Samsung didn’t mention this class-leading Galaxy Watch upgrade: A Practical Look
Samsung held its Galaxy Unpacked event in London last week where it launched new Galaxy Watch alongside Galaxy Z phones, but oddly didn’t shout about a key upgrade to its new smartwatches.
Although the Galaxy Watch 9 (below) and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 (above) look nearly identical to their predecessors, they both got upgrades to the hardware, including Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon Wear Elite processor.
On the software side, they run One UI Watch 9 based on Wear OS 7, but Samsung didn’t make a big deal about a particular change in this department.
It doesn’t relate to some fancy new watch face or an AI-powered health feature, but a quiet upgrade to the software support promise. Both wearables now get five years of OS support.
Thomas Deehan / Foundry
The tech specs section of the watch’s official page confirms this, stating support will last until 31 July 2031.
That’s an extra year compared to previous models like the Galaxy Watch 8 and means the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 will be supported for new software versions until 2031, which could mean Wear OS 12.
How well they will run the software in five years is another matter, but Samsung is clearly confident with the aforementioned Snapdragon Wear Elite and its own Wear OS skin.
What makes it particularly strange that Samsung didn’t make a point of this – apart from a jam-packed keynote for Unpacked – is that it’s now class-leading. It’s also now a big part of the purchasing decision of many consumers – particularly with devices in 2026 seeing price rises, including these two.
It beats Google’s own Pixel Watch 4 (just three years of OS support), though the Android-maker has a chance to match Samsung next month when it unveils the Pixel Watch 5 series.
