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Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4 is very clearly still a product that favors Galaxy smartphone owners, but it looks like the product is opening up a bit more compared to previous generations. Not only does the Galaxy Watch 4 support charging from Google’s Pixel 5, it even seems to work on some standard Qi charging pads.
Reverse wireless charging has been around on Samsung smartphones for a few generations now, and all the time it was primarily designed for use on corporate accessories such as headphones and smartwatches.
The latter, however, proved tricky for non-Samsung devices with the same functionality. Since the Galaxy Watch line uses a modified version of the Qi standard, it doesn’t always work with other devices. So going back, previous Samsung smartwatches charged with Google’s Pixel 5, which has its own reverse wireless charging feature known as “Battery Share”. Fortunately, that changes with the Galaxy Watch 4 series.
We have confirmed that the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 4 Classic will charge on a Pixel 5 using ‘Battery Share’. It works consistently every time we’ve tried it, although we couldn’t test to see if it gets the same speeds as a Samsung phone. Charging was not working with a OnePlus 9 and its reverse charge feature.
In more exciting news, the Galaxy Watch 4 seems to support at least some Qi chargers. It still works most reliably on the included charging washer, but for once it looks like other chargers are working.
I tested the Watch 4 on many of my Qi chargers, including the entire Nomad base station series and other brands, and most just didn’t work at all. However, two have shown promise. A slim charger I bought from Nonda triggered the charge, but the Watch 4 then interrupted it a moment later and refused to continue charging. I had better luck with an older dual device charger from Choetech, but this product was unfortunately discontinued (and the company banned from Amazon).
It’s unclear why some chargers work and others don’t, but the two examples here are a mouthwatering tease of what should have been. Wireless charging is a great open standard, and it’s a shame that Samsung is locking down how you can charge its smartwatches. Hopefully this is the first step towards making this change for the better.
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