Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro reportedly burns user, leaving visible burn marks

One of the key health features of modern smartwatches is their ability to track your sleep overnight. Naturally, for the feature to work, you’ll have to wear your smartwatch to bed, which makes some people uncomfortable. This fear is not unfounded, as there have been past reports of smartwatches overheating and burning the wrists of users overnight. The latest example comes from user ksima_03 on r/samsunggalaxy on Reddit, who claims that their Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro burned their wrist overnight.

The user explains that they wore their watch to bed and “woke up with a burn on my arm”. We can clearly see what look like burn marks on the user’s wrists in the attached photo. The user further explains that “the watch was fully charged when I went to bed, completely dead when I woke up, and now it won't turn on”. While we can't know the exact cause of the alleged issue, it appears to be a serious malfunction in which the smartwatch went full throttle, couldn’t control its power output, and overheated, leaving visible burn marks.

The reactions to user ksima_03’s post on r/samsunggalaxy have been diverse. While some people are suggesting that the OP hire a lawyer and sue Samsung, others suggest that it might be a case of Contact Dermatitis. The reasoning for the latter is that, had it been a second-degree burn, the OP would’ve woken up from sleep. We suspect there might be more to the story than the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro simply going haywire, as the OP admits that they have been sleeping with the smartphone for three years without any issues.

At the time of writing, neither the user nor Samsung has issued any update. We’ll update the story if and when more details emerge.

Finally, if you were in the process of shopping for a Galaxy smartwatch, don’t feel discouraged. We reviewed the latest Galaxy Watch 9 in September and were quite impressed by the smartwatch’s features, accurate measurements, and more.

Buy the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 on Amazon

Fawad Murtaza - Senior Tech Writer - 1759 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2021

I am Fawad, a fellow tech nerd. As a tech junkie, my relationship with technology goes back to my childhood years. Getting my first Intel Pentium 4 PC was the start of journey that would eventually bring me to Notebookcheck. Finally, I have been writing for tech media since 2018. From small no-name projects to industry leaders, I have worked with a number of tech publications.