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Qualcomm Gets Serious About Smartwatch Chips

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Jul 19, 2022, 4:53 PM by Rich Brome @richbrome

Qualcomm has introduced a new chip designed to power the next generation of smartwatches. The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is a major leap over the company's previous efforts, offering "50% lower power, 2X higher performance, 2X richer features, and 30% smaller size compared to previous generation". Much of the raw efficiency benefit comes from moving to a 4nm manufacturing process, the current state of the art for high-performance chips. The previous generation (Snapdragon Wear 4100+) used a relatively old, inefficient 12nm process. The new chip supports Bluetooth 5.3 and LTE, as well as cameras. It has several new features that enable various low-power modes, and it's paired with an always-on co-processor chip. Qualcomm says the new chip is powerful enough to enable features such as "3D watch faces, rich real-time maps, and even two-way video calls." Qualcomm says that 25 new smartwatches will launch soon using the chip.

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