Qualcomm’s latest smartwatch chip is designed for low-power, always-connected devices. The new Snapdragon Wear 1200 platform is a 28nm chip that features a 1.3 GHz ARM Cortex-A7 processor and support for the new LTE IoT standard.
While LTE IoT doesn’t provide the kind of high-speed internet access you get from 4G LTE, you do get download speeds up to 300 kbps while consuming very little power, which should help device makers squeeze longer battery life out of small, always-connected wearables. Qualcomm says a device with a 350 mAh battery should get up to 10 days of standby time.
Other features include support for GPS and GLONASS, Voice over LTE, and support for RTOS and Linux-based operating systems.
Qualcomm has also worked with manufacturers Quanta and Borqs to develop reference designs for devices that can be worn by kids, senior citizens, or pets — there are geofencing features that trigger an action when your pet (or kid) steps outside of a boundary.
The new Sndapdragon Wear 1200 platform joins the company’s existing Wear 1100 and Wear 2100 products, both of which have higher-power processors, support for faster mobile broadband data connections, and… higher power consumption.
Typo there… its based on a 32-bit ARM Cortex A7 chip.
Virtually identical to the QSD Wear 1100… just like Iron Patriot vs War Machine.
I find this kind of lacking… they’ve got 10nm/14nm, they have 64-bit chips… they benefit immensely from the efficiency. Besides Smartwatches/Wearables aren’t cheap. There’s enough profit margin to make these improvements. Not to mention improvements in the microarchitecture for even greater gains.
I propose:
14nm (Samsung fab), 64-bit, <1.2GHz, Quadcore, ARM Cortex A35, 1GB DDR4 RAM, and the usual features/detectors.
Said chip should actually be small, and cheap… but boost in performance will help with lag, or communicating the device. It also features on-chip encryption, welcome in today's "Smart Pay" and Always Connected world.
Put that on a round smartwatch like the Gear S3 Frontier/Huawei Watch, have it support the 22mm Standard Straps, with Slim Bezels (60% – 80% StB), make sure display's not too small/big (1.25" – 1.45"), and not too thin/thick (8mm – 12mm), and not too light/heavy (50g – 65g), and has enough battery (400mAh – 700mAh) life.