It seems that Wear OS market players are finally beginning to close to push the smartwatch market as a more coherent force. Google’s Wear OS 3 release might force smartwatch makers to finally upgrade their hardware to satisfy the software’s requirements, while component makers like Qualcomm and Samsung are stepping up their game to satisfy that upcoming demand. While it still has barely any users, Qualcomm might already be preparing the Snapdragon Wear 4100’s successor, a minimum of supported the chip maker’s own ASCII text file.
Qualcomm’s wearable platform remains to play a game of catch-up at now. Not only is every Snapdragon Wear chipset supported an older Snapdragon architecture, but the Snapdragon also Wear release cadence still hasn’t been trapped with their smartphone cousin’s yearly pace. However, a subsequent platform for smartwatches might finally change that, presuming Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon Wear 5100 this year.
That name comes from XDA’s analysis of Qualcomm’s code that refers to a “LAW.UM.2.0-00700-SW5100.0” build with the code name “Monaco.” The “LAW” part refers to Linux Android Wear, Wear OS’ last name, while the SW5100 might be the marketing name. It isn’t clear whether the code is being built on top of Android 10 or Android 11, but it may not matter at the end of the day because it is compatible with Wear OS 3.
XDA also makes a couple of guesses about the chipset’s specs, love it being supported by the 2020 Snapdragon 662 or 460 platforms. For comparison, the Snapdragon Wear 4100 last year was supported the 2018 Snapdragon 429, which suggests the Snapdragon Wear platform is finally beginning to catch up. However, the most important improvement is the use of 4 performance Cortex-A73 cores instead of the low-power Cortex-A53 cores that the Snapdragon 4100 uses.
It remains to be seen if the 11nm Snapdragon Wear 5100 will outperform the upcoming 5nm Samsung Exynos W920 that’s expected to debut within the Galaxy Watch 4 next week. It’d appear to be little progress, except for smartwatch fans; it could still mark a big improvement within the Snapdragon Wear narrative.
