Tuesday, July 19th 2022

Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon W5+ and W5 Platforms for Next Generation Wearables

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today unveiled the latest additions to the company's suite of premium wearable platforms, Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon W5 Gen 1. These platforms are designed to advance ultra-low power and breakthrough performance for next generation connected wearables with a focus on extended battery life, premium user experiences, and sleek, innovative designs. By using these platforms, manufacturers can scale, differentiate, and develop products faster in the continuously growing and segmenting wearables industry.

New enhancements to the flagship Snapdragon W5+ platform offer 50% lower power, 2X higher performance, 2X richer features, and 30% smaller size, compared to our previous generation, enabling wearable manufacturers to deliver the differentiated experiences consumers demand. Based on the hybrid architecture, the purpose-built platform is comprised of a 4 nm-based system-on-chip and 22 nm-based highly integrated always-on co-processor. It incorporates a series of platform innovations including new ultra-low power Bluetooth 5.3 architecture, low power islands for Wi-Fi, GNSS, and Audio, and low power states such as Deep Sleep and Hibernate.
"The wearables industry continues to grow and present opportunities across multiple segments at an unprecedented pace," said Pankaj Kedia, senior director, product marketing, and global head of Smart Wearables, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "The new wearable platforms - Snapdragon W5+ and Snapdragon W5 - represent our most advanced leap yet. 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."

"Google and Qualcomm Technologies have a longstanding history of helping our partners deliver great user experiences. We applaud the technological breakthroughs that Qualcomm Technologies is bringing to the wearables industry with the launch of its Snapdragon W5+ platform," said Bjorn Kilburn, GM and Senior Director of Wear OS at Google. "With the Snapdragon W5+ platform, we're excited for what's possible in bringing new levels of performance, capability and battery life to Wear OS smartwatches."

"We are thrilled to be working with a range of customers and partners, thus expanding our thriving wearable ecosystem, and are delighted to announce 25 designs in the pipeline across segments based on the new platforms. We have collaborated extensively with our first customers, Oppo and Mobvoi, over the last year and look forward to seeing their products," said Kedia.

"The announcement of the latest Snapdragon W5 wearable platform will bring smart wearable technology to a new level," said Franco Li, OPPO Associate Vice President, President of IoT Business. "OPPO and Qualcomm Technologies have closely collaborated for a long time, creating new possibilities of product innovation together. The Oppo Watch 3 series will be launched in August. As the first smartwatch powered by Snapdragon W5 wearable platform, it will delight our users with better performance."

"Mobvoi has collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies over the last few years to launch a series of TicWatch smartwatches based on the Snapdragon Wear platforms," said Zhifei Li, CEO, Mobvoi. "Our team is excited about the differentiated features in the new Snapdragon W5+ Wearable Platform and has been working closely with the Qualcomm Technologies' team to bring these innovations to life in our next gen TicWatch flagship smartwatch. We are eager to launch our latest offering this Fall and are thrilled to be the first smartwatches based on the Snapdragon W5+ Gen1 Wearable Platform."

Qualcomm Technologies also announced two reference designs from Compal and Pegatron, which showcase the capabilities of the platform and our collaboration with ecosystem partners, helping customers develop products faster.
Source: Qualcomm
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10 Comments on Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon W5+ and W5 Platforms for Next Generation Wearables

#1
Denver
I don't understand why having all the investment of creating this soc in 4nm, but still being based on the old A53 cores...
Posted on Reply
#2
LuxZg
I just want to know if it will have battery life od several days or weeks? And will it be able to track all sensors + GPS for 40+ hours, or 4 hours? Because I charge my watch once in 3 weeks or more, and all those wearables with 1-2 day battery life at 300$+ are terrible tech in 2022.
Posted on Reply
#3
Denver
LuxZgI just want to know if it will have battery life od several days or weeks? And will it be able to track all sensors + GPS for 40+ hours, or 4 hours? Because I charge my watch once in 3 weeks or more, and all those wearables with 1-2 day battery life at 300$+ are terrible tech in 2022.
I agree. Everything advances except current lithium battery technology.

