Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 vs Galaxy Watch 9: What the Leaks Reveal Ahead of July 2026 Unpacked

With the July 22 Galaxy Unpacked event in London just weeks away, a steady stream of leaks and reports has painted a fairly clear—if still contradictory in places—picture of what Samsung is about to announce. Here is a fact-checked roundup of the most credible emerging details for both the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2.

Galaxy Watch 9: An Iterative Refresh with One Big Question Mark

The chipset question remains the biggest unresolved detail. Qualcomm confirmed at MWC 2026 that the next Galaxy Watch would use its new Snapdragon Wear Elite (3nm) chip , but multiple tipsters and Notebookcheck report that the Snapdragon chip is reserved for the Ultra 2, while the standard Watch 9 keeps the older Exynos W1000 (3nm) from the Watch 8 . A firmware leak also suggested the Snapdragon could be in play , so nothing is settled until Samsung officially announces.

Design & display. Leaked renders show the Watch 9 keeping the "squircle" shape in 40mm and 44mm case sizes . Displays are expected to be 1.34-inch (438×438) and 1.47-inch (480×480) Super AMOLED with up to 3,000 nits peak brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate . US colors are said to be Cream and Graphite .

Battery & charging. The 44mm model reportedly carries a 435mAh battery—identical to the Watch 8 . The 40mm version is leaked at a 382mAh rated capacity, likely marketed as 400mAh . Charging speed remains 10W, unchanged from the previous generation . Any battery life gains would depend entirely on chipset efficiency rather than capacity increases.

Health & software. The Watch 9 will ship with One UI 9 Watch (based on Wear OS 7) and new AI-powered health features. Samsung's official comparison page for current watches lists Energy Score with Galaxy AI, Wellness tips, Sleep Coaching with apnea detection, Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications, and Body Composition tracking—features likely carried forward and expanded .

Pricing. European prices have leaked at €409 for the base model .

Galaxy Watch Ultra 2: The Year's Big Hardware Leap

Chipset. The Ultra 2 is widely expected to get the Snapdragon Wear Elite (3nm), featuring a dedicated Hexagon NPU capable of running AI models with up to 2 billion parameters on-device. Qualcomm claims 5x CPU and 7x GPU performance over the older W5+ Gen 2 . It's paired with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage .

Design. Renders depict a slightly boxier case than the original Ultra, with noticeably thinner display bezels and hour markings around the rim. Available in Titanium Gray and Titanium Silver finishes .

Battery—the biggest upgrade. The Ultra 2's battery is reported at 784mAh (likely marketed as 800mAh), a ~33% jump from the original Ultra's 590mAh . One outlet reports a rated capacity of 800mAh . This would be the largest battery ever in a Samsung smartwatch and aligns with leaks describing a "30% larger battery" . Combined with the more efficient Snapdragon Wear Elite chip, Samsung claims the Ultra can achieve up to 100 hours in power saving mode , though real-world gains remain to be tested.

5G connectivity. Samsung's servers have revealed model numbers indicating 5G, 4G LTE, and Wi-Fi versions of the Ultra 2. The 5G models are expected to be sold in the U.S. and Korea, while other regions get 4G and Wi-Fi variants .

Health features. The Samsung Health app is being restructured around five pillars: Sleep, Activity, Nutrition, Mindfulness, and Vitals. New additions include:

• Vitals—checks five overnight signals (heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen) against your personal baseline and alerts only when something is off .
• Heart Rate Alerts—new AI-driven irregular rhythm notifications .

Pricing. Leaked European pricing is €749 for the base model, which would be a modest increase over the original Ultra's $649 debut price .

Solid-State Battery Timeline: Don't Expect It in 2026

Samsung Electro-Mechanics has developed an ultra-small oxide-based solid-state battery prototype and began customer testing in 2024–2025 . The reported rollout roadmap from multiple sources is:

• Galaxy Ring 2—late 2025 / Q4 2025 (first product to use the solid-state "dream battery")
• Galaxy Buds—2026
• Galaxy Watch—not before 2027 (targeting the Galaxy Watch 10)

No credible leak suggests the Galaxy Watch 9 or Watch Ultra 2 will use solid-state battery technology. The Watch Ultra 2's 784mAh conventional lithium battery and the Watch 9's 435mAh cell are the confirmed specifications from current leaks. An earlier report from SamMobile suggested the Watch 9 could be among the first to get the solid-state battery , but that has been superseded by a more consistent consensus from later sourcing that places the technology in 2027.

The Bottom Line

The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 looks to be the more significant hardware upgrade this year—with a major battery increase (~33%), a new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip, thinner bezels, and 5G in select markets. The standard Galaxy Watch 9 is shaping up as an iterative refresh with mostly software-based improvements (One UI 9 Watch, new health features) and possible chipset continuity. Solid-state batteries remain at least a year away, likely arriving with the Galaxy Watch 10 in 2027.