{"id":20457,"date":"2022-07-20T18:49:46","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T18:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomm-jumps-back-into-the-smartwatch-market-with-4-nm-w5-gen1-soc\/"},"modified":"2022-07-20T18:49:46","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T18:49:46","slug":"qualcomm-jumps-back-into-the-smartwatch-market-with-4-nm-w5-gen1-soc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomm-jumps-back-into-the-smartwatch-market-with-4-nm-w5-gen1-soc\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualcomm jumps back into the smartwatch market with 4 nm \u201cW5+ Gen1\u201d SoC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<p>Qualcomm<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"social-left\" class=\"social-left\" aria-label=\"Read the comments or share this article\">\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- cache hit 78:single\/related:8ce4649c9b583aa4329bdaf2f74d4039 --><!-- empty --><\/p>\n<p>Qualcomm&#8217;s long-awaited update to its smartwatch SoC line is official.  These chips have typically been called &#8220;Snapdragon Wear,&#8221; but it sounds like that brand is dead, so it&#8217;s time to meet the &#8220;Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen1&#8221; and &#8220;Snapdragon W5 Gen1.&#8221;  Qualcomm promises that the chips provide the company&#8217;s &#8220;most advanced leap yet,&#8221; which is not saying much for a company that previously went six years between major smartwatch chip releases.<\/p>\n<p>The W5+ does seem like a major update, though.  Compared to 2020&#8217;s Wear 4100, Qualcomm is promising &#8220;2X performance across CPU, GPU, camera, memory, and video\/audio,&#8221; &#8220;50 percent longer battery life&#8221; providing &#8220;days of use,&#8221; and a &#8220;30 percent smaller&#8221; chip for designer designs.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Wear 4100 at its time of release, the W5 is built on a state-of-the-art 4 nm manufacturing process.  Qualcomm outfitted the chip with four ARM Cortex A53 CPUs running at up to 1.7 GHz and an Adreno A702 GPU.  The &#8220;plus&#8221; version includes a second 22 nm SOC based on the Cortex M55 for screen-off background processes, like keeping the watch face updated, staying on top of notifications, and tracking fitness stats.  Qualcomm promises low-power islands for Wi-Fi, GPS, and audio so that those features can be used without lighting up the whole chip.  The SoC has support for an LTE modem, Wi-Fi 802.11n (aka Wi-Fi 4), and Bluetooth 5.3<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\">\n    <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span>    <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img full-width\" style=\"width:980px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"only the \" plus=\"\" version=\"\" gets=\"\" that=\"\" co-processor.=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/36-980x698.jpg?resize=980%2C698&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"980\" height=\"698\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Only the &#8220;plus&#8221; version gets that co-processor.<\/div>\n<p>Qualcomm<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It&#8217;s hard to know where the W5+ will sit in the Android smartwatch chip hierarchy.  Its competition, the Samsung Exynos W920, has two A55 cores built on a 5 nm process.  Qualcomm has the process node advantage, but Samsung is using newer cores, and Qualcomm is using four cores compared to Samsung&#8217;s two.  We need someone to run Geekbench on both watches, but it sounds like the two chips will split single-thread and multi-thread victories.  At the very least, the Qualcomm chip is competitive, hopefully marking a new era of the company taking the smartwatch market more seriously.<\/p>\n<p>Qualcomm says it already has round and square watch reference designs from ODMs Compal and Pegatron ready to go for partners.  That will be helpful for the majority of Wear OS manufacturers, who are mostly just fashion brands that need a lot of third-party help.  If you don&#8217;t make your own chips or have Google&#8217;s seemingly exclusive deal with Samsung, Qualcomm is the only game in town for smartwatch chips, so the company says partners have 25 designs in the pipeline already.  Oppo and Mobvoi (the makers of TicWatch) are the first out of the gate and should have new watches with the chips out this fall.<\/p>\n<p><em>Listing image by Qualcomm<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Qualcomm Qualcomm&#8217;s long-awaited update to its smartwatch SoC line is official. These chips have typically been called &#8220;Snapdragon Wear,&#8221; but it sounds like that brand is dead, so it&#8217;s time to meet the &#8220;Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen1&#8221; and &#8220;Snapdragon W5 Gen1.&#8221; Qualcomm promises that the chips provide the company&#8217;s &#8220;most advanced leap yet,&#8221; which is &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomm-jumps-back-into-the-smartwatch-market-with-4-nm-w5-gen1-soc\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Qualcomm jumps back into the smartwatch market with 4 nm \u201cW5+ Gen1\u201d SoC<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":19359,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomm-launches-snapdragon-wear-5-plus-to-give-wear-os-watches-a-boost\/","url_meta":{"origin":20457,"position":0},"title":"Qualcomm launches Snapdragon Wear 5 Plus to give Wear OS watches a boost","date":"July 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"While Qualcomm's Snapdragon Wear chips power the vast majority of current Wear OS watches, the platform itself has never really delivered. Thus far, Snapdragon Wear chips have been repurposed mobile processor designs built on outdated tech and are a big reason why Wear OS watches have been so lackluster. But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19733,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomms-snapdragon-w5-promises-big-speed-and-battery-gains-for-wear-os-watches\/","url_meta":{"origin":20457,"position":1},"title":"Qualcomm&#8217;s Snapdragon W5+ promises big speed and battery gains for Wear OS watches","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Snapdragon-based Wear OS smartwatches haven't typically kept pace with rivals from Apple and Samsung. The Wear 4100+ was built using relatively old manufacturing processes, and the performance was rarely noteworthy. Qualcomm appears to have taken some of those criticisms to heart, though, as it's introducing Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22158,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mobvoi-teases-its-next-gen-ticwatch-powered-by-a-snapdragon-w5-gen-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":20457,"position":2},"title":"Mobvoi teases its next-gen TicWatch powered by a Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1","date":"July 22, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The smartwatch is due to launch in the coming months Source: Mobvoi Qualcomm chips for the Wear OS platform have not been as good as its smartphone SoCs. They are among the key reasons why many Wear OS smartwatches have been riddled with performance and battery life issues. The San\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19578,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/snapdragon-w5-gen-1-battery-life-heres-what-to-expect\/","url_meta":{"origin":20457,"position":3},"title":"Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 battery life \u2013 Here&#8217;s what to expect","date":"July 19, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is a huge leap forward for Wear OS smartwatches in terms of both performance and efficiency, and Qualcomm is making huge claims for battery life. Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is built on top of a 4nm process, making it a far more efficient chipset compared\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/9to5google.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/snapdragon-w5-plus-battery-1.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20105,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomms-new-w5-chips-could-bring-better-battery-life-to-smart-watches-and-glasses\/","url_meta":{"origin":20457,"position":4},"title":"Qualcomm&#8217;s New W5 Chips Could Bring Better Battery Life to Smart Watches and Glasses","date":"July 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Qualcomm's upcoming new next-gen wearable chip platform, called the Snapdragon W5promises battery gains for upcoming Google Wear OS watches. On paper, the chips promise more powerful processing speed and better battery life, and they could allow smart watches to do more things in a low-power, always-on mode. The 4nm system\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"A look inside a watch using Qualcomm's new chips, the layers splitting apart","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.cnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/40490413c50b1ab6d2595f27d6493a4b34b4c40f\/2022\/07\/18\/b1eec52f-eddd-43c7-a315-c90678391a05\/expanded-smartwatch-w5-gen1no-nfc.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14810,"url":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/qualcomm-teases-its-next-gen-snapdragon-wear-chip-and-we-couldnt-be-more-excited\/","url_meta":{"origin":20457,"position":5},"title":"Qualcomm teases its next-gen Snapdragon Wear chip, and we couldn&#8217;t be more excited","date":"July 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Every time we look, it feels like Qualcomm is coming out with a new chip to power the latest Android phones \u2014 like the new Snapdragon we met a few weeks back. But for as frequently as we get a new smartphone SoC, the same cannot be said for the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Technology&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Snapdragon-W5-Platform-Summary-760x380.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}