Samsung’s latest Galaxy Watch 5 update wants to help you get the most from your smartwatch’s battery
Samsung’sGalaxy Watch 5series are among thebest Android smartwatchesout there, offering a stellar user experience thanks toWear OS 3and fairly accurate health monitoring features. Both the regular and Pro versions are significant upgrades over their predecessors in terms of battery size, but as with any other smartwatch, regular use of the watches can wear out the battery over time. While that is an inevitable situation, a new update now allows you to check your smartwatch’s battery health directly from your paired smartphone.
The new feature arrives as part of thelatest updateto the Galaxy Watch 5 andWatch 5 Pro, which also inadvertentlyconfirms that the One UI 5.1 updateis on the way (via9to5Google). The new “Connected device diagnostics” tool within the Samsung Members app will tell you if there’s a drop in your Galaxy Watch’s battery health from your phone. In addition to checking the battery status of your watch, the updated app allows you to run tests on touchscreen functions and other features.
But that’s not all there is in the new update; the Galaxy Watch 5 is getting Samsung’s new Camera Controller feature, which waspreviewed a few days ago. This allows you to remotely control your smartphone’s camera zoom level from your smartwatch by pinching in or out on the screen or rotating the bezel. That said, your device must be running at least One UI 5.1 to access Camera Controller, which means you won’t be able to actually use the new feature until the upcoming One UI 5 iteration arrives for supported devices in February. Furthermore, this capability is limited only to flagship Samsung phones released since the Samsung Galaxy S20 or Z Flip.
It is worth noting that this marks Samsung’sfirst official confirmation of One UI 5.1, albeit by mistake. We have already seen clues that Samsung isplanning to introduce the update to as early as the Galaxy S20 models, which weren’t supposed to receive any new updates after One UI 5.0, so the list of eligible devices shouldn’t come as a huge surprise. In fact, internal testingseemingly began last December, as per leaker Ice Universe.
As expected, the latest update brings with it the January 2023 security patch for the Galaxy Watch 5 and Watch 5 Pro, along with stability improvements.
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