Qualcomm just unveiled two new processors—the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and Wear 4100—which will both power upcoming wearables running platforms like Google's Wear OS. Qualcomm claims the chips offer a sizeable bump over their predecessor, the Snapdragon Wear 3100, which debuted in 2018. That's mostly because the pair of new chips are fabricated on a 12-nanometer manufacturing process as opposed to the 3100's 28-nanometer process… Qualcomm claims that new smartwatches using the Wear 4100 chips can expect to see an 85 percent performance improvement over smartwatches using the Wear 3100, as well as 85 percent faster memory, 25 percent lower power usage, and a boost in graphics performance that's 2.5 times greater than the older chip. Such gains should result in faster app launches, a smoother user experience, better multitasking, and longer battery life.
(WIRED, June 30)
(WIRED, June 30)
- Fabricated on 12nm manufacturing process, the new brags for the processors are large gains in performance, battery life, and faster memory.
- The performance gains should help the line of processors elevate the Wear OS platform, which has been relegated to a niche role best described as ‘fashion with some athletic tracking’.