Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra no longer support wireless charging from your phone, old chargers are slower

Ben Schoon | Jul 11 2024 - 8:28 am PT

Samsung’s latest Galaxy Watch releases have lost support for a useful charging feature, the ability to wirelessly charge your watch with your phone.

Since its early days, Samsung’s Galaxy Watch series (and even the Gear lineup that preceded it) has used wireless charging. This came with the perk of being able to use “Wireless PowerShare,” Samsung’s branding for reverse wireless charging, to charge up a Galaxy Watch. It’s a handy feature in a pinch, though it did only work reliably with Galaxy devices.

Now, though, that feature is gone.

Spotted by @JordyV27 on Twitter/X (h/t SamMobile), a Samsung support page directly confirms that the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra both do not support wireless charging from your smartphone.

Why?

Samsung explains that this is due to the upgraded health sensors on this watches, which changes the shape of the glass on the bottom to the point that wireless charging is no longer possible. Samsung says:

However, the new sensor design required changing the shape of the back glass. The alteration increased the distance between the internal wireless charging coil of your Watch and the wireless charger, so the Wireless power sharing feature available on the previous model is no longer supported.

This also applies to older chargers.

The charger for Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra, Samsung says, is the only one that will charge the new models at full speed. Older chargers may work, but they’ll be slower and generate more heat.

Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra are both available for pre-order now and ship later this month.