Zepp OS 6 rollout continues

Earlier this month, the Active 3 Premium received its Zepp OS 6 update. That release brought additional workout features including FTMS rowing support, manual rest for swimming, permanent touchscreen locking during workouts and map improvements.

Zepp OS 6 itself introduces a wider collection of changes, including Multi-Device Activity Sync, an expanded Daily Briefing and more tools for structured training. Not every feature necessarily reaches every watch, so the exact Active Max package may differ from newer devices that shipped with Zepp OS 6 from day one.

The upgrade continues a steady stream of additions for the Active Max since its launch. Previous updates have already expanded its training capabilities, including the arrival of lactate threshold tracking.

The Active Max was already a well-equipped watch for its price, with a 1.5-inch AMOLED display, offline maps, onboard storage and more than 170 sports modes. As we found in our review, battery life and the overall fitness package are among its stronger points.

Zepp OS 6 does not completely transform that formula. Instead, it brings the software underneath it up to date and adds some of the training tools Zepp Health has been introducing across its newer lineup.

Training Library arrives on Active Max

Another addition, this time around, is something called Training Library. It appears near the top of the workout section. This gives users easier access to structured training content directly from the watch rather than relying as heavily on the Zepp app.

Training Library is part of Zepp Health’s broader push towards more structured training in Zepp OS 6. The platform also supports Training Calendar and improved handling of planned workouts, bringing Amazfit’s software closer to the approach used on its newer watches.

Don’t expect the Active Max to suddenly look like a completely different device, though. The basic navigation remains familiar, including the existing swipe gestures and functions assigned to its two physical buttons.

As usual, the firmware appears to be rolling out in stages. So if Zepp OS 6 has not appeared on your Active Max yet, that does not necessarily mean anything is wrong. With the rollout now underway, availability should broaden from here.

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A Reddit user spotted the wearable. The tracker appears among Pixel phones, Pixel Watch 5 and Pixel Buds, with Google telling buyers to “Make it a matching set.”

There is just one slight problem. Google doesn’t currently sell the fitness tracker shown in the picture.

This doesn’t look like any current Fitbit

The mystery device has a rounded rectangular display sitting inside an equally rounded case. One of Google’s images shows it with a green band and another with a much lighter strap, but the tracker itself looks consistent between the two ads. Its screen also appears to show the time alongside several small circular complications.

That immediately rules out the Fitbit Air. Google’s newest Fitbit is deliberately screenless, with the small sensor pod sitting inside a band and all of the detailed interaction taking place through the Google Health app.

It doesn’t look much like the Fitbit Charge 6 either. The proportions, corner radius and overall shape are different. Inspire 3 is an even less convincing match because its display and body are considerably narrower.

We’ve created a concept image based on these product shots.

Charge 7 is the obvious candidate

We’ve been waiting an awfully long time for a successor to Charge 6. That tracker arrived in 2023, and earlier this year we looked at whether Fitbit Charge 7 could finally arrive. At the time there were no credible leaks, only the increasingly obvious fact that Google’s most capable conventional Fitbit tracker was getting old.

Google has since given Fitbit a fresh start with Air and the new Google Health ecosystem. The company had previously indicated that new Fitbit hardware would arrive in 2026, although Fitbit Air has already fulfilled that promise to some extent.

A redesigned Charge would still make plenty of sense alongside it. Air covers people who want passive, screenless tracking, while Charge 6 remains the better option if you actually want to see workout stats, notifications and other information on your wrist. There is plenty of room in Google’s lineup for both approaches.

The device in these ads also looks much closer to what a modernised Charge could become. The display appears larger and more rounded than Charge 6, but it remains clearly smaller and simpler than the full Pixel Watch 5. That middle ground has always been the Charge series’ natural territory.

There is another possibility. Google could be preparing a cheaper Pixel Watch A-series device rather than another Fitbit. The prominent “Google Pixel” branding around the campaign gives that theory something to work with, although there is currently no solid evidence of an A-series Pixel Watch.

Then there is the less exciting explanation that Google’s marketing team simply created a fictional wearable. AI-generated or heavily manipulated advertising imagery can produce strange hardware. But all the other devices in the images are genuine.

Also, seeing essentially the same unknown tracker in multiple campaign images makes that explanation a little less satisfying. It still doesn’t prove we’re looking at real hardware, since several ads could have been generated from the same source artwork, but this is now worth watching.

For the moment, calling it Fitbit Charge 7 would be premature. What we can say is that Google is advertising the Pixel 11 alongside a screen-equipped wearable that does not appear to match anything it currently sells, and if this was an accidental preview of Google’s next Fitbit, somebody in the advertising department may have pressed publish a little too early.

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The Watch GT 6 and GT 6 Pro launched in September 2025, while Huawei unveiled the Watch GT 7 and GT 7 Pro in China in August 2026. For now the new generation remains China-only, and the company has yet to announce a global release date or international pricing.

