Eric Zeman/Android Authority
TL; PhD
- More details of Qualcomm’s rumored Snapdragon Wear 5100 smartwatch chipset have been leaked.
- It is said that the SoC retains the quad-core A53 design of its predecessor, but has been upgraded to LPDDR4X RAM.
- For more adventurous original equipment manufacturers, the chipset can also bring dual camera support for wearable devices.
Last month, there was news that Qualcomm was developing a possible new wearable chipset. These preliminary reports pointed out the rumored Snapdragon Wear 5100 nickname of the chipset and provided some general design details. Now, a new report provides more information on these findings.
according to Win the future, Snapdragon Wear 5100 uses a quad-core design, but insists on using the Arm Cortex-A53 CPU used in the Snapdragon Wear 4100 series. The initial rumors point to four A73 cores, which will lead to a significant increase in processing power. Nevertheless, Qualcomm may prioritize efficiency over direct speed. Considering that the battery life of Wear OS smart watches is not long compared with competitors, we welcome this move.
More reading: Everything you need to know about smartphone chipsets
However, Qualcomm may find performance improvements in other areas. According to reports, a prototype uses 2GB of LPDDR4X RAM, which should increase power consumption and bandwidth compared to the 4100 series of LPDDR3 RAM. It also has a 16GB eMMC storage function, which will be a boon for offline music and application storage.
Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 5100: Support dual cameras?
More interestingly, according to reports, some prototypes support dual cameras with 5MP and 16MP sensors. We have seen cameras installed on some smart watches in the past. Although the Snapdragon 4100 series supports 16MP shooting games, they have not yet impressed flagship wearables. In theory, the camera on a smart watch can be used for identity verification or video calls on an LTE watch, but there is currently no evidence that any smart watch manufacturer is considering using these two uses.
Finally, the report shows that Samsung and China’s SMIC are producing chipsets. However, it is not yet clear when manufacturing will begin or when we will see the first wearable devices running SoCs. In fact, after the release in June 2020, only a few devices use Snapdragon Wear 4100 series chips. But the new chip is essential for future Wear OS smartwatches to keep up with Samsung’s Exynos-powered Galaxy Watch 4 series.