qualcomm-snapdragon-w5+-and-w5-gen-1-bring-huge-speed-and-battery-gains-to-wearables
Qualcomm on Tuesday introduced its Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and W5 Gen platforms, calling the newest {hardware} improve its “most advanced leap yet” within the wearables sector. That’s not simply advertising hyperbole, both. Qualcomm is claiming twice the efficiency and a large uplift in battery life in comparison with its Snapdragon 4100+ platform.
One factor you will discover instantly is that Qualcomm has dismissed its Snapdragon Wear branding. Qualcomm has simplified its branding over the previous yr, and because it applies to wearables, the brand new W5+ and W5 take the baton. Both of those are constructed on a cutting-edge 4-nanometer manufacturing course of, which is a big leap (in manufacturing tech) from the 12nm node used for the Snapdragon Wear 4100+. That’s for the primary chip. The W5+ Gen 1 earns its “Plus” designation by together with a 22nm always-on (AON) coprocessor.
Diving deeper into the specs, the first chip packs 4 Arm Cortex-A53 cores, together with a single Cortex-M55 core (250MHz) to deal with synthetic intelligence and machine studying workloads. And for graphics, there’s an Adreno 702 GPU clocked at 1GHz, which represents a major improve over the Adreno 504 GPU clocked at 320MHz that Qualcomm used for its Snapdragon Wear 4100+. Rounding issues out is help for 16GB of LPDDR4-2133 RAM.
It’s honest to level out that Qualcomm may have used much more highly effective cores in its W5 chipsets, such because the Cortex-A55. However, there’s fairly a little bit of muscle on faucet for wearables right here. According to Qualcomm, the enhancements it made to its hybrid structure allow a 2X efficiency uplift, 2X richer options, and 50 % decrease powered, all in a 30 % smaller package deal in comparison with the earlier technology.
“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,” Qualcomm’s Pankaj Kedia stated in a press release.
The Snapdragon W5+ and W5 Gen 1 ought to pave the way in which for some spectacular smartwatch releases to compete with the Apple Watch. To get issues began, Qualcomm introduced two reference designs from Compal and Pegatron to showcase the capabilities of its new chipsets. Additionally, Qualcomm says there are over two dozen designs within the pipeline.