Huawei Watch GT 7 and GT 7 Pro vs GT 6 and GT 6 Pro at a glance

Let’s start off with the most important specs and some of the main differences between the four watches. There is a lot of overlap as can be seen from the table below.

Our full four-way technical comparison goes considerably deeper if you want to compare every sensor and feature. The more interesting question here is which of those differences you would actually notice.

The hardware is remarkably familiar

Start with the regular watches and things are not that different. The 46mm GT 7 has exactly the same 46 x 46 x 10.95mm dimensions and 51.3g weight as the 46mm GT 6, while the smaller versions are both 41.3 x 41.3 x 9.99mm and weigh 37.5g.

The displays have not moved either. Both generations offer a 1.47-inch 466 x 466 AMOLED on the larger watch and a 1.32-inch panel on the smaller one, with peak brightness staying at 3,000 nits. You still get 5 ATM and IP69 water resistance, wireless charging, dual-band GNSS, NFC, a microphone and speaker.

It is much the same story with GT 7 Pro. Its 45.6 x 45.6 x 11.25mm case is identical in size to GT 6 Pro, and the weight has actually crept up slightly from 54.7g to 55.5g. The titanium case, ceramic rear and sapphire glass all carry over, as does the 1.47-inch 466 x 466 AMOLED display with its 3,000-nit peak brightness.

The sensor package is also virtually unchanged. Heart rate, SpO2, skin temperature and ECG return on GT 7 Pro, along with the depth sensor and freediving support to 40 metres. Speakers, microphones, NFC, GPS and Bluetooth 6.0 are present again too.

There are a couple of visible changes. Alongside black, Huawei now offers GT 7 Pro versions that combine a silver case with either green or yellow accents, while the included wristband has been redesigned to improve comfort. That is about the extent of the physical refresh.

Anyone expecting Huawei to bring across the side-mounted X-Tap sensor from the Huawei Watch 5 will also be disappointed. Neither GT 7 model gets it, so Huawei is still keeping a fairly clear hardware distinction between the mainstream GT range and its more expensive Watch series.

Battery life stays the same until you start using GPS

Huawei made a much bigger battery leap with GT 6, when it introduced its high-silicon stacked cells and pushed the larger watches to as much as 21 days. GT 7 keeps those same headline figures, with up to 21 days from the larger models and 14 days from the 41mm watch.

GT 7 Pro makes the similarities particularly obvious. Huawei quotes up to 21 days with light use, around 12 days with regular use and seven days with the always-on display enabled, essentially matching its predecessor. So there is no big jump in day-to-day endurance this time.

The useful improvement comes during long outdoor sessions. Huawei now quotes up to 51 hours for the larger GT 7 watches and 32 hours for the 41mm version, compared with 40 hours of outdoor sport tracking on the equivalent GT 6 models.

That will not make much difference to someone recording an hour-long run. But it becomes more useful for ultras, long hikes and other activities where GPS stays active for most of a day or longer.

Sports software is where GT 7 starts to pull away

GT 6 already made a pretty substantial move towards serious sports tracking, particularly for cycling. It introduced wrist-based virtual cycling power, route support and a much bigger collection of cycling metrics, while also improving trail running, golf and skiing.

GT 7 builds on that. Native running power joins vertical oscillation and left-right ground contact balance, while cycling adds climb planning, elevation profiles and sharp-turn warnings. Huawei has also upgraded its Sunflower positioning system and added AI-XDR inertial navigation.

GT 7 Pro gets a new Pro Ski mode that records extra data such as maximum G-force and can show routes to ski slopes. Running, cycling and golf have also been expanded, which reinforces the feeling that Huawei spent most of its effort improving what the watch can do with the hardware already inside it.

Golf gets one of the bigger updates on GT 7 Pro, with more than 17,000 course maps, slope compensation, movable pin positioning and rotatable green views. These are specialised additions, but for people who use the watch heavily for sport they are more meaningful than another small case redesign would have been.

Health tracking gets more interpretation rather than more sensors

There is a similar pattern on the health side. Heart rate, HRV, SpO2, temperature, stress and the other core sensors were already present on GT 6, while ECG and arterial stiffness detection remain advantages of the Pro versions. GT 7 is not introducing a dramatically different sensor platform.

Instead, Huawei is putting more emphasis on what it does with the data. GT 7 adds TruSleep 5.0 and a new body readiness assessment, while Huawei has also introduced a high blood sugar risk assessment on both GT 7 models. This is not glucose monitoring, and the watches do not directly measure blood sugar.

GT 7 Pro is the hardest upgrade to justify

If you already own a GT 6 Pro, the reasons to move to GT 7 Pro are surprisingly limited. The titanium case, ceramic rear, sapphire glass, display, core health sensors, ECG, depth sensing, 40-metre freediving support and everyday battery figures are all essentially carried over. Even the dimensions are identical, while GT 7 Pro is fractionally heavier.

