"Snapdragon Wear 429" is underway for Wear OS

One of the most important issues facing Google's operating system is the hardware it runs on. Since its debut in 2014, virtually all smart watches have been running on old hardware. Even the Snapdragon Wear 3100, released last year, reused the same basic concept as that of a 2013 chip. However, Qualcomm now seems to be preparing a new Snapdragon Wear chip, possibly called "429", intended for future Wear OS hardware. .

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A report today of WinFuture highlights two "portable test platforms" being tested at Qualcomm. Still at the beginning of the "hardware verification test" phase, the WTP2700 and WTP429W platforms, possibly called Snapdragon Wear 2700 or Snapdragon Wear 429, appear to be modified versions of the Snapdragon 429 chip currently used in devices such as the Nokia 3.2 for portable devices. .

This new chip benefits from significant upgrades to the current platform on which Qualcomm's portable chips are based. This includes four Cortex-A53 cores that support 64 bits and potentially a higher clock speed. The Snapdragon 429 in smartphones can reach 2.0 GHz. The platforms being tested have combined this chipset with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage, doubling the specifications of most current Wear OS watches.

Most OS Wear watches are currently running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip

More importantly, the energy efficiency should also generate big gains on this new "Snapdragon Wear 429" with a process of 12 nm compared to the 28 nm process used on the Snapdragon Wear 3100. There is of course also the support for LTE and Bluetooth 5.0 which should also contribute to energy savings.

As mentioned, most Wear OS watches are currently powered by Qualcomm chipsets, in particular the Snapdragon Wear 2100. While the 3100 was only a minor improvement over what preceded it, this Snapdragon Wear 429 "seems to be able to take a big step forward. in the right direction.

We do not know when (or if) we will see this in the material future, but WinFuture mentions that he may not be ready until next year. Let's hope that any "Pixel Watch" launched before that time does not use material that will be obsolete soon after.

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