According to a recent source, Qualcomm is working on a new Snapdragon chip that will be a significant improvement for Wear OS smartwatches.
Over the years, Qualcomm has produced a number of Wear OS wearable chipsets, but there have been some significant performance and scheduling issues. Although the Snapdragon W5 series, which was introduced in 2022, was a significant and long-overdue advancement, Qualcomm has been quiet about its replacement for some time.
Now, some information on the upcoming Snapdragon CPU for Wear OS—likely the “W5 Gen 2” or “W6 Gen 1″—has surfaced.
Citing “credible evidence,” Android Authority says that Qualcomm has been developing a new Snapdragon chip for Wear OS that incorporates a number of significant improvements. The first of those is switching from a Samsung production method to TSMC, which should increase battery life on its own. Likewise, modernized DDR5 memory ought to offer a relatively little increase in performance. The cores themselves represent a far greater source of improvement. Although these new cores aren’t the newest ones on the market, the purported 1x Arm Cortex-A78 + 4x Arm Cortex-A55 arrangement replaces certain cores that were based on designs that were first launched more than ten years ago.
Even though it’s uncertain when this chip will be released, it’s encouraging to know that it’s being developed. Wear OS smartwatches based on the current Snapdragon W5 series offer good performance and a long battery life, but it’s encouraging to see that things might get much better. Google’s future Pixel Watch 4 is likely to be built on the current Snapdragon W5, since the source indicates that the chip is not yet in production and will not be making its appearance anytime soon.