The new colour combinations and redesigned strap give GT 7 Pro a slightly different look, but most of the meaningful changes live in the software. Longer GPS endurance, TruSleep 5.0, readiness analysis, high blood sugar risk assessment and the expanded running, cycling, golf and Pro Ski tools are the real upgrades.

Those changes make GT 7 Pro the better watch on paper, particularly if you make heavy use of its sports features. But there is very little here that suddenly makes GT 6 Pro feel outdated, and upgrading from one to the other will be difficult to justify for most owners.

The standard GT 7 makes a slightly stronger case because some of those software additions arrive at a lower point in the range. Even there, though, GT 6 owners are looking at refinement rather than a completely different watch.

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Amazon has discounted four of Fitbit’s familiar wearables, with the Charge 6 looking like the strongest buy of the bunch right now. Sense 2, Versa 4 and Inspire 3 are also reduced, while the newer Fitbit Air is sitting this one out.

Fitbit’s lineup is in a slightly strange place in 2026. The new screenless Fitbit Air has changed what a Fitbit can look like, but Google is still selling the Charge 6, Inspire 3, Versa 4 and Sense 2 alongside it, giving buyers a much wider choice than the current product cycle would suggest.

That gets more interesting once Amazon discounts enter the picture. Some of these older models still offer considerably more hardware than Air, and the current gap is small enough that anyone who does not specifically want a screenless tracker should look at the established Fitbit range before deciding.

Fitbit Charge 6

The Charge 6 is the standout deal for me. It already occupies a useful middle ground between a basic fitness band and a smartwatch, and the current discount makes that position even stronger.

You get an AMOLED display, built-in GPS, ECG readings, EDA stress measurements, Google Wallet and Google Maps, while battery life can stretch to around seven days. It also has heart rate broadcasting for compatible gym equipment, which gives it a useful workout feature that cheaper Fitbit bands lack.

The comparison with Fitbit Air is particularly interesting. I looked at Fitbit Air vs Charge 6 when Air launched, and the basic trade-off has not changed: Air is smaller and deliberately passive, while Charge 6 gives you far more control from the wrist.

That makes Charge 6 the safer all-round recommendation unless the lack of a screen is actually one of the features you want. It can handle everyday health tracking without giving up proper workout controls, GPS or on-device information, and the discount makes that package harder to overlook.

Fitbit Sense 2

Sense 2 remains the model to look at if you want Fitbit’s health tracking in a larger watch format. It combines ECG with continuous electrodermal activity sensing for stress, along with built-in GPS, skin temperature tracking and the broader collection of health metrics you would expect from Fitbit’s top-end watch.

The AMOLED display also gives you much more room than Charge 6 for checking stats and interacting with the device during the day. You get a microphone and speaker too, so it behaves more like a traditional smartwatch rather than a fitness band with a screen.

The question is whether you actually need the bigger format. Our Sense 2 vs Versa 4 vs Charge 6 comparison goes through the hardware differences in more detail, and Charge 6 covers a surprising amount of the same health territory in a smaller package.

Sense 2 therefore makes most sense for someone who prefers wearing a watch and wants Fitbit’s broader health sensor package in that form. If size is not important, Charge 6 remains the more obvious value play.

Fitbit Versa 4

Versa 4 takes a slightly different route. It gives you the larger Fitbit smartwatch design without asking you to pay for all of the additional health hardware found on Sense 2.

You still get built-in GPS, a large AMOLED display, activity and sleep tracking, smartphone notifications and Alexa support on the wrist. What you lose are features such as ECG and the more advanced EDA stress hardware, which is worth remembering because Charge 6 actually includes both.

That leaves Versa 4 in an unusual spot. It is not really the health-feature choice and it is not the compact choice either, but it can still make sense if you simply prefer a larger display for workouts, notifications and everyday use.

I would therefore choose it based on form factor rather than the spec sheet. If you want something that looks and behaves more like a watch, Versa 4 has an argument; otherwise Charge 6 gives you a stronger mix of health features in a smaller body.

Fitbit Inspire 3

Inspire 3 is the simplest device here, and that is still a perfectly good reason to buy it. Not everyone needs ECG, built-in GPS or another miniature smartwatch strapped to their wrist.

You get a small AMOLED display, heart rate tracking, sleep tracking, activity monitoring and battery life that can stretch to around 10 days. It is also noticeably less intrusive than Sense 2 or Versa 4, which makes it easier to keep on overnight for sleep tracking.

There is no built-in GPS, ECG or EDA hardware, so this is not simply a cheaper Charge 6. Our Charge 6 vs Inspire 3 comparison shows how quickly the differences add up once you move beyond basic activity and sleep tracking.

But that simplicity can work in its favour. If you mainly want Fitbit’s app, sleep data and everyday activity tracking in something small with long battery life, Inspire 3 still covers the basics without much fuss.

What about Fitbit Air?

There is currently no qualifying Fitbit Air deal showing in our Deal Tracker, which makes the discounts on the older models more interesting. It is probably too early to be waiting on some kind of deal on Air. Perhaps in November for the end-year sales, but unlikely before then.

