Samsung's top smartwatch reveals one major shortcoming: Galaxy Watch9 in review

The Samsung Galaxy Watch9 shines in everyday use with a premium look, numerous health features, excellent performance, and a super-bright OLED screen. However, users may not get to enjoy the screen’s high brightness and excellent outdoor readability very often because, when it comes to battery life, things have come to a standstill in the Galaxy universe. 

Our review of the Galaxy Watch9 reveals that the Samsung smartwatch’s battery life has the potential to become a daily annoyance for power users. In our everyday review scenario with an active always-on display, a short workout with GPS tracking, and sleep tracking that includes blood oxygen monitoring, the successor to the Galaxy Watch8 proves to have limited endurance.

If you use all the health features and conveniences of the OLED panel, you’ll quickly reach the battery’s limits. The watch loses about 60 to 70 percent of its charge over a 24-hour period. Anyone who needs the LTE version’s additional eSIM functionality in everyday life or tracks endurance activities with an active satellite connection will barely make it through the day.

Unfortunately, the time spent plugged in is also less than ideal in everyday use. In our test scenario, a completely discharged Watch9 took nearly 1.5 hours to fully recharge. For those who use their smartwatch for sleep tracking and wear it constantly, this probably feels like an eternity.

The competition, specifically the Xiaomi Watch 5, shows how it can be done better. The Chinese manufacturer uses a silicon-carbon battery, which offers a much higher energy density. The result is a massive 900 mAh battery with twice the capacity of the Galaxy Watch9’s battery.

For the successor to the Watch9 (prices start at around $400, available on Amazon.com), we’d like to see a battery as large as the one in Xiaomi’s Watch 5. That would be a real game changer in everyday use.