Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Series Charging Speed Will Disappoint You

Contents

A Pixel Watch 4 Ultra is Google’s ticket to relevancy

Summary

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, Z Fold 7, & Watch 8 series are expected to launch in July.
The Galaxy Watch 8 will have the same slow 10W charging as its predecessor, as per a certification listing.
Even the other specifications are likely to be minor upgrades over the Watch 7.

With summer around the corner, it’s time for Samsung’s next wearables and foldables to break cover. The Galaxy Z Flip 7, Z Fold 7, and the Watch 8 series could be announced as early as July, following a 12-month refresh cycle over their respective predecessors.

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 was one of the best smartwatches of the year, even though it was a minor upgrade by all means. The 2025 Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic are expected to be incremental in nature as well, and a new report suggests that it might even be a downgrade in some ways.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 being worn outdoors, showing the home screen

Barely an upgrade

Xpertpick spotted two Samsung smartwatches on the Chinese 3C certification site — models SM-L3350 and SM-L5050 — which are likely to be the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic, respectively. The listing states that both these products will come with a 10W charging adapter (via GSMArena). A previous certification confirmed that LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/a, Bluetooth 5.3, GNSS, and NFC will also make the cut.

Source: Xpertpick

A 10W travel charger would mean that the Watch 8 duo will have the same charging speed as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7. This isn’t great, as the Watch 7 had notably slow charging speeds — taking almost 90 minutes for a full charge. Since the battery capacity is expected to be the same on the Watch 8 at 300 mAh for the 40mm variant and 425 mAh for the 44mm variant, the charging times should be similarly long too.

This is a disappointing development, as the competition offers much faster charging. For example, the OnePlus Watch 3’s 631 mAh battery takes less than an hour to charge and lasts for much longer.

While Google’s Wear OS 6 is said to bring a 10% improvement in battery life, and Samsung is likely to use a better processor on the Watch 8 series, it remains to be seen if the actual battery performance is significantly better or not. It will face stiff competition from the Pixel Watch 4, which will also debut in summer.