I have spent plenty of time with Air, and its main appeal is how little attention it demands. As I found in my Fitbit Air review, it is tiny, screenless and comfortable enough to disappear into the background while Google Health handles most of the experience.

That approach works if you want passive health and sleep tracking without another display competing for your attention. It is less convincing if you regularly check stats during workouts, want GPS on the device or prefer having health tools such as ECG immediately available from your wrist.

That is why Charge 6 is the model I would look at first while these discounts are running. Inspire 3 remains the straightforward option, Versa 4 and Sense 2 suit people who want the larger watch format, while Air still has the clearest case for anyone specifically looking for a screenless Fitbit.

You can also browse the full Fitbit lineup if you want to compare these models with older devices. The current range spans several very different form factors now, so choosing the right type of Fitbit is arguably more important than simply buying whichever one carries the biggest discount.

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The new features sit under Google’s Health Guardian umbrella, which arrived alongside the Pixel Watch 5. And they are due to arrive this Fall.

Your watch does not need a glucose sensor

Insulin Resistance Trends is probably the one worth flagging up first. No, there is no glucose sensor hidden inside Pixel Watch 5. And Google is not claiming that the watch can suddenly measure blood sugar.

Instead, the system looks across several weeks of existing health data and searches for patterns associated with insulin resistance. That includes signals such as heart rate, HRV, SpO2, movement, sleep and skin temperature, giving Google a wider picture than it could get from one metric alone.

The technology behind that is Google’s SensorFM foundation model, which was trained using more than one trillion minutes of wearable data from five million consenting users across more than 100 countries. It has learned from data collected across more than 20 Fitbit and Pixel Watch models, which gives Google a fairly enormous base to work from.

There is also proper research behind the idea rather than this appearing out of nowhere at the Pixel Watch 5 launch. A Google-led study involving 1,165 people found that wearable data could improve machine-learning models designed to identify insulin resistance, although the research model and the consumer Health Guardian feature are not exactly the same thing.

Now make no mistake. Insulin Resistance Trends will not diagnose diabetes or tell you your glucose level. Think of it more as a warning light that something in your longer-term physiological pattern may have shifted enough to deserve a closer look.

Blood pressure takes a similar route

Blood Pressure Trends follows much the same philosophy. There is no inflatable cuff, and the watch does not suddenly produce a conventional systolic and diastolic reading such as 120/80.

Instead, Google analyses pulse and movement patterns over time and looks for signs that cardiovascular stress appears to be running persistently higher. If it notices a meaningful change, the idea is to encourage you to check your blood pressure properly.

That approach is quite different from the race to produce cuffless blood-pressure numbers that we have seen elsewhere in wearables. Google is asking a simpler question, which is whether the pattern has changed enough that you might want to investigate it.

The underlying research has already involved Pixel Watch hardware as well. One study used seven days of PPG and accelerometer data from Pixel Watch 3 devices and compared the resulting model against 24-hour ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring, so there is quite a bit going on behind what will look like a relatively simple trend inside the app.

Sleep breathing adds another piece

Sleep Breathing Quality brings the same longer-term thinking to overnight data. Google looks at how much of your sleep is spent with what it considers optimal breathing, then uses repeated nights to build a monthly picture rather than putting too much weight on one result.

This is not sleep-apnoea detection, and Google is not presenting it as a diagnostic tool. Once again, the point is to notice changes in your normal pattern that might otherwise disappear among dozens of nightly health metrics.

Health Guardian also includes Breathing Emergency Detection on supported Pixel Watches, although that feature works rather differently. It looks for a persistent and critical drop in oxygen saturation and can contact emergency services if the wearer becomes unresponsive in supported markets.

This goes well beyond Pixel Watch 5

Google says the technology is coming to other Pixel Watch and Fitbit Air devices rather than being locked to Pixel Watch 5. More specifically, Blood Pressure Trends is coming to Pixel Watch 3, Pixel Watch 4 and Pixel Watch 5 this fall, while Insulin Resistance Trends is coming more widely across Pixel Watch and Fitbit devices. Both are app-based features.

That fits particularly well with what Google has been doing with Fitbit Air. The hardware itself is deliberately simple, while more of the interesting work happens inside Google Health where data from several sensors gets combined and interpreted in the background.

We have already seen a version of that philosophy with Fitbit Air’s AFib detection. Health Guardian pushes the idea further because Google is now trying to infer health changes that the wearable does not directly measure at all.

The next health upgrade may be software

For years, adding a new health feature to a wearable usually meant adding another sensor. Google is showing another route, where better models squeeze more information from heart rate, HRV, sleep, SpO2, temperature and movement data that millions of devices are already collecting.

There are obvious limits to that approach, because software cannot magically turn a Pixel Watch into a glucose monitor or a proper blood-pressure cuff. But if the models can reliably identify when something has changed, that information could still be useful even without producing a traditional measurement.

