TL;DR The Google Pixel Watch 4 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon W5 Gen 2.
Qualcomm’s new wearables platform is the first to sport satellite connectivity, as well as more accurate GPS tracking.
The chip should also be slightly more power-efficient, but performance remains about the same.
It’s not often that we’re treated to new wearable processors, but the new Google Pixel Watch 4 has some new internals courtesy of Qualcomm. The new chip is the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2, though Qualcomm also has a Plus variant that we might see rolling out in other smartwatches soon.
So what’s new with the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 and W5 Plus Gen 2 platforms? Well, the headline feature is NB-NTN (Non-terrestrial network) support thanks to upgraded modem — or satellite communication to you and me. The sale pitch is simple: you can reach geo-stationary satellites to connect to emergency responders, share your location, and get assistance, even when outside of traditional network coverage — handy if you’ve left your phone in the car or don’t have satellite connectivity on your existing handset.
When it comes to the core processor, the new SW5150 is only a tweaked version of the SW5100 in the W5 Gen 1. It still has the same quad-core Cortex-A55 CPU layout with the same clock speeds, so there is no major performance boost on hand here. However, the newly optimized radio front end is smaller, contributing to a roughly 20% reduction in size and lower power consumption compared to W5 Gen 1 and W5+ Gen 1.
The Pixel Watch 4 is the first to standalone smartwatch to support emergency satellite comms, thanks to the W5 Gen 2.
While that won’t make wholesale changes to device battery life, every improvement is welcome when it comes to helping our smartwatches through a full day of use and more. Speaking of power, Qualcomm notes that while satellite connectivity is demanding, its intended use is only for short bursts in an emergency setting, so it will not negatively impact device battery life.
Perhaps more important for fitness fanatics, the W5 Gen 2 sports various machine learning enhancements to provide a 50% improvement to GPS positioning accuracy in difficult environments with poor signal. This could include navigating a run through high-rise city streets or riding your mountain bike through a deep canyon, ensuring that your recorded distances are as accurate as possible.
Qualcomm
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