Samsung rushes to deliver its first Galaxy Watch Ultra and Watch 7 update

Summary

• Samsung’s new Galaxy Watch Ultra has faced early battery drain issues, with users reporting only getting 12 hours of usage despite Samsung’s claims.
• Samsung acknowledged the problem and pledged to release a software update for the watches, promising improved performance and stability. An update is now rolling out, and it likely includes these fixes.
• Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra owners can apply the update from within the Galaxy Wearable mobile app.

Samsung’s summer Unpacked event concluded on Wednesday, July 10, with the South Korean tech giant unveiling a trove of new devices, including the Galaxy Z Flip 6, Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra, alongside the Buds 3 series.

General availability followed on Wednesday, July 24, and now, less than a week later, we’re already starting to see Samsung address some day-one issues.

Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra early buyers have reported being affected by unexpected battery drain issues and overall poor battery life on the two wearables. For reference, the Watch 7 sports a 300mAh cell, and according to Samsung, it should last users anywhere between 30 (AOD on) to 40 (AOD off) hours. Similarly, the Watch Ultra runs on a 590mAh battery, and according to Samsung, it should last anywhere between 60 (AOD enabled) to 80 (AOD disabled) hours.

Frustrated users, however, are reporting only being able to get roughly 12 hours of usage from their wearables, even with light to moderate usage. Samsung acknowledged the issue, a few days ago, and it appears it is now rolling out a fix.

The software update also offers new and enhanced features

The first software update for the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra is out now, as shared by SamMobile, and while the update’s release notes don’t explicitly state that it will address the battery drain issue, it does say it will improve performance, and offer stability improvements, which should likely encompass a fix for the battery bug.

Owners of the new watches can now navigate to the Galaxy Wearable app and download the update. Galaxy Watch 7 owners should see the firmware version L310XXU1AXG2 update (173.51MB), while Watch Ultra owners should see the L705FXXU1AXFB update (330.59MB).

Elsewhere, while Samsung’s release notes for the update are too vague, it does say that the update should bring “new and/or enhanced features” to the wearables. We’re currently uncertain what these new features are, but we speculate that it might be connected to the suite of Galaxy AI features that weren’t available in the first push.