Sources: Google Health, Google Research, Nature, DC Rainmaker

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Google officially unveiled Pixel Watch 5 on August 12, with pre-orders opening immediately and general availability starting August 20. Prices start at $399 for the 41mm Wi-Fi model and $429 for the 45mm version, while the Stephen Curry Special Edition costs $579 and arrives on September 3.

Pixel Watch 5 vs Pixel Watch 4 differences

The physical design barely changes, so this is not a generational update you will spot from across the room. Google has instead concentrated most of its work underneath the glass and inside the software, while carrying across the extensive health, safety and smartwatch feature set already available on Pixel Watch 4.

The important thing here is that Pixel Watch 5 does not lose the capabilities of Pixel Watch 4. Features such as ECG, SpO2, cEDA sensing, skin temperature, heart-rate tracking, Daily Readiness, Cardio Load, Loss of Pulse Detection, Satellite SOS, NFC, UWB, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 6 all carry across.

The hardware upgrade is mostly on the inside

The external hardware is almost unchanged. Pixel Watch 5 keeps the same 41mm and 45mm aluminium cases, the same 12.3mm thickness, the same 31g and 36.7g case weights, and the same 3,000-nit Actua 360 AMOLED LTPO displays protected by Gorilla Glass 5.

The processor is more interesting. Google calls the new version Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 Accelerated, still paired with a Cortex-M55 coprocessor, and says it delivers a 12% CPU performance increase. Together with the memory changes, Google claims Pixel Watch 5 feels around 20% faster overall.

RAM rises from 2GB to 3GB, which is a 50% increase, while storage doubles from 32GB to 64GB. That extra RAM makes more sense now that Google has explained how much more AI processing it wants the watch to perform locally rather than treating the upgrade as merely a bigger number on the spec sheet.

Battery capacities also edge upwards. The 41mm watch moves from 325mAh to 332mAh and the 45mm from 455mAh to 465mAh, although Google has not used that additional capacity to increase its official endurance figures.

The 41mm model remains rated for up to 30 hours with the always-on display and 48 hours in Battery Saver mode. The 45mm remains at 40 and 72 hours respectively, while charging times are also essentially unchanged from Pixel Watch 4.

GPS is the most interesting Pixel Watch 5 upgrade

This is where the comparison changes significantly from what we knew before launch. Pixel Watch 4 already had dual-frequency GPS, but Pixel Watch 5 adds a substantial post-processing system designed to clean up difficult GPS tracks after the workout has been recorded.

Google combines satellite information with 3D building and terrain models derived from its mapping data. It can therefore work out whether a satellite should actually have been visible from a particular location and identify signals that probably bounced off buildings rather than travelling directly to the watch.

The system also uses a global network of reference stations to compensate for atmospheric conditions. That information is combined with accelerometer, gyroscope and other sensor data when Google processes the completed GPS track.

This is an important distinction because the watch is not simply snapping your route onto a nearby road or footpath. The processing happens after the activity and attempts to reconstruct a more accurate position from the underlying satellite data, environmental models and sensor information.

Google claims twice the route accuracy of previous generations in difficult conditions and says Pixel Watch 5 outperformed both Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Garmin Fenix 8 Pro in its testing. Early independent testing in New York also produced some remarkably clean tracks, particularly among tall buildings where multipath errors normally cause even good sports watches problems, although the system was not perfect everywhere.

Strength training gets much more serious

Google has also given strength training considerably more attention this year. Pixel Watch 5 introduces guided strength workouts with step-by-step instructions, set and rest-period guidance, plus the ability to record weights and repetitions directly from the wrist.

Workouts can be built manually inside the Google Health app, including individual exercises, reps, weight and timing. Google Health Coach can also generate a strength routine around a particular goal, while audio cues and rest timers help move the session along without repeatedly reaching for the phone.

Google Health Coach goes further by combining recovery information such as sleep and HRV with other contextual data to make adaptive training suggestions. Some of the more advanced Health Coach functions require a Google Health Premium subscription, so this should not be confused with the basic workout tracking that comes with the watch.

Sleep tracking gets several upgrades

Sleep tracking also moves forward. Google says its latest sleep-stage algorithm is 15% more accurate than the previous generation, based on validation against clinical reference measurements.

Pixel Watch 5 adds Smart Wake, which looks at heart rate, movement and sleep stage during the 30 minutes before an alarm and tries to wake you during a lighter part of sleep. There is also a dedicated bedtime watch face and new Bedtime Automations that can pause music, podcasts or audiobooks and silence notifications once the watch detects that you have fallen asleep.

Google is also introducing Sleep Breathing Quality, which looks at changes in blood oxygen during sleep and builds longer-term breathing trends. It is a wellness feature rather than a sleep-apnoea diagnosis, and Google explicitly says it does not provide a real-time clinical reading.

Health Guardian adds another safety layer

Health Guardian is Google’s umbrella name for a collection of health features, and the headline addition on Pixel Watch 5 is Breathing Emergency Detection. It uses data including PPG, the accelerometer and barometer to look for severe and persistent falls in oxygen saturation.

