‘Snapdragon 5100’ may be a relatively minor Wear OS chip upgrade, new details hint

Ben Schoon | Sep 1 2021 - 2:02 pm PT

The next generation of Wear OS demands more power than previous versions, which means new chips are also in order. Qualcomm is supposedly bringing the “Snapdragon 5100” to market in the not too distant future, but some new details hint that it might be a relatively minor upgrade.

WinFuture today published a report with some of the technical details of the upcoming Qualcomm chip, which is assumed to be called the “Snapdragon Wear 5100.” Apparently, initial samples of the chip reveal some key specs. Firstly, the type of cores being used.

“SW5100” samples are apparently using ARM Cortex-A53 cores instead of the newer, stronger Cortex-A73 cores that were originally speculated. This implies that this new chip will likely not be using a 5nm process as Samsung’s Exynos W920 does and, as a result, may not be as efficient or powerful. An “ultra low power” processor will apparently stick around for fitness data and other tasks.

Apparently, this new chip is also being tested with configurations using both 1GB and 2GB of RAM, as well as 8GB and 16GB of storage. This would line up with the improvements Samsung brought to its Galaxy Watch 4 series. The chip is also being tested, apparently, with cameras including 5MP and 16MP sensors, but that doesn’t necessarily mean any smartwatches, Wear OS or otherwise, will use that functionality. This report also claims that Samsung’s semiconductor division is handling production.