Galaxy Watch 9 and Ultra 2 Both Get Snapdragon Wear Elite: Full Specs Confirmed One Week Before Unpacked

A comprehensive spec leak published on July 14 — backed by an official Samsung teaser video the same day — confirms that both the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will run Qualcomm's 3nm Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. This marks the first time Samsung has dropped Exynos across its entire smartwatch lineup, and it corrects earlier reports that only the Ultra 2 would make the switch.

Snapdragon Wear Elite for Both

The Snapdragon Wear Elite is a 3nm chip with a 5-core CPU (1x Cortex-A78C at 2.11GHz, 4x Cortex-A55 at 1.96GHz) and a dedicated Hexagon NPU for on-device AI. Qualcomm and Samsung's InKang Song confirmed at MWC 2026 that it can run AI models with up to 2 billion parameters entirely on-device — enabling Gemini AI interactions without relaying queries to the paired phone.

Battery Specs: Ultra 2 Surges, Watch 9 Splits

• Galaxy Watch Ultra 2: 784mAh (marketed as 800mAh), up 33% from the original Ultra's 590mAh
• Galaxy Watch 9 44mm: 445mAh, a modest bump from the Watch 8's 425mAh
• Galaxy Watch 9 40mm: 325mAh — unchanged from the Watch 8, a disappointment for smaller-wrist buyers

Display and Connectivity

• Watch 9 40mm: 438 × 438 px display
• Watch 9 44mm & Ultra 2: 480 × 480 px display, Ultra 2 hits 5,000 nits peak brightness
• All models: Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, dual-band Wi-Fi
• Ultra 2 only: 5G RedCap in the US and South Korea (LTE elsewhere), titanium casing

Samsung's Official Tease

Samsung published a teaser video on July 14 confirming the new chip and better battery — effectively dropping any pretense of surprise ahead of the July 22 Unpacked event in London. Pre-orders are expected to open immediately after the keynote, with shipping beginning August 6.

What This Means for Buyers

The Snapdragon Wear Elite in both models is the headline: it means even the entry-level Galaxy Watch 9 gets 5× the CPU performance of the Watch 8 and on-device AI. The current Galaxy Watch Ultra is available from $225 refurbished if you can't wait, but the Ultra 2's battery and chip upgrade make a strong case for holding out one more week. Compare the full smartwatch landscape in our smartwatch guide, or see how the Ultra 2 stacks up against the Apple Watch Ultra 3 at $640.