Qualcomm announces its new generation of processors for connected watches: the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and W5+ Gen 1. Two chips engraved in 4 nm, more powerful, smaller, but above all less energy-consuming than their elders.
With a constantly growing market, the universe of the connected watch is however the one that updates the least quickly. And faced with the monopoly of Apple and its Watch Series, the Android segment is still a little behind. But that could change this year, as Qualcomm has just announced the latest generation of smartwatch processors. SoCs which adopt the new nomenclature of mobile chips and which promise great advances.
More compact and less energy-consuming
The Snapdragon W5+ was mainly developed to reduce energy consumption on connected watches. Thus, Qualcomm has engraved the two chips in 4 nm (compared to 12 nm on the Snapdragon 4100+) and indicates that the autonomy of the watches will therefore be increased by 50%. A huge leap, especially since the processor is 30% smaller and promises double the power compared to the previous generation. A co-processor is also present. The latter is always active (always-on) and therefore makes it possible to manage simple tasks such as audio playback, notifications or voice processing, which makes it possible to offload the main SoC and above all offers the integration of Bluetooth 5.3, assumed to be even less energy intensive.
The architecture of the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 evolves and is composed of five cores (4x A53 + 1x M55) clocked at 250 MHz, five times more than the 4100+. The chip also gains a boosted GPU, the Adreno 720 clocked at 1 GHz, where the previous generation graphics chip was clocked at 320 MHz. Finally, a chip entirely dedicated to machine learning is included in the SoC, which should multiply the uses for manufacturers.
And the second chip in all this? Well, the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 is very similar to the Plus version, except that it does not have this famous always-on co-processor (also called AON). Qualcomm intends this processor for specific uses, such as watches for children, seniors or health, but also for specific markets, such as China or businesses. Sectors that do not seem to need a co-processor to manage background tasks more efficiently and thus reduce energy consumption.
The American founder specifies that 25 products are already planned to come out equipped with the W5+ chip. Names include Oppo and its Watch 3, which will be launched in August. Mobvoi, another Chinese company, is also one of the firms that has worked closely with Qualcomm to embed the new SoC in its next TicWatch. Finally, the American company adds that it has worked hand in hand with Google so that Wear OS makes the best use of the new chip. We can easily imagine that the latter will be present in the next generation of Galaxy Watch, which could be presented during Unpacked on August 10 … or even in the Pixel Watch, expected in the fall.