If the watch detects such an event and the wearer is unresponsive, it can automatically contact emergency services and transmit the person’s location. Google plans to introduce the feature first in Europe, and it has not received FDA clearance in the United States.

Google is also adding monthly Blood Pressure Trends, Insulin Resistance Trends and Sleep Breathing Quality summaries. These use sensor data and machine-learning models to look for longer-term patterns rather than directly measuring blood pressure, insulin or glucose, and the first detailed reports require around a month of data.

Not all of these features should be treated as Pixel Watch 5 exclusives. Google says some of the monthly Health Guardian summaries will roll out across more of its wearable portfolio, while separate information indicates Blood Pressure Trends will reach Pixel Watch 3 and Pixel Watch 4 as well.

Loss of Pulse Detection is another feature Google is highlighting alongside Pixel Watch 5, but it is not new. Pixel Watch 4 already supports Loss of Pulse Detection and Satellite SOS, so neither belongs in the Watch 5-only column.

Gemini becomes more proactive

Gemini was already available on Pixel Watch 4, but Pixel Watch 5 has been designed around a more proactive version of it. At a Glance can automatically surface context-sensitive information such as boarding passes and remaining public transport stops without requiring the user to open another app.

Raise to Talk has also been reworked. Core actions can now execute locally with much lower latency and can work without an internet connection, while Gemini Intelligence Proactive Suggestions can turn information from services such as Calendar into suggested actions on the wrist.

Google has paired these suggestions with its one-handed gesture system. A double pinch can select, confirm or send some suggested actions, reducing the need to interact with the touchscreen.

There are cosmetic AI additions too. Pixel Watch 5 gets generative watch faces, two new conventional faces called Weave and Chronograph, and 11 new glanceable complication styles.

Same watch shape, different colours and bands

Google has kept the familiar Pixel Watch shape rather than redesigning the hardware again. The domed display, crown, side button, proprietary band attachment and side charging system all remain, which makes the Watch 5 look extremely similar to its predecessor.

The colour combinations are new. The 41mm model comes in Matte Black with Obsidian, Polished Silver with Fog, Satin Pyrite with Olive and Champagne Gold with Canyon, while the 45mm loses the Canyon option and comes in the other three combinations.

The supplied Active Band is now a second-generation version made from HNBR rather than the fluoroelastomer used for Pixel Watch 4. HNBR generally copes well with heat, sweat, oils and ageing, although the bigger question will be whether buyers actually notice much difference in comfort.

Google is also selling a 45mm LTE Stephen Curry Special Edition for $579. It pairs the Satin Pyrite case with a Rye Performance Loop band made from recycled polyester yarn, including a water-resistant coating and a raised inner pattern intended to improve airflow.

Is Pixel Watch 5 worth upgrading from Pixel Watch 4?

The answer is less obvious than it appeared from the leaks. If you only care about the physical watch, Pixel Watch 5 remains a modest update because the case, display, sensor package, battery-life claims, charging system and much of the connectivity hardware are essentially unchanged.

The GPS work changes the equation for runners, cyclists and anyone who regularly trains around tall buildings or difficult terrain. If Google’s post-processing continues to perform as well as the early testing suggests, that is a genuinely useful upgrade rather than another annual spec bump.

The extra RAM and storage also give Watch 5 more breathing room for Wear OS and increasingly ambitious Gemini features. Strength training has finally received the sort of structured workout support that Google has been missing, while Smart Wake, better sleep staging and the new bedtime tools broaden the health side considerably.

Pixel Watch 4 owners still have a good reason to wait before spending $399 or more, particularly because some of the new software features will not remain exclusive to Watch 5. But the finished Pixel Watch 5 is clearly more interesting than the leaked specification sheet made it look, and the new GPS system is the feature that most changes the comparison.

The post Google Pixel Watch 5 vs 4: GPS and health features change the equation appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

Boop is the latest example. The free iPhone app connects directly to compatible WHOOP 5.0 and WHOOP MG bands, processes selected measurements locally and sends information to Apple Health without requiring a WHOOP account.

It is not the first project of its kind. NOOP and OpenStrap also work with WHOOP bands, Cracked Oura provides a local dashboard for exported Oura information, and Gadgetbridge supports watches from Garmin, Amazfit, Xiaomi, Huawei and other brands.

The pitch is simple. You bought the hardware, so why should it become useless when a subscription ends or you stop using the official app?

Garmin is a good example of the gap

Garmin users already have plenty of ways to take their data elsewhere. GarminDB downloads and organises information from Garmin Connect, GoldenCheetah analyses imported FIT files, and Gadgetbridge can replace Garmin Connect as the companion app for some watches.

These tools can store workouts, produce charts and help users explore their own data. What they cannot reproduce is the complete Firstbeat system behind Body Battery, Training Readiness, Training Effect, Recovery Time and Garmin’s other physiological metrics.

