For wearable technology, Qualcomm has released the Snapdragon W5 and W5+ Gen 1 CPUs.

In the market for smartphone CPUs, Qualcomm is one of the top players. The company has also ventured into producing semiconductors for wearable technology, but hasn't had much luck there.

Now that Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 chips have been released, the company has updated its array of wearable chips.

The business has gotten rid of the Snapdragon Wear branding, and the recently disclosed processors will now bear the primary Snapdragon logo. This is the first significant change. The chips are still intended for wearable technology even though the Wear branding has been dropped.

The Snapdragon W5 Plus is intended for more high-end wearable devices, while the Snapdragon W5 is intended for more affordable or basic devices, such as fitness trackers or kids' smartwatches. The absence of an AON Co-Processor in the non-Plus model of the W5 makes it distinct from the W5 and W5+ Gen 1 models.

The hybrid architecture seen in the Snapdragon Wear 3100 and 4100 CPUs is retained by the platform. The new processors have an interactive main CPU and an always-on display co-processor that work together to conserve battery life.

The co-processor is capable of handling audio processing, health monitoring functions, keyword recognition for digital assistants, and notification processing. It can support embedded machine learning as well, but it's up to the businesses to employ it.

The method used to make the chips has also undergone significant alteration. The core processor for the W5 and W5+ is produced using a 4nm process, a significant improvement over the 12nm process used for the predecessors.

In contrast, the Apple S7 chip for the Watch Series 7 is produced using a 7nm technology, while Samsung's Exynos W920 drives the Galaxy Watch 4 series.

Regarding battery life, the manufacturer claims that the W5+ may deliver up to 50% longer battery life while occupying 30% less space than earlier models. In order to make Wear OS compatible with the new SoC, Qualcomm and Google collaborated closely.

The first smartwatches running on the Snapdragon W5 will go on sale soon, according to Qualcomm. According to reports, the OPPO Watch 3 will be the first product to use these new chips when it debuts next month.