Skip to main content

New Moto smartwatches will end the wait for more Snapdragon Wear 4100 models

The next Moto smartwatch will reportedly come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 4100 processor, according to a road map published as part of an investor presentation from CE Brands, the current holders of the license to make Moto-branded smartwatches. The report states more than one new Moto smartwatch will come later this year — a Moto G Smartwatch, a Moto One, and a Moto Watch, but we don’t know which ones will use the new chip yet.

TheMacGezza/Reddit.com

Several renders of what could be the Moto G watch can be found throughout the investor report, but one, in particular, caught the attention of smartwatch fans on Reddit. The image was sharpened to reveal what appears to be text reading “Snapdragon Wear 4100” around the edge of the case back. The implication is clear, a smartwatch running the Wear 4100 platform should be on the way.

Recommended Videos

The Snapdragon Wear 4100 is a rarity in the smartwatch world. Most Wear OS smartwatches you can buy today are powered by Qualcomm’s older Snapdragon Wear 3100 chips, with the sole exception of the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 3. The previous Moto 360, released in 2020, also used a Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip.

If any of the new Moto smartwatches do arrive with the Wear 4100 processor, they will have a hardware advantage over rivals, offering faster performance and longer battery life. The Ticwatch Pro 3 shows what this means for you, with its excellent three-day-plus battery life, and significant speed advantages over smartwatches using the older Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform. Given all the improvements the new chip offers, it has taken significant time for companies to adopt them, perhaps due to perceived hardware gains not being enough to offset the development costs involved. Regardless, it’s great to see the wait for more models with the chip may almost be over.

According to the investor report road map, the new Moto G smartwatch is scheduled to launch in June, and if the renders represent the final product, it will come in a silvery-white color and have a round screen. In July, a square-faced Moto Watch and round Moto One smartwatch are also planned. However, before we get too excited, it’s not clear which models will feature the Snapdragon Wear 4100 chip, and it’s also worth remembering these dates are probably not final, so things may change over the coming months.

Michael Allison
Former Digital Trends Contributor
A UK-based tech journalist for Digital Trends, helping keep track and make sense of the fast-paced world of tech with a…
The OnePlus Watch 2 is the Wear OS smartwatch I’ve been waiting for
Person wearing OnePlus Watch 2 with a green strap on their left wrist.

The OnePlus Watch 2 -- the company's first Wear OS watch -- has entered a market that Samsung dominates. However, OnePlus' popularity as a smartphone brand can be expected to bring small, yet meaningful changes that benefit not only OnePlus users, but all of the Wear OS segment in general.

For almost a decade, Samsung and Apple have predominantly been the default options if you want a smartwatch that is actually useful and goes beyond flashy features. With Samsung shifting gears and migrating from its own Tizen OS to the (relatively) more universal Wear OS platform and Google releasing its own Pixel Watch after struggling with an identity crisis in the smartwatch world, the platform has much more traction than it did a few years ago. As OnePlus carves its way into the segment, it has the opportunity to entice people who don't wish to live within Samsung's limitations when using a Galaxy Watch with another brand's phone.

Read more
Google and Qualcomm are changing Wear OS smartwatches forever
Notifications shown on the Google Pixel Watch 2's screen.

Thanks to a new partnership between Google and Qualcomm, the landscape of Wear OS smartwatches is going to change dramatically -- in the next few years, that is. The two companies have inked a deal to develop “a RISC-V-based wearables solution” for smartwatches powered by Google’s wearable operating system.

To put it in the simplest of terms, expect a new wave of custom-designed processors based on an entirely different coding architecture. The major objective, however, is to produce wearable silicon that sucks up less power, but offers higher performance. “This expanded framework will help reduce time to market for [manufacturers] when launching smartwatches with advanced features,” Qualcomm adds in a press release.

Read more
This Pixel Watch 2 leak just made it the 2023 smartwatch I can’t wait for
The Pixel Watch on a person's wrist.

Google’s first attempt at the smartwatch ecosystem was the Pixel Watch, which served fine hardware and rewarding software married to underwhelming battery life and some missing health-tracking features. It looks like Google will address all the damning foibles in one fell swoop later this year with the Pixel Watch 2.

According to 9to5Google, Google is switching away from Samsung’s Exynos processor fitted inside the Pixel Watch. Instead, the company is sourcing Qualcomm’s W5 series flagship smartwatch chip for the second-gen Pixel Watch. That’s great news — not just for the Pixel Watch legacy, but also for the whole ecosystem.

Read more