Many companies have taken a major step forward with wearables in 2018 and chipmaker Qualcomm has been at the forefront of many developments. Qualcomm announced Monday its latest chip, the Snapdragon Wear 3100, which will power many upcoming wearable devices, not only from consumer electronics brands but also from many traditional watchmakers.
The chip will work in tandem with Google’s latest version of WearOS, which is recently showcased at IFA and will run is several upcoming smartwatches.
Here’s what consumers can expect from products that will feature this new chip.
This is the Montblanc Summit 2, coming in October. @Qualcomm @DigitalTrends #SnapdragonWear3100 pic.twitter.com/kR51gXmoIv
— Julian Chokkattu (@JulianChokkattu) September 10, 2018
- The Snapdragon Wear 3100 promises extended battery life so that users can have the style of a high-quality fashion watch and the power of a tech-infused smartwatch.
- Devices with the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip should have two to 12 hours more battery life than smartwatches with older Snapdragon chips.
- Brands including Fossil Group, Louis Vuitton, and Montblanc will release smartwatches with the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip.
- Some of the watches include the Montblanc Summit 2 and the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon.
- The chip will bring improvements to smartwatch display, audio, and sensory features, as well as better 4G LTE connectivity, NFC, GPS, and Wi-Fi.
- Smartwatches with the Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip can use up to three different modes – An Enhanced Ambient Mode, which allows for more colors, brighter screens, and more smartwatch functions – a Dedicated Sports Mode, which allows for up to 15 hours of battery life, watch faces for activity and health tracking and enhances support for GPS and heart-rate sensors – and a Traditional Watch Mode, which gives a standard watch face and allows for up to 30 days of battery life on a single charge.
- Snapdragon Wear 3100 may begin releasing as early as October 2018 but the bulk of products may not arrive until 2019 and beyond.
- Though many Snapdragon Wear 3100 watches will likely run Google’s WearOS software, the won’t have always-on features for Google Assistant.
