Qualcomm chips for the Wear OS platform have not been as good as its smartphone SoCs. They are among the key reasons why many Wear OS smartwatches have been riddled with performance and battery life issues. The San Diego chipmaker hopes to change that with its upcoming Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and W5 Gen 1 platform, which promise 50% better battery life. Hot on the heels of the SoC's announcement, Mobvoi has teased its "most powerful smartwatch" to date, powered by the W5+ Gen 1 chip.

This variant of Qualcomm's latest wearable chip features a low-power co-processor with a dedicated machine learning core for measuring your heart rate, SpO2, ECG, fall detection, hotword detection, and more. By not using the main processor, the chip can reduce power consumption by 30 to 60% in most cases. Mobvoi says its upcoming smartwatch will offer "enhanced battery life on a single charge" while also being the "most powerful smartwatch in the series to date."

The teaser image from Mobvoi indicates its next-generation smartwatch, due to launch in the "coming months," will be a part of the TicWatch Pro series. The latest TicWatch Pro model is currently considered to be among the best Android smartwatches. A previous leak suggests the next TicWatch will be a flagship model offering longer battery life, NFC, improved premium design, and AFiB detection.

The Exynos W920 powering the Galaxy Watch4 series is currently the best Wear OS chip on the market. However, Samsung keeps this SoC exclusive to its wearable devices. Other Wear OS smartwatch OEMs have been using Qualcomm's Wear 4100 platform, unveiled first in 2020 and offering an 85% performance boost over its predecessor. Despite all the performance and efficiency gains, the chip is still not power efficient enough to ensure that even the most premium Wear OS smartwatch can last over a day on a single charge with its Always-On Display enabled.

Interestingly, while next-gen Wear OS 3 smartwatches could feature a brand new 4nm-based chip, Google reportedly intends to use the four-year-old Exynos 9110 SoC coupled with a co-processor on the Pixel Watch. Google's approach will likely negatively impact performance and battery life, but the exact hit will only be known once the watch is released.