Google’s smartwatch range could finally catch up with Samsung’s on performance in 2026 – provided Samsung opts to stand still for another year.
The imminent Google Pixel Watch 4 is rumoured to be using exactly the same Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 chip as the Google Pixel Watch 3 before it – and that’s already a pretty outdated component.
According to Android Authority, after several years of stagnation Qualcomm is finally working on a new wearables platform. Indeed, this new chip could be the first properly bespoke Qualcomm wearables chip yet, with prior examples essentially taking the form of modified smartphone chips with additional off-the-shelf components.
Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 specs
This new chip, designated the SW6100 and codenamed Aspen, will be different.
Whether it will be called the W5 Gen 2 or the W6 Gen 1 is by the by – the important part is that it’s going to be meaningfully better. That means a smaller, more efficient production process, a RAM controller that’s upgraded to support LPDDR5X (rather than the W5 Gen 1’s LPDDR4), and a new QCC6100 coprocessor.
The site claims that the CPU core configuration will include one Arm Cortex-A78 core and four Arm Cortex-A55 cores. That’s a massive upgrade on the W5 Gen 1’s four Cortex A53 cores and one Cortex M55 efficiency core.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Qualcomm’s playing catch-up
Of course, there’s a big caveat in all this. Qualcomm’s new wearable chip specification will feature the exact same core set-up as Samsung’s Exynos W1000, which debuted in last year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.
With the recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 using the same chip as its predecessor, there’s every chance that next year’s Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 will move to a new and even more capable chip.
In other words, just as Qualcomm catches up with Samsung’s 2024 smartwatch chip, there’s a chance Samsung itself could be moving on to a next-gen component for its 2026 smartwatch.
