It may sound strange, but many people today are genuinely perplexed about where the Wear OS operating system came from. Meanwhile, this is the same Android Wear that Google has renamed to give the platform for wearables a kind of autonomy, which it has always lacked. Not to say that something has changed greatly from this. The disappearance of the reference to Android from the name not only did not make Wear OS more independent, but, on the contrary, turned it into something helpless and, in essence, hopeless. But help came from where they did not expect.
Wear OS smartwatches will get cooler. But only if the manufacturers want it
Qualcomm has unveiled a new generation of processors for wearable devices called Snapdragon Wear 4100 and Snapdragon Wear 4100+. They continue the traditions laid down by their predecessors, with the only exception that new items have, firstly, higher energy efficiency, and, secondly, they have greater productivity. Affected by the improvement of the technological process. If earlier in the production of processors a 28-nm technical process was used, now it is 12-nm.
New smart watch for Android
Performance boosts can make smartwatches better
The key advantage of the Snapdragon Wear 4100 is, of course, its performance. According to Qualcomm, the new product is 85% ahead of the previous generation chip. This is a very tangible increase that will have a positive impact on the computing power of smartwatches coming out in the future. And gadgets with the new chipset will start appearing on the market by the end of this year. The first watch that can boast the presence of Snapdragon Wear 4100 will be a watch from Mobvoi. It is true what this model will be, has not yet been disclosed.
Does a watch need performance as such? After all, you can't play games on them, and you can't edit a video either. But, as practice shows, it is on this indicator that the effective performance of the tasks assigned to them depends, including with the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Thanks to the more powerful hardware, the watch will be able to more quickly and accurately perform various kinds of calculations, for example, to make a diagnosis or identify the symptoms of a specific disease.
Smart watch or fitness bracelet
Performance will expand the medical capabilities of smartwatches
Autonomy was also improved. Thanks to this, a watch based on the Snapdragon Wear 4100 will now be able to perform many tasks that last for hours at a time. This will be very important for continuous body screenings. For example, when monitoring blood pressure daily, counting the pulse or measuring the level of oxygen in the blood. Practice shows that the greatest efficiency of measurements is achieved if they are carried out continuously for several hours – 8-10. Some fitness bracelets already do this without special chips.
Will these innovations be reflected in the watch market? I think if the manufacturers themselves do not want this, they will not be reflected. Still, a processor alone is not enough for success. It is necessary for the watch to have an attractive design, have a wide range of functions and, which is important, cost reasonable money. And then, if you look at the market now, it becomes clear that there is simply no point in acquiring a smart watch in conditions when there are such cool fitness bracelets on sale 5-10 times cheaper, there is simply no. So think now, why was this processor needed at all?