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Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon Wear 4100 for better performance and battery life on Wear OS smartwatches
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon Wear 4100 smartwatch SoC platforms. The Snapdragon Wear 4100+ is 85% faster than its predecessor.
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 4100 smartwatch platforms, consisting of the Snapdragon Wear 4100+ and the Snapdragon Wear 4100. These new smartwatch SoCs are designed for next-generation connected smartwatches and based on Qualcomm's ultra-low-power hybrid architecture. To provide better context to this news release, let's delve into the background of Wear OS first.
The Suunto 7 is the first Wear OS smartwatch with the Snapdragon Wear 3100's Sports mode
With no official word on Snapdragon Wear 3300, sports brand Suunto has launched the Suunto 7 smartwatch with Wear OS and Snapdragon 3100's Sports Mode.
Despite the advancements in wearable technology, smartwatches other than those running Apple's watchOS and Samsung's Tizen have failed to make an impact on users. Google's Wear OS has been a major let down for several users because of the lack of fitness features or a closed platform in contrast to the open-source Android. But more importantly, Qualcomm's inferior hardware support compared to proprietary chips used by brands like Apple, Huawei, or Samsung on their smartwatches have led to disappointment. Besides a lagging performance, Snapdragon 3100 – the latest chipset for wearables from Qualcomm until the leaked Snapdragon 3300 is formally announced – also suffers from poor battery life, which diminishes with increased physical activity. To abate that to some extent, Qualcomm announced a "Sports mode" in mid-2019 and six months later, the first smartwatch – Suunto 7 – has been launched.