Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 Gets 35% Bigger Battery But Same 60-Hour Runtime

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Credit: Zac Kew-Denniss / Android Authority

TL;DR

Samsung introduced the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite chip and a massive 800mAh battery (up 35% from 590mAh), yet official estimates still quote the same “up to 60 hours with Always-On Display” as the original Watch Ultra model.

The Galaxy Watch 9 models also increased battery sizes and switched from Exynos W1000 to Snapdragon Wear Elite, but Samsung continues to quote up to 40 hours of runtime without Always-On Display across both generations.

The lack of runtime improvement despite Wear OS 7’s efficiency improvements and larger batteries could stem from power draws like the brighter 5,000-nit display, lower processor efficiency, or simply outdated marketing specs.

Samsung officially announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 at its latest Unpacked event, introducing a major silicon pivot to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite SoC alongside a massive 800mAh battery cell. Curiously, despite the larger battery and newer chip, Samsung’s official spec sheet quotes the exact same “up to 60 hours with Always-On Display” runtime as the original 590mAh Exynos W1000-totting Galaxy Watch Ultra.

The spec discrepancy was first highlighted by Phonefuturist on X , who questioned whether the Snapdragon Wear Elite is better than the Exynos W1000, given that it seemingly erased a 35% battery capacity jump.