Pixel Watch 2 to Switch to Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Platform, Offer Better Battery Life: Report

Google surprised plenty of its fans in India when it announced its Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro smartphones last year. However, the Pixel Watch being a first-generation device, was left out. The smartwatch was Google’s first attempt at designing its own smartwatch that was powered by a Samsung-made Exynos 9110 SoC. Being a first-generation device, it came with some shortcomings, the biggest of which was the single-day battery life. There has barely been any news about the upcoming Pixel Watch 2 except that Google was planning on announcing it alongside the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro smartphones this year. Now, there’s finally a new leak that gives out more information about the upcoming model, which appears to have several upgrades over the outgoing Pixel Watch.

9to5Google, citing sources, claims to have received information about the upcoming Pixel Watch 2. Earlier this month, they were also the first to claim that Google is planning to announce its next smartwatch alongside the upcoming Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro handsets.

According to the report, the upcoming Pixel Watch 2 is said to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 series chipset. This could either be the Snapdragon W5 or Snapdragon W5+ platform that was announced mid-way last year. So far, the TicWatch Pro 5 and Oppo’s Watch 3 are the only devices to be powered by the new wearable-specific silicon from Qualcomm. The new platform should in theory have a noticeable leap in processing power and efficiency as they are built using the 4nm fabrication process versus the Exynos 9110 SoC, which uses a 10nm process.

And thanks to the new platform, 9to5Google’s sources also claim that it dramatically impacts battery life, helping the Pixel Watch 2 last over a day with its always-on display (AOD) feature enabled. The current generation Pixel Watch as per Google is only rated for up to 24 hours of usage with the AOD feature disabled. The source also added that the Pixel Watch 4 could be the first smartwatch to run Wear OS 4. 

Google’s acquisition of Fitbit also reportedly plays a bigger role with the Pixel Watch 2. The source claims that the new smartwatch from Google will pack sensors similar to the Fitbit Sense 2. This in theory would enable features like all-day stress management and monitoring. Also said to be included is a skin temperature sensor, to measure nightly skin temperature variations.