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Samsung has historically made one of the best smartwatches for Android users. Last year’s major overhaul, which saw the company replace its in-house Tizen OS with Google’s Wear OS in the Galaxy Watch4 series, further improved the usability and functionality of its offerings, making a stronger case for the “best” title. We are now expecting it to take things up a notch this year with the Galaxy Watch5 series. It appears battery life improvements are on the cards.
South Korean regulatory agency Saftey Korea recently certified a tiny battery pack with model number EB-BR900ABY. This power unit should sit inside an upcoming Samsung smartwatch bearing the model number SM-R900, which should be none other than the 40mm Galaxy Watch5. More importantly, this battery pack has a rated capacity of 276mAh (1.07Wh/3.88V). That is notably more than the 247mAh unit that powers the 40mm Galaxy Watch4 (about 11.7% more).
Based on this, the entire Galaxy Watch5 lineup — which should include two vanilla Watch5 models (40mm SM-R900 and 44mm SM-R910) and two Watch5 Classic models (42mm SM-R920 and 46mm SM-R930), as well as their cellular variants (SM-R905, SM-R915, SM-R925, and SM-R935 respectively) — should get bigger batteries. We don’t yet have any confirmation for this, but there’s a strong possibility here.
Batteries may not be the only improvements on the Galaxy Watch5 series though. Samsung may be looking to improve its health and fitness features as well. A report coming from last week suggested that the new Galaxy smartwatches could feature a temperature sensor. The Korean brand has reportedly devised a way to accurately measure your skin temperatures while factoring in various conditions such as sun exposure and workouts. This should allow you to determine if you have a fever and need to take a rest or seek medical attention.
The Galaxy Watch5 may arrive in the second half of 2022
There haven’t been a lot of leaks or rumors about the Galaxy Watch5 series so far. Considering Samsung’s history with leaks, that suggests the new smartwatches are still in their early stages of development. A leaked product roadmap from November 2021 hinted at a Q3 or Q4 launch for the upcoming wearables. They will certainly not arrive before the second half of 2022. Perhaps Samsung plans to launch the Galaxy Watch5 series alongside its 2022 foldables. A new pair of TWS earbuds could also be in the pipeline.
Nonetheless, we expect to hear more about the Samsung Galaxy Watch5 series in the coming weeks and months. We will keep you updated with all the latest information.
