Qualcomm recently launched its next generation of chips for wearables. The Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 platform is the most powerful they have built for wearables. And it’s a major upgrade over their previous wearable platform which is the Wear 4100+. Check out Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 vs Snapdragon Wear 4100+ comparison and other details.
This big upgrade will change the Wear OS running wearables. Wear OS wasn’t an ideal choice for most users, but then Samsung came forward and saved it by adopting Wear OS in its Galaxy Watch. Of Course, it was available in other Smartwatches like Fossil, but it was in need of more reach that it finally got it from Galaxy Watch4.
And now with the new powerful Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1, Wear OS may finally touch higher goals. Like other Snapdragon wearable chips, this one also supports Wear OS. And according to the latest news, Oppo may be the first to power its smartwatch with the latest Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 platform in its Oppo Watch 3.
Why the new Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 is a big deal?
Qualcommโs latest Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 SoC and Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 SoC for wearables are based on 4nm process which is a big improvement over the 12nm used in the previous Snapdragon chips for wearables.
It seems quite good in papers, but can it match the performance of the Galaxy Watch4 which is based on a 5nm processor, and the Apple Watch Series 7 which is based on a 7nm processor. The actual improvement will only be seen after it is available on the Smartwatch and if WearOS can take advantage of it.
The new Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 comes with 50% less power consumption, double the performance, and double features. These improvements put the new Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 to the level of premium watches.
Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 vs Snapdragon Wear 4100+
Here are some on-paper comparisons between the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon Wear 4100+
| Spec | Snapdragon Wear 4100+ | Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 |
| Process Node | 12nm | 4nm |
| Co-process Node | 28nm | 22nm |
| CPU | 4x A53 + 1x M0 50MHz | 4x A53 + 1x M55 250MHz |
| GPU | A504 320MHz | A702 1GHz + 2.5D GPU |
| Memory | 1x 32 LPDDR3 750MHz | 1x 16 LPDDR4 2133MHz |
| Machine Learning | No | Yes (U55) |
| Modem | Rel 10 w/ Cat1, E911 | Rel 13 w/Cat 1bis, E911 w/ z-axis |
| GNSS | L1, PDR4.0 | L1+L5, PDR4.5 |
| Camera | Dual ISP, EIS 2.0 | Dual ISP, EIS3.0 |
| Bluetooth | BT 4.2/5.0 | BT 5.3, QHS |
| Integrated Speaker PA | Nona | 1W @ 13ฮฉ Class D |
| Size (Area) | 100mmยฒ SOC +28mmยฒ PMIC | 90mmยฒ (SoC + PMIC) |
| Size (Height) | 0.69mm max | 0.48mm max |
Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 Specification
Here’s the full specification of Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1.
| Spec | Value |
| AI Engine | Qualcomm Hexagon DSP V66K |
| CPU Clock Speed | Up to 1.7 GHz |
| CPU Cores | 4x ARM Cortex A53 |
| CPU Cores (Co-processor) | Cortex M55, 250MHz |
| Memory Speed | 2133MHz |
| Memory Type | LPDDR4 |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11n, 2.4 GHz/5 GHz |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Location | BeiDou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS |
| Cellular | LTE FDD, LTE TDD, 1x Adv, EV-DO Rev. A, TD-SCDMA, GSM/EDGE |
| NFC | Supported via third party |
| USB | USB 2.0 |
| Camera Features | EIS 3.0, Multi-frame Noise Reduction (MFNR), Pseudo ZSL, 2x CSI 4-lane DPHY/CPHY |
| Dual Camera | Up to 16 MP |
| GPU | Qualcomm Adreno A702 (1 GHz) |
| Security | Qualcomm Processor Security, Qualcomm Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) 4.0.5 |
| Software | Supports Wear OS by Google, Android, Free RTOS |
| Storage | eMMC 4.5 |
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