Samsung’s Galaxy Watch smartwatches have used a version of the company’s Exynos chips for the past several releases, but that now seems to be changing, with Samsung having confirmed that future Galaxy Watch models will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset.
The Snapdragon Wear Elite introduces several improvements over the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2, namely improved battery longevity and faster charge times. Battery life and charging speeds have consistently been two of the main issues people have had with smartwatches. The new Snapdragon Wear Elite should help to fix these issues.
That will definitely bode well for future Galaxy Watch owners. In addition to these improvements, Qualcomm confirms that both the CPU and GPU are getting significant upgrades. The CPU will be up to five times faster, and the GPU will be up to seven times faster. These are high numbers, and should result in some buttery smooth user experiences.
The Snapdragon Wear Elite will come to next-gen Galaxy Watch models
Samsung hasn’t yet officially announced its next-gen Galaxy Watch smartwatches. However, it has confirmed the chipset that will be powering them. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite will be powering the next-gen Galaxy Watch series. This means Samsung is finally moving away from its own Exynos wearable chips.
If Samsung sticks to its release cadence, then it’s possible the next-gen watch models will be launching in the Summer, as the Galaxy Watch 8 series launched in July 2025. That would mean consumers could see for themselves just how much of an improvement the Snapdragon Wear Elite is going to be.
The Galaxy Watch 8 series, powered by the Exynos W1000, was by no means slow to perform. The user experience was pretty smooth. That being said, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t room for improvement, and it sounds like the Snapdragon Wear Elite is certainly going to provide that. This will also be the chipset powering new Motorola smartwatch models and other new Wear OS devices.