TL;DR
- The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a design flaw that prevents it from being compatible with the company’s Wireless PowerShare feature.
- Samsung has created a workaround for the design oversight with a new charging cradle.
- Galaxy Watch 5 Pro owners can sign up for stock alerts.
The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is Samsung’s latest and greatest flagship smartwatch. We gave the device 4.5 out of 5 stars in our review. However, there’s one glaring design flaw that many owners have noticed — the band doesn’t allow you to use Samsung’s Wireless PowerShare feature. It appears that Samsung has now created a workaround for this oversight.
Samsung’s Wireless PowerShare feature allows devices — like the Galaxy S22 — to recharge other devices wirelessly, but to do so, the two devices have to be touching where the wireless charging coil is located in both devices. The wireless charging coil in the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is located by the watch’s sensor. Unfortunately, due to the way its D-Buckle band is designed, the only way for the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro to take advantage of Wireless PowerShare is to take off its band.
Discovered by SamMobile, Samsung has listed an unreleased charging cradle on its website that will allow you to use Wireless PowerShare without having to take off the strap. Based on the listing, appears the charging cradle has a top platform for the watch and a bottom platform for another device.
Outside of images, the product page doesn’t seem to have much information. All we can glean from the page is that the cradle will come in a light grey color. There doesn’t seem to be a price for the cradle or a release date. However, you can sign up to get notified of when the product is available.
We hope Samsung will at least offer some kind of discount to current Galaxy Watch 5 Pro owners who want the cradle because while it may not be the company’s intention, it may appear as if Samsung is trying to capitalize on its blunder.
