Qualcomm’s new Wear OS chipsets could finally shake up smartwatches

Wear OS, formerly known as Android Wear, has been spinning its wheels for a while, but a batch of new chipsets from Qualcomm could finally be about to bring a much needed shake-up to the market. 

In an interview with Wareable, Qualcomm’s wearable director Pankaj Kedia detailed what features these new chips (which are due this autumn) will be equipped with.

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First and foremost, these new chips will allow smartwatches to be made smaller, while actually increasing the amount of battery life that’s possible. On a related note, they’ll also improve performance for always-on displays, which are pretty important if you don’t want to find yourself constantly tapping your watch to wake it up.

By themselves, these improvements don’t sound massive, but that might change when you consider that most wearables are still using a chipset that was first developed back in early 2016.

Time for a change

In other words, its about time for an upgrade, and the arrival of this new chipset might shed some light on why there have been so few wearables released over the past year — everyone’s been waiting for the upgraded hardware to work with.

It also might explain the recent rebranding of Android Wear to Wear OS, although it was strange to see the division of Google fail to get a mention at the company’s recent Google I/O conference.

In terms of release dates, Wareable’s report indicates that the new chips should be available to manufacturers this autumn, with the first devices expected before the end of the year.

Here’s to hoping that the new tech brings a much-needed boost to Wear OS.

What improvements would you like to see in future smartwatches? Let us know @TrustedReviews.