Samsung Galaxy Watch 6

Galaxy Watch 6 battery increases likely, according to leak

Damien Wilde | Mar 1 2023 - 2:27 am PT

We could get yet another battery gain for the Galaxy Watch 6, according to a leak of the internal cells of the upcoming wearable.

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GalaxyClub.nl spotted that South Korean regulators have certified two internal cells that are likely to be utilized by the upcoming Galaxy Watch 6 wearables. As is often the case, we are expecting two distinct sizes to be offered. A 40mm base model and a slighter larger 44mm wearable. The Dutch blog also speculates that the upcoming wearables bear model numbers SM-R93x and SM-R94x.

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Two batteries have passed through Korean regulators. The smaller of the duo has the codename EB-BR935ABY and the somewhat blurry images show a 300mAh cell with an actual rated capacity of 295mAh. It’s likely that this could be used in the upcoming 40mm Galaxy Watch 6. For reference, the 40mm Galaxy Watch 5 ships with a 284mAh capacity battery, which is rated at 276mAh.

This means that the 40mm Galaxy Watch 6 could offer a sizeable leap over its predecessor and, in turn, improve upon the daily lifespan. A 10-20mAh increase may not seem like a huge leap on paper, but this can mean extra hours of usage day-to-day.

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The larger battery codenamed EB-BR945ABY has a capacity of 425mAh, but the rated capacity appears to be slightly lower at around 412mAh. This is also a marginal increase over the 44m Galaxy Watch 5, which sports a 410mAh internal cell, which is rated at 397mAh.

Again, on a regular device, this sounds like a meaningless gain. However, unlike smartphones, low-power devices like wearables can see huge lifespan leaps with what appear to be minuscule battery increases. If these are indeed the internal battery packs set to be used on the Galaxy Watch 6 series, then we could be in for more improvements once again this year.

According to another recent rumor, the Galaxy Watch 6 could come with a design refresh akin to the Pixel Watch that includes curved glass. It’s not clear if this could increase footprint and allow for these bigger internal cells to fit within the chassis. We are expecting to learn more over the coming months as the Galaxy Watch 6 and potential 6 Pro are expected to launch alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 in the latter portion of 2023.