Garmin Connect Essentials shows how tightly these features connect. Sleep Score, Body Battery, Training Readiness and HRV Status all draw on different measurements, personal baselines and previous days of data.

Even something such as Garmin Acute Load goes beyond adding up workout minutes. Garmin estimates EPOC for each activity and then weights recent training to work out how much load the user is carrying.

The number on the screen comes last

Third party apps and developers cannot replicate the multi-million dollar research these brands have put in on developing the algorithms. Sure, reading heart rate over Bluetooth is easy. But optical data contains movement noise, missed beats and false peaks, so software must clean the signal before it can calculate anything useful.

HRV adds another problem because the app needs reliable intervals between individual heartbeats. Sleep is harder again, since a wrist wearable must guess whether someone is awake, in light sleep, in deep sleep or in REM without directly measuring brain activity.

This is where smaller projects hit their limits. NOOP openly says its WHOOP metrics are approximations, while OpenStrap warns users not to expect the same results as the official WHOOP app.

Cracked Oura works slightly differently because it imports information that Oura has already processed. It can provide a better dashboard or extra analysis, but it is not rebuilding Oura’s sleep and readiness algorithms from raw ring signals.

The established brands have years of data to work with. Oura developed its newer sleep algorithm using more than 1,200 nights recorded alongside sleep-lab equipment, while Google used more than 3,000 human-scored nights when developing its latest Fitbit and Pixel Watch sleep system.

Of course, that does not mean the big brands always get it right. It’s an ongoing process.

Open alternatives are still useful

Apps such as Athlytic and Bevel show that a smaller developer can create useful analysis from data stored in Apple Health. The Amazfit Helio Strap’s HRV export allows these apps to calculate their own recovery scores using measurements collected by Zepp Health hardware.

Open-source projects also offer privacy and transparency that the major platforms often lack. Users can inspect the formulas, keep their information locally and continue using hardware after official support disappears.

But access to the data is not the same as recreating the product. These apps may replace the dashboard and read basic sensor data. The harder job is replacing the research and algorithms behind it the analysis.

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Zepp Health appears to be getting ready to launch its first solar-powered watch, and we may finally have a name for it. Multiple regulatory filings identify a new A2570 smartwatch, with the Malaysian registration going one step further and naming it the Amazfit T-Rex Dual Solar.

Three registrations point to the same watch

The trail starts in Indonesia (via Wearablefans), where A2570 appears in the country’s official Sertifikasi Indonesia database. The listing identifies the device as an AMAZFIT smartwatch manufactured in China. Its certificate number is 125183/DJID/2026, with PT GLOBALTAMA SUKSES MAKMUR shown as the applicant.

South Korea’s RRA database also contains A2570. The registration lists Anhui Huami Information Technology Co., Ltd. as the applicant and gives it the verification code RC-hM6-A2570. Certification was granted on August 4, 2026, with China and Vietnam listed as countries of manufacture.

Then comes the Malaysian filing, which gives away considerably more.

SIRIM lists model A2570 together with the marketing name T-REX DUAL SOLAR. The type approval code is RDCX/40N/0726/S(26-4227), with an approval date of August 3, 2026. COMSAT MOBILE COMMUNICATION SDN BHD is listed as the certificate holder.

We also spotted Model A2570 in the Eurasian Economic Union registry. Which adds another regulatory appearance for the same device.

This fits what we found in the Zepp app

What makes this particularly interesting – in June, we found solar-related functionality inside the Zepp Health app. The code included SolarBatteryChargeRecord, solar intensity data and references to watch_face_input_power and case_back_input_power.

At the time there was no product name attached to any of it. The code simply suggested Zepp Health was preparing its software for hardware capable of reporting solar or light-based power input.

A few days later, an unidentified rugged watch appeared on Amazfit Spain’s official Instagram account. It had the chunky round shape and red bezel detail associated with the T-Rex family, but it did not resemble any model Zepp Health was selling.

The display also looked noticeably different from the glossy AMOLED screens used on recent T-Rex watches. We suggested at the time that it could be a low-power MIP display and possibly the solar watch hinted at in the Zepp app. The new T-Rex Dual Solar model now looks like it could be a likely candidate.

The “Dual Solar” name does suggest there is something more going on than simply adding a small solar ring around the display. It could refer to two separate solar collection areas, different types of photovoltaic elements, or some other dual-component charging arrangement.

Zepp Health is already starting from a strong position here. The Amazfit T-Rex Ultra 2 packs an 870 mAh battery and is rated for up to 30 days of typical use. Solar assistance on a watch designed around lower power consumption could push endurance much further.

A launch now looks much more plausible

There was already another clue that the T-Rex family had more to come this year.

During its 2026 earnings commentary, Zepp Health said it had additional T-Rex family products lined up for later in the year. We flagged those comments in June, before the solar app code and these regulatory filings appeared.

