Snapdragon Wear Elite arrives with on-device AI capabilities, performance and battery gains

Qualcomm has announced Snapdragon Wear Elite, a new chip for smartwatches and other wrist or clip-on devices that leans into on-device AI. The platform is meant for high-end Wear OS watches and new AI-focused wearables such as pins and pendants, with support for both Android and Linux.

Compared to the previous Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2, Qualcomm says Wear Elite delivers up to five times faster CPU performance, up to seven times better graphics, and around 30% longer battery life. The chip is built on a 3nm process, which helps it run faster and use less power at the same time.