Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2<\/b> and W5 Gen 2<\/b>, its latest chips for smartwatches. <\/p>\n
Despite succeeding the three-year-old Snapdragon W5 and W5+<\/a>, the new wearable chips have no performance gains<\/b>. Instead, they have improved connectivity (more on that later). They are built on the same 4nm process as the first-generation Snapdragon W5, and use the same quad-core CPU with four Cortex A-53 cores.<\/p>\n The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 differs from the non-plus model in that it features a low-power, 22nm M55 co-processor <\/b>that improves sensor performance and efficiency. Though the standard non-plus Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 lacks this co-processor, Google uses it in its new Google Pixel Watch 4<\/a>. Both the Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 are compatible with the latest version of Wear OS. <\/p>\n The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 focus on upgrades in connectivity and power efficiency. The main highlight is satellite support<\/b>, with Qualcomm claiming that they are \u201cthe first to introduce satellite support to the wearable industry, leveraging Skylo\u2019s Narrowband Non-Terrestrial Network (NB-NTN).\u201d This allows wearables powered by either chip to send and receive emergency messages<\/b> even without a celullar connection.<\/p>\n The second upgrade is improved GPS positioning accuracy<\/b> by up to 50% thanks to Location Machine Learning 3.0, resulting in more reliable real-time navigation and tracking in urban environments and deep canyon areas. <\/p>\n Qualcomm also optimised the RF Front End (RFFE), making it 20% smaller and more power-efficient, paving the way for OEMs to deliver thinner and more efficient smartwatches.<\/p>\n