Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2: Two new smartwatch chips unveiled with satellite connectivity

Qualcomm has launched two new SoCs for smartwatches: the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2. They succeed the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 launched in 2023. Unfortunately, neither SKU gets much in the way of a spec boost, except for satellite connectivity; a first for Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear-powered smartwatches.

For starters, the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 still stick with four Arm Cortex-A53 CPU cores, an Adreno 702 GPU and LPDDR4-2133 memory. However, the latter comes with a Qualcomm QCC5100 co-processor (1x Cortex M5 and 2.5D iGPU) that can run the linked smartwatch in a low-power state.

Both the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 come with support for Skylo's NB-NTN (Narrowband Non-Terrestrial Network) satellite connectivity. It allows users to transmit texts at 2 kbps, but not GPS coordinates for some reason. Other specs include Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi, and a new U55 AI chip for better GPS accuracy.

The Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 will debut alongside Google's Pixel Watch 4. A peek at the fine print reveals the satellite services will be free for Pixel Watch 4 owners for two years, after which they might have to pay a subscription fee.