Galaxy Watch Ultra Has New Charger You’ll Need to Use, No Wireless Power Sharing

Taking off my smartwatch and wirelessly charging it on the back of my phone is not something I’ve ever done. Clearly, I am somewhat in the minority there, as Samsung has had to issue a statement about the technology required to do what I’ve described, because their new smartwatches no longer contain it.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra (pre-order) does not feature wireless power sharing. The Galaxy Watch 7 doesn’t either.

For those not familiar, wireless power sharing is a technology included in smartwatches and phones that lets you use the battery in your smartphone, and it’s wireless charging capabilities, to add juice to your smartwatch by placing the two together. It’s a pretty cool idea that could certainly come in handy if your smartwatch were running low, your phone had plenty of juice, and you might not be near a charger for a while.

Samsung says that you can’t wireless power share with the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra because a new sensor design changed the shape of the back glass of each watch. That new shape “increased the distance between the internal wireless charging coil of your Watch and the wireless charger,” thus not allowing it to work as it used to.

And on a related note, the new sensor design is also essentially rendering your old Galaxy Watch chargers useless. Again, the shape of the new sensor increased the distance between coil and charger, so if you tried to use an older charger, it would charge super slow and possibly generate a bunch of heat. Samsung is recommending that you only use the new and included wireless charger that comes with the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra.

Still ordering one or is this a dealbreaker?

// Samsung