How to improve battery life on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 – Android Police

Samsung improves its Galaxy smartwatches’ battery life with every iteration, and the Galaxy Watch 6 is the best yet. In our Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 review, we found we regularly got two days of use with regular use.

Two days of battery life is excellent for a WearOS smartwatch. It can be better by adjusting the settings of the smartwatch and careful usage. No matter what you do, you’ll get better battery life than the Google Pixel Watch 2.

How long does the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 battery last?

Samsung claims the Galaxy Watch 6 lasts up to 40 hours on one charge. We confirmed this in our review, where it lasted up to 48. It dropped to 30 hours after turning on Always-on Display (AoD).

We recorded the Watch 6’s battery lasting around 36 hours with high-intensity use. This included fitness tracking, maximum brightness, continuous heart rate detection, and 10 miles of location tracking, although we turned off AoD for this test.

You won’t have many problems with the Galaxy Watch 6’s battery life with the smartwatch’s default settings. But it could be improved. We list the features that affect its battery life the most. Adjust one at a time until you’re happy rather than turning off everything at once.

Turn off Always On Display

Keeping your screen on constantly reduces your Galaxy Watch 6’s battery life. We recommend turning this off first. You may not need your smartwatch’s screen on when you’re not looking at it.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Scroll down and tap Display.
4. Toggle the Always On Display off.

   

Turn off Tilt-to-wake

Your Galaxy Watch 6 defaults to Raise wrist to wake when you turn off Always On Display. This uses less battery life. You can reduce it further by turning it off and turning on Touch screen to wake.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Scroll down and tap Display.
4. Toggle the Raise wrist to wake switch off.

   

   

Lower screen timeout duration

Regardless of how you wake your Galaxy Watch 6, it waits for a set period of no activity before turning off the screen. It uses more battery the longer you leave this setting on. You can’t lower it beyond 15 seconds.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Scroll down and tap Display.
4. Scroll down and tap Screen timeout.
5. Select the 15 seconds radio button.

   

   

Lower brightness

Lowering your Galaxy Watch 6’s brightness to improve battery life might seem obvious, but only do this if you turned on Always On Display. Otherwise, its impact will be unnoticeable.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Brightness (sun icon) button.
3. Decrease the wheel slider to a lower setting.

   

   

Turn off location tracking

Active location tracking can steadily drain your Galaxy Watch 6’s battery. Turn it on only when navigating.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Scroll down and tap the Location (Maps pin icon) button.
3. Toggle the On switch off.

   

   

Reduce vibration motor’s strength

If you get a lot of notifications on your Galaxy Watch 6, reducing the duration and intensity of its vibration motor can affect its battery life. Fine-tune these settings to affect only calls and notifications.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Scroll down and tap Sounds and vibration.
4. Tap Vibration.
5. Select the Short radio button under the Vibration duration heading.
6. Select the Light radio button under the Vibration intensity heading.

   

   

Use Bedtime Mode

Bedtime Mode turns off your Galaxy Watch 6’s screen and mutes notifications. It still notifies you of repeat callers.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Scroll down and tap Modes.
4. Tap the Sleep button.
5. Tap Turn on.

   

   

Deactivate ‘Hey Google’ detection

“Hey Google” detection runs constantly in the background, slowly draining your Galaxy Watch 6’s battery life. Turn it off if you don’t talk to your watch.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Scroll down and tap Google.
4. Tap Assistant.
5. Toggle the “Hey Google” switch off.

   

   

Deactivate wireless connections

Turning off the connectivity features of your Galaxy Watch 6 can improve its battery life. Turn off Bluetooth as a last resort, as this is what your smartwatch needs to connect to your phone.

1. Swipe down from your watch face.
2. Tap the Settings (cog icon) button.
3. Tap Connections.
4. Select Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or NFC and contactless​​​​​.
5. Toggle the On switch off.

   

   

Close unused apps

1. Swipe up from your watch face.
2. Tap Recent apps.
3. Drag an app up to close it or tap Close all.
4. Scroll to the right to see all apps running in the background.

   

   

Get the most battery life out of your Galaxy Watch 6

There are many ways to improve your Galaxy Watch 6’s battery life, but contact customer support if it runs out faster than expected. Now that your smartwatch is running in tip-top shape, explore everything it can do.