It's fair to say that when it comes to Wear OS, we haven't always been forgiving of Qualcomm's effort, or perhaps even lack of, when it comes to producing a modern chipset capable of powering the wearable platform to its full potential. Until now. With a new 4nm processor, speedier RAM performance, and a re-imagined co-processor, the Snapdragon 5+ Gen 1 offers up to twice the performance and up to 50% longer battery life than the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ platform. Frankly, I'm kinda excited about what this means for the Wear OS platform and can't wait to see Mobvoi and Oppo's upcoming smartwatches.
Based on the 4nm process, the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chipset offers 50% more power efficiency, twice the performance, more features, and is 30% smaller than the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ from 2020. A 22nm co-processor is Always On (AON) and boasts its own Bluetooth, GNSS, WiFi, Audio, and GPS connectivity which takes the load off the main processor, which, along with the Deep Sleep and Hibernate modes, helps to achieve the huge boost in battery life.
“Pankaj Kedia, and global head of Smart Wearables, senior director, product marketing, Qualcomm Technologies said “The new wearable platforms – Snapdragon W5+ and Snapdragon W5 – represent our most advanced leap yet. Purpose-built for next generation wearables, these platforms address the most pressing consumer needs by delivering ultra-low power, breakthrough performance, and highly integrated packaging. Additionally, we extend our proven hybrid architecture with new low power innovations such as Deep Sleep and Hibernate states delighting consumers with premium user experiences while extending battery life.”
Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 Features
- Breakthrough performance, supporting interactive user experiences with dramatic improvements, including 3D watch faces, real-time 3D maps, video calling, smart device control, and real-time image recognition
- Smarter Always-On (AON) co-processor for offloaded use cases, including a ML core and Bluetooth 5.2 baseband with RF
- Ultra-low power platform based on 4nm process technology and series of platform optimizations including system-level power management and all-new components, delivering 30-60% power reductions for key use cases, and >50% battery life improvements for typical scenarios
- Broad support for sensor experiences including sports, activity tracking, heart rate- based ECG/CHRM/SPO2 health monitoring and fall detection.
- Modular design and a complete solution, collaborating with leading ecosystem partners, to enable customers to scale across segments
- First reference designs, developed with Compal, Pegatron, and Goertek, to help customers bring products to market faster
- High integration of components with 25-35% smaller footprint enables premium smartwatches to shrink on the X, Y, and Z axes, supporting thinner designs and/or smaller wrists
The Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chipset differs from its ‘Plus' sibling in that it doesn't benefit from the AON co-processor, instead supporting third-party microcontrollers of the OEM's choosing. The SDW5 will likely be more prevalent in smartwatches aimed at the kids, health, and fitness segments.
Oppo and Mobvoi are the first OEMs to stake their claim to the new Snapdragon W5+Gen 1 platform, with the former planning to announce its Watch 3 series during August, and the latter sometime thereafter.
What do you think of Qualcomm's new Snapdragon W5+Gen 1 platform? Is it what Wear OS users have been waiting so long for? One thing is for sure, Samsung will need to keep on its toes now that it has stepped on Qualcomm's toes by collaborating so closely with Google on the new unified Wear OS.
