Google is rumoured to be considering a switch away from Samsung silicon for the Pixel Watch 2, as it seeks to address battery life concerns.
According to 9to5Mac, the Pixel Watch 2 will plot an entirely different course to the Exynos 9110-powered Pixel Watch, and will instead adopt the Snapdragon W5 Plus platform from Qualcomm.
This switch away from a creaky old 10nm process to the much more modern 4nm one for the Pixel Watch 2 should yield significant improvements to battery life, which was one of the biggest issues with the Google’s first wearable.
“For a smartwatch that has been talked about for so long,” we said in our Pixel Watch review, “we don’t think it was too unreasonable to expect features like battery [life]… to be at least on par with even cheaper Android smartwatches, which sadly isn’t the case here.”
The report asserts that the Pixel Watch 2 will be announced late in the year, alongside the Pixel 8 smartphone range. As stated, this shouldn’t be considered a fast turn-around, as the original Pixel Watch was in gestation for some time.
This was evidenced by the fact that it launched with some fairly crusty components, not least the aforementioned Samsung chip. The Exynos 9110 was used in the original Galaxy Watch from 2018.
It also came with limited RAM and storage, while those huge bezels hardly screamed ‘cutting edge’.
In terms of other additions, the report speculates that Google might turn to the Fitbit Sense 2 for inspiration. Google’s most advanced fitness tracker launched last year with a built-in skin temperature sensor and a continuous Electrodermal Sensor (cEDA) for stress tracking.
