, either one works fine.