I was expecting the Galaxy Watch4 to have an autonomy of at least a few days, but it has to be charged every day.. unfortunately. it sucks.
Posted on Reply
#4
Fourstaff
DenverI don't understand why having all the investment of creating this soc in 4nm, but still being based on the old A53 cores...
Possibly licensing fees, or they started the work many years back and never bothered to upgrade to A55 or A510. Or the design team is very experienced in making A53 do what they want whether its switching power states or just plain efficiency. Anyone else want to hazard a guess?
Posted on Reply
#5
Laykun
I'm sure the industry would have grown a lot faster if they didn't sit on their thumbs for half a decade and let the eco-system languish with their rubbish wear processors. Now that Samsung is eating their lunch in the wearables space and actually growing it with compelling products, they're all of a sudden interested in making something for it. Qualcomm has literally NO vision and they are a leader of NOTHING except mediocre products.
Posted on Reply
#6
Minus Infinity
LaykunI'm sure the industry would have grown a lot faster if they didn't sit on their thumbs for half a decade and let the eco-system languish with their rubbish wear processors. Now that Samsung is eating their lunch in the wearables space and actually growing it with compelling products, they're all of a sudden interested in making something for it. Qualcomm has literally NO vision and they are a leader of NOTHING except mediocre products.
This ^

Google and Qualcomm showed nothing but contempt for the wearables market until recently. This is major update but still not where it should be, but we are playing about 5 years of catchup.

Still anything is better than those butt ugly and expensive Apple watches.
Posted on Reply
#7
TheLostSwede
News Editor
DenverI don't understand why having all the investment of creating this soc in 4nm, but still being based on the old A53 cores...
Most likely chip size, as they need to make these things as small as possible. The A53 was already tiny and at 4 nm it should be ridiculously small.
Posted on Reply
#8
LuxZg
DenverI don't understand why having all the investment of creating this soc in 4nm, but still being based on the old A53 cores...
Because even A53 is overkill for a wearable device, and on 4nm it makes is very small and cheap, yet perfectly capable for what it needs to do.
DenverI agree. Everything advances except current lithium battery technology.

I was expecting the Galaxy Watch4 to have an autonomy of at least a few days, but it has to be charged every day.. unfortunately. it sucks.
It's not really that Li-ion battery is at fault here.

I have Huawei smartwatch, Huawei Watch GT (to be precise), and I rarely even fill it to 100%, and wear it 3 weeks (20+ days) without even taking it off except to maybe wash it properly every now and then. Then when I see it's below 10% next time I go to a bit longer shower I let it charge till I'm done, and it's between 80-90% usually by then. And then 3 weeks again. I tried longer tracks with GPS, and from how little battery it spent, I extrapolated that I could walk/jogg for 40+ hours straight, with GPS, heartbeat, and all that, and it would still survive ( I sure wouldn't ;D ). It has low end ARM Cortex M4 and 420 mAh battery. It does heart sensor, step counter, sleep tracking, GPS tracking, exercise tracking, has neat flashlight function I use all the time, and when synced to phone it has nice reports and naturally does notifications and - time :) oh and I use that "where's my phone" ringing thing at least once a week sure it's custom OS, and you can't install apps to it, but I really never wanted it to be a smartphone replacement, just a true wearable with bunch of sensors that can expand my phone's "smartness". It does work without a phone, including GPS. Just sync it later to get reports.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 is rumored to be released in about a month, and sure it has LTE option, oxygen sensor, maybe a temperature sensor, glucose, or whatever, and they say 550mAh or larger battery. But it will probably again be 1-2 days, certainly just 1 day if you use all functions and 30-45min GPS tracking. That's terrible. I don't really need LTE on a watch, nor do I need it to play music, take (lousy) photos, or get earthquake reports while I'm away from phone. I have phone with me 95% of time anyway. I much more prefer just forgetting I have a smartwatch, and let it be on my hand uninterrupted for weeks.

Latest Huawei smartwatch line still has 2 weeks of battery life, with improved sensors vs my oldie. So it can be done. Just not using heavy Wear OS and bad SoC decisions.
Posted on Reply
#9
DarkReaper969
DenverI agree. Everything advances except current lithium battery technology.

I was expecting the Galaxy Watch4 to have an autonomy of at least a few days, but it has to be charged every day.. unfortunately. it sucks.
My Galaxy Watch 4 (44mm version) lasts mostly around 3 full days and then its left on around 20% battery. But i dont use it heavily, mostly to look at notifications/activity tracking/weather and sometimes some other stuff.
Posted on Reply
#10
Denver
TheLostSwedeMost likely chip size, as they need to make these things as small as possible. The A53 was already tiny and at 4 nm it should be ridiculously small.
Overall, the Cortex-A55 offers a significant 15% improvement in power efficiency. In designs where power is more important than performance, it can be tuned to deliver the same level of performance as the Cortex-A53 at a whopping 30% lower power!

The competition (Samsung) already uses Cortex A55 in its latest SOC.
Posted on Reply
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