Samsung Galaxy Watch9 review: faster chip and brighter display do not fix battery life

Samsung Galaxy Watch9 looks almost unchanged from the Watch8, but it uses the same processor as the flagship Galaxy Watch Ultra 2. The upgrade makes the watch considerably faster without solving its main weakness: limited battery life.

The 44mm model weighs 34g without its strap, measures 8.6mm thick and has a 1.47-inch Super AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Its protection ratings are IP68, 5ATM and MIL-STD-810H.

Wear OS performance and features

Samsung replaced the Exynos W1000 with a 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear Elite processor, paired with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. In testing, apps opened quickly and One UI 9 Watch animations based on Wear OS 7 ran smoothly.

The watch supports Google Gemini through Raise to Talk, gesture controls for calls and alarms, and the Now Bar panel. Its dual-band GPS operates on L1 and L5 frequencies.

Health tracking has restrictions

Galaxy Watch9 tracks sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen, heart-rate variability, breathing, skin temperature, body composition and workouts. In a comparison with the Apple Watch Ultra 3, heart-rate readings differed by about five beats per minute, rising to as much as 10 during the hardest intervals.

ECG, blood-pressure readings, sleep-apnea detection and some Health Monitor features work only with Samsung Galaxy smartphones. The watch supports Android 13 and later, but not iPhones.

Battery life remains the weak point

The 44mm model has a 445mAh battery. With the Always-On Display, maximum brightness, background sensors and a GPS workout, it lasted about 38 hours; disabling AOD raised the result to roughly 41 hours.

Samsung rates the watch for up to 30 hours and supports charging at up to 10W. A full charge took about 90 minutes in testing, although other tests took close to two hours. Based on the cited tests, the 40mm version lasts noticeably less.