Regulatory approval does not tell us exactly when the watch will launch. Still, these multiple certifications suggest the hardware is well beyond the early prototype stage. IFA 2026 is around the corner. Don’t be surprised if the device makes its debut in early September.

Other sources: Sertifikasi Indonesia, South Korea RRA, Malaysia SIRIM, EAEU registry

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The update covers the Balance Ultra, Balance 3, T-Rex Ultra 2, both T-Rex 3 Pro sizes, T-Rex 3, Cheetah 2 Ultra, Cheetah 2 Pro and Active 3 Premium. Feature availability varies between models.

Swimming and workout controls get better

Pool swimmers get Manual Rest, which lets you press a button to mark when swimming stops and recovery begins. The watch then separates swimming and rest periods, while also breaking swimming segments down by stroke.

Automatic rest detection can struggle with structured pool sessions, particularly when recovery periods are short. Manual control removes some of that guesswork.

There is also a new Always Locked option. Once enabled, the touchscreen stays locked for the entire workout, while the physical buttons remain active. The standard T-Rex 3 is the exception and does not get Always Locked mode.

We recently covered several of these additions when they arrived on the Amazfit Active 3 Premium alongside Zepp OS 6. The interesting part now is that Zepp Health is extending the same training tools across Balance, T-Rex and Cheetah models as well.

Better support for connected rowing

Indoor rowing gets another addition. Compatible FTMS rowing machines can send workout data directly to the watch, including power and distance. Zepp Health specifically lists support for equipment such as the Concept2 RowErg. This means the watch can use data reported by the rowing machine rather than relying entirely on estimates from wrist movement.

Balance 3, Balance Ultra, Cheetah 2 Ultra and Cheetah 2 Pro also gain Athlete Defaults. This automatically enables Workout Do Not Disturb, switches off workout alerts and sets GPS to maximum precision. It is essentially a shortcut for people who use the same settings every time they train.

A few smaller improvements round things out. Route Preview now supports panning and zooming before and during workouts, map zooming has been refined, and Amazfit says alarm creation and management should be simpler.

None of these additions is particularly dramatic on its own. Taken together, though, they show where the company has been focusing its recent software work.

The hardware is already competitive. In our Amazfit Balance 3 review, GPS, heart rate tracking and battery life all held up well. The next challenge is making the training software around that hardware deeper and more consistent.

Source: Amazfit blog

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OW266 changes the earlier picture

The new listing describes OW266 simply as an “Outdoor Watch” from Suunto. It sits in the Low Power Radio Equipment category and is listed as having multiple radio interfaces, with EDPLUS PTE. LTD. named as the supplier.

That last detail is interesting because OW265 previously appeared at IMDA through the same supplier. An earlier report attempted to identify OW261 and OW265 as the Suunto Race 3 and Race 3 S, respectively, but we now know that pairing cannot be correct.

As we reported in our Suunto Run 2 FCC discovery, OW261 is actually the Suunto Run 2. There is very little ambiguity about that one because Suunto’s FCC documentation includes finished retail packaging carrying the Run 2 name. The filing also confirms dual-frequency GPS and adds 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi support.

That leaves OW265 without an identity. Now OW266 has appeared right next to it in Suunto’s numbering scheme, with both watches going through IMDA via EDPLUS.

The obvious working theory is that these are the two Race models.

The Race 3 pair is already hiding in plain sight

We already know Suunto is preparing two watches called Race 3 and Race 3 S. In our earlier Race 3 leak, we found references to both devices in material from Suunto’s own website that had been indexed by Google.

That leak describes the Race 3 S as a lightweight trail watch with a 1.32-inch AMOLED display, dual-band GPS and sapphire crystal. Suunto’s indexed text says it will be “available first”, while the larger Race 3 is described as coming later in 2026 with a 1.5-inch AMOLED display and longer battery life.

So Suunto has two known but unreleased Race watches, and we now have two unidentified outdoor watches carrying the closely related OW265 and OW266 model numbers. That is not proof they are the same two products, but the pieces fit much better than they did when OW261 was still unidentified.

Sequential model numbers are another clue, although they should not be overinterpreted. Companies do not always assign regulatory numbers neatly by product family, but two closely related watches being developed around the same time could easily end up with adjacent codes.

We still can’t say which is which

There is not enough in the IMDA records to assign OW265 and OW266 individually. OW266 could be Race 3, or it could be Race 3 S. The same uncertainty applies to OW265.

Also, we have not found equivalent public FCC documentation for OW265 or OW266 that gives away dimensions, labels or retail packaging. That is what would likely settle things. Suunto’s Run 2 filing showed how quickly an anonymous OW number can turn into a named product once the right certification documents surface.

For now, OW265 and OW266 should stay labelled as unidentified Suunto outdoor watches. But with Race 3 and Race 3 S already confirmed by Suunto’s accidentally indexed material, the possibility that we are looking at their regulatory model numbers has just become a lot harder to ignore.

This article originally appeared on Gadgets & Wearables, the first media outlet to report the story.

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