Qualcomm introduced a brand new {hardware} platform destined to energy wearable gadgets resembling smartwatches. Two chips referred to as Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 will take the slot beforehand occupied by the Snapdragon Wear 4100/4100+ present in watches from Mason, Zebra, TAG, or Louis Vuitton.

When new wearables arrive in the marketplace, shoppers can anticipate appreciable velocity enhancements (as much as 2X) and battery life (as much as +50%). This is because of Qualcomm utilizing a complicated 4nm (nanometer) semiconductor manufacturing course of and an improved chip design.

The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is extra superior because it options an Always-ON (AON) unit optimized for voice recognition, media playback, positioning, and different duties that don’t require the central processor to be ON.

The Qualcomm specs present some “Power Islands” on the W5+ Gen 1. In chip-design terminology, it implies that complete sections of the chips may be turned fully OFF (no energy in any respect) for max battery life. These sections are Audio, Wi-Fi, and GNSS.

Additionally, the identical mannequin has Deep Sleep and Hibernate energy states that the W5 (non-plus) doesn’t have. While energy utilization won’t be zero, it’s nonetheless considerably diminished to a trickle.

Without going into all of the technical particulars, this new technology of wearable processors appears very promising and thrilling from a consumer perspective. Speed and Battery Life have been two conventional ache factors for wearables, and these W5/W5+ Gen 1 processors hit all the best factors.

Lastly, Qualcomm has labored “very closely” with Google to optimize Wear OS for the brand new {hardware}. Hopefully, gadgets will function near-maximum efficiency on day 1.

Filed in General. Read extra about Qualcomm, Smartwatches and Wearable Tech.