Galaxy Watch 5 charger won't change

We still don’t know a ton about Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 5, but there’s plenty of room for improvements over last year’s Galaxy Watch 4. It doesn’t seem, though, that we’ll see much of a difference with the Galaxy Watch 5 charger.

The Galaxy Watch 5 charger seems identical.

If a new regulatory listing is to be believed, the Galaxy Watch 5 will have a charger that’s virtually identical to the one from the Galaxy Watch 4. It’s the same charger design Samsung has been using since the Galaxy Watch Active, a departure from the “dock” design that Samsung used on the 2018 Galaxy Watch, as well as prior Gear S smartwatches.

This magnetic puck adheres to the back of the watch and uses a modified version of the Qi wireless charging standard to charge the watch, while plugging in over USB-A for power.

As spotted by SamMobile, the ER-OR900 charger has passed through the Korean Radio Research Agency (RRA). That model number corresponds with the battery that was previously spotted for the Galaxy Watch 5. A picture of the charger all but confirms it will have the same design as past models.

Unfortunately, that’s all of the information we have at this time from the listing.

Hopefully, it’ll be a little faster.

It’s by no means a bad thing that Samsung is sticking with the same charging hardware, given that the puck design generally works pretty well.

However, the biggest question at this point comes down to charging speeds. The existing Galaxy Watch 4 series charges at around 5W, leading to a charging time of under two hours for a full charge. In our Galaxy Watch 4 review, we weren’t particularly happy with that charging speed. When using the Galaxy Watch 4 for sleep tracking, the slow charging speed leads to requiring longer charging sessions to make up for the prior 24 hours of use. In our testing last year, we generally saw the battery drain down over the course of a week to the point where it could no longer last a full day without requiring a full recharge.

We called for Samsung to switch to pin-based charging, like Fossil’s Wear OS watches.

Much of my concern with battery life could be alleviated if the charging speed was faster. Samsung says it takes 110 minutes to fully charge the battery. That seems accurate based on my testing, but it’s just not fast enough. Samsung would be smart to switch the charging method to something using direct pins for faster speeds.

With the Galaxy Watch 5, Samsung is set to make the battery bigger on all models and debut a Galaxy Watch 5 Pro with a battery hitting 572 mAh. Needless to say, a 5W charger would be a bit tedious on a battery of that size.

In any case, we’ll learn more in time. Samsung is expected to reveal the Galaxy Watch 5 within the next few weeks.

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