Samsung Electronics unveiled its next generation of smartwatches Wednesday, introducing the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 and Galaxy Watch 9 alongside its new foldable phone lineup at the company's Galaxy Unpacked event in London, with both wearables gaining a faster processor, bigger batteries and brighter displays, along with higher price tags than their predecessors.

Both watches are now available for preorder, with general retail availability set for Aug. 7, the same release date as Samsung's newly announced Galaxy Z Fold 8 series.

A shared processor upgrade

For the first time, both the standard Galaxy Watch 9 and the rugged Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 move away from Samsung's own Exynos chips and onto Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Wear Elite processor, built on a 3-nanometer process. Samsung says the switch delivers a significant boost to overall speed and efficiency, particularly for on-device AI processing, while also enabling support for newer wireless standards including Bluetooth 6.0.

What's new on the Galaxy Watch 9

The standard Galaxy Watch 9 keeps a familiar cushion-shaped design similar to last year's Galaxy Watch 8, but gains a larger battery, now rated at 390mAh on the 40mm model and 445mAh on the larger 44mm version, along with a display capable of reaching 3,000 nits of peak brightness. The watch is available in Cream or Graphite for the 40mm size, with Graphite and Silver options for the 44mm model.

Pricing for the Galaxy Watch 9 varies depending on the specific retail source, with some outlets reporting a starting........

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