Qualcomm is expanding its Snapdragon Elite line beyond phones and laptops, now targeting wearables with a powerful new processor. The Snapdragon Wear Elite is built for smartwatches and AI devices like pendants, promising significant speed and intelligence upgrades, the company announced.
The chip uses a 3nm process, increasing efficiency while improving performance. It features five cores: one “big” core running at 2.1GHz and four “small” cores at 1.9GHz. Qualcomm announced these upgrades deliver up to five times faster single-thread CPU performance, while the GPU can reach speeds up to seven times faster than previous generations.
A major highlight is the new Hexagon NPU, which supports AI models with two billion parameters. This allows wearables to handle advanced AI tasks, from keyword recognition and noise cancellation to life logging and context-aware recommendations. Users could interact with personal AI agents to manage tasks and get natural voice responses directly from their smartwatch.
Battery life on Wear OS devices should improve by up to 30 percent, while fast charging could deliver a 50 percent boost in just ten minutes. The chip also expands connectivity options, including 5G reduced capability, micro-power Wi-Fi, NB-NTN satellite support, Bluetooth 6.0, GNSS, and UWB. Device makers can choose chip versions with or without some wireless features.
The real test will be whether Snapdragon Wear Elite can help Wear OS watches compete with the Apple Watch, which controls more than half of the smartwatch market. Qualcomm says the first devices using the new chip will arrive in the next few months, with support from Google, Motorola, and Samsung.
