This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
Galaxy Watch 8 introduced the new squircle design last year | Image by PhoneArena
It's July and for tech fans, this means it's Samsung season! The company is about to unveil a new lineup of foldables alongside two smartwatches and its first ever audio glasses.
We've already covered the upcoming foldables extensively, so today I want to focus on Samsung's next smartwatch instead, and one specific rumor about it.
I reviewed the Galaxy Watch 8 last year and loved the new unconventional squircle design. I'm talking about the regular model here, which weighs less than the Galaxy Classic and much less than the Galaxy Watch Ultra. Since I sleep with my watch every day and found sleep scores to be the most motivating part of the smartwatch experience, weight and comfort are crucial.
But so is battery life. Anyone who's used the Galaxy Watch 8 knows it needs daily charging.
I have kind of gotten used to this recently. I'm wearing an Apple Watch most days, and that also needs a daily charge (among Wear OS smartwatches only the Pixel Watch 4 was able to break that barrier and last a full two days off the charger).
But I have absolutely not gotten used to the slow charging that accompanies the Galaxy Watch 8.
If you want to wear your watch to track your sleep, fast charging matters a lot. After all, when you wear the watch overnight and go to work the next day, you have very limited charging windows (typically, during a shower or breakfast).
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The Apple Watch example
Apple has shown that charging speed can be dramatically improved through hardware redesign.
The company redesigned the charging coil on its watches with the Series 10, featuring a redesigned metal back with a larger and more efficient charging coil. This enabled much faster charging speeds. While a 0 to 80% charge used to take 45 minutes in previous models, Series 10 and Series 11 now charge 0 to 80% in just 30 minutes.
In contrast a 30 minute charge on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 only gives you 45% charge in our testing, making the Samsung watch the slowest charging smartwatch among all major brands we tested last year.
Apple: 30 minutes gives you 80% charge Samsung: 30 minutes gives you 45% charge
And when you are really in a rush, 15 minutes of charging provides up to eight hours of normal daily use on these latest Apple Watches, while 8 minutes of charging gives you 8 hours of sleep tracking. Those are really useful improvements.
Galaxy Watch 9 leaks
3G certification shows no change in Galaxy Watch 9 charging speeds | Image by Screenshot via SamGuru
And here is the big disappointment: leaks indicate that this will not change in the Galaxy Watch 9.
Samsung has already filed for CCC certification in China, and part of that filing is a public declaration of charging speeds of the upcoming devices. In the screenshot above, we see the model numbers for the upcoming Galaxy Watch 9 and 5V, 2A charging speeds listed next to them. This indicates the same 10W charging speed as for previous Galaxy Watches.
This is a strong indication that charging on the Galaxy Watch 9 will remain unchanged, but it's not a guarantee. Apple's improvement in charging speeds happened with a hardware redesign rather than an increase in power, so there is still some hope.
If Samsung isn't increasing battery life, it needs to make charging dramatically faster, especially in a year when it is also expected to raise prices of its smartwatches. Otherwise, users are still forced into the same inconvenient charging routine that rival watches from Apple and Google have started to improve.
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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.
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