UPDATE (February, 2020): Diesel Fadelite, Tag Heuer Connected 2020, Montblanc Summit 2+, Skagen Falster 3 and Suunto 7 have been added to this list of Snapdragon 3100 smartwatches.
UPDATE (December, 2019):The Movado Connect 2.0 available in two sizes; 42mm and 40mm and the Moto 360 3rd Gen released in September have joined this list of Snapdragon 3100 smartwatches.
UPDATE (November, 2019):6 more outstanding smartwatches have joined this list of Snapdragon 3100 smartwatches. In no particular other; Xiaomi Mi Watch, Puma smartwatch, Emporio Armani smartwatch 3, Diesel Axial, Michael Kors MKGO, Lexington 2 and Bradshaw 2. You can check them all out below.
UPDATE(September, 2019): With the release of the Fossil Gen 5 series which includes the Gen 5 Calyle and Juliana, and the Misfit Vapor X, we now have three new Wear OS smartwatches powered by the 3100 chip joining this list of Snapdragon 3100 smartwatches.
Introducing The Snapdragon 3100 Chipset
Wear OS smartwatches languished with Snapdragon 2100 chip that was released over two years ago, but that was not going to continue with the release of the Snapdragon 3100 chip by Qualcomm . And unlike its predecessor is not adapted, but native and holistically built for the next generation of smartwatches.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 will power the next-generation of Wear OS smartwatches based on a new ultra-low power hierarchical system architecture. In this hierarchical architecture, the high-performance quad core A7 processor, the highly efficient integrated DSP, and the new ultra-low power co-processor work in accordance with each other to fundamentally re-imagine smartwatch experiences for Wear OS lovers by enhancing existing ones like the Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon 42, bring in new ones like the Fossil Gen 4 Sport smartwatch while supporting extended battery life.
Snapdragon 3100 – What’s New?
The Snapdragon 3100 is a low-power chipset which unlike the 2100 chip, is a platform designed specifically for smartwatch, it brings with it a full range of advancement that will see the next generation of smartwatches perform faster and better with improved battery life.
The Snapdragon Wear 3100 is made up of; 4 A7 big cores, a little DSP, and a new tiny co-processor which the 2100 chip specifically lacks.
The architectural design of the Snapdragon 3100 chip will see future Wear OS smartwatches become more robust in both design and fitness tracking features. The small sized processors will ensure sleeker designs and also extending battery life.
We saw the Ticwatch Pro come with a dual display that features an essential watch-only mode and an AMOLED smart mode, this feature extended the Ticwatch pro battery life up to 30 days and possibly true is one of the reasons the Pro is very popular among consumers.
Now, with Snapdragon 3100 chip features battery saver mode. Battery saver mode as seen on the Fossil Gen 4 Sport will help Wear OS smartwatches reduce power consumption by switching to a watch-only mode that reduces power consumption and extends battery life to a great extent. On the Fossil Gen 4 Sports, activating battery saver extended the battery life to about 24 hours. That’s quite impressive even with a small 145mAh battery capacity of the Fossil Sport watch.
Snapdragon 3100 Benefits
The Snapdragon 3100 is more sdvance and comes with slight improvements when compared to 2100. The benefits of the Snapdragon 3100 chip includes;
- Longer Battery Life
- Ambient Mode Is More Attractive
- Improved Fitness Tracking Accuracy
- Expect Sleeker Smartwatches
Snapdragon 3100 chip is designed for better efficiency which will see significant improvement in battery life. The Fossil Gen 4 Sport has about 6 hours of battery life improvement from the Gen 3 Sport. In addition Snapdragon 3100 powered smartwatches will also feature battery saver mode, which when activated switches the watch to traditional watch only mode almost similar to Ticwatch Pro’s essential mode that sees the battery life extended up to 20 days or more depending on the battery capacity.
The Fossil Gen 4 Sport with 145mAh had its battery life extended by 12 hours with power saver activated.
Smartwatches remain idle most of the time when it’s on our wrist and in an attempt to make smartwatches more appealing to look at, Qualcomm has boosted the ambient modes on Snapdragon 3100 chip.
The 3100 chip features a tiny Co-processor which runs a new ambient mode that is better than the current ambient mode. The co-processor will display 16 different colors, a moving second hand, and complications too. At this point, the A7 cores are asleep, and everything operates using the co-processor. Interestingly, the co-processor doesn’t run Wear OS like the A7 cores, but an RTOS operating system, which again increases the efficiency.
With Snapdragon 2100, watch makers relied on an already existing algorithm from Qualcomm, but the Snapdragon 3100 changes all that as it will now allow watch makers to write their own algorithm thereby making it more native. Smartwatch makers can now write their own algorithm which gives room for better accuracy in fitness tracking.
The Snapdragon 3100 will also see more fitness focused smartwatch released as the new chip’s GPS and HRM mode promises about 15 hours of battery life on continuous usage.
The architecture of the Snapdragon 3100 is designed for the possible smallest sizes. For instance, the QCC1110 Co-processor is a 7nm chip. This design will see Snapdragon 3100 powered smartwatches become even sleeker and classier. The Fossil Gen 4 Sport measures 12mm which is great, but not the best.
The New Ultra Low-power Co-processor is The Game Changer
The tiny co-processor in the Snapdragon 3100 chipset is the game-changer that will be fixing some of the frustrating experiences we had with the 2100 chip.
The Co-processor will be in charge of keeping the lights on when you’re not interacting with the watch, thus removing workload from the main processor. The new design will reduce display backlight depending on your activities which reduces battery consumption. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 3100 reduces active power consumed by 20 times compared to current smartwatches.
Snapdragon 3100 vs 2100
[table id=snapdragon3100vs2100 /]
Snapdragon 3100 Smartwatches
At the official lunch of the Snapdragon 3100 chip, Montblanc, Fossil and Louis Vuitton were the three brands stated to lunch smartwatches powered by Snapdragon 3100. We have seen the Montblanc Summit 2, then Fossil Gen 4 Sport and recently the existing Louis Vuitton Tambour Horizon 42 got revamped.
At the lunch in San Francisco, Qualcomm briefly mentioned that the 3100 chip has been shipping since May of 2018. This is quite surprising considering that some of the latest Wear OS smartwatches released towards the end of last year and even the new Ticwatch S2 and E2 released in January, 2019 are powered by the 2100 chip.
Which begs the question, why aren’t we seeing the new chip yet on Wear OS smartwatches? Probably because the 3100 chip isn’t any different from the 2100 chip except for the co-processor. Well, I hope with more Wear OS smartwatches being released this year and beyond, we could finally begin to see the 3100 chip powering these smartwatches and until then here is a list of all Snapdragon 3100 smartwatches.
This Snapdragon 3100 smartwatch list will be regularly updated, so that you can find the latest Snapdragon 3100 smartwatch easily.
A List of Snapdragon 3100 Smartwatches
[table id=snapdragon3100smartwatches /]