The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro has a very comfortable band when it is around your wrist, however, this band makes it difficult for the watch to lie flat when you want to wirelessly charge it. You can set it down, but the band pushes the watch up off the pad and causes it to fall off to one side or the other.
This charging issue affects most charging pads, including the one Samsung gave out for free during the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro pre-orders. Now the South Korean company has developed a solution, a charging cradle, to get around the band being too rigid.
The Galaxy Watch Charging Cradle has first been spotted on sale on Samsung’s UK website for £20 (Ksh 2800). It lets you set your Galaxy Watch up on the charger off of a surface, allowing the bands to hang free.
The relatively low price for the cradle is because the charger is not self-sufficient. It does not have its own powered wireless charging pad, relying on users to insert their own charging puck that comes with the Galaxy Watch.
By approaching the charging cradle in this manner, it makes the device viable to be of use for the following Galaxy Watches; Galaxy Watch Active 2, Galaxy Watch 3, Watch 4 and Watch 5.
At the time of writing, the Galaxy Watch Cradle is only available for sale in the United Kingdom, you can view it from other countries’ Samsung sites however, the relevant pages lack details and a price.
Prior to the introduction of the charging cradle, users took to various forums sharing tips and tricks to get their Watch 5 Pro to stay on the charger. One user on Reddit suggested hanging the small charging side off an edge and slipping the band over the charging pad. You would then need to bend the band ends that are attached to the watch backwards to make the connection.
It is a very risky way to approach the situation that way, and a slight shake to your table could lead to damaging both your Galaxy Watch and the wireless charging pad. A few tech-savvy users already fired up their 3D printers and designed their own cradles to get their Galaxy Watch charging properly.
For the rest of the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro owners, the Galaxy Watch Charging Cradle is the best way to get around the issue, and the relatively low price makes it a no-brainer purchase. You just have to be patient until Samsung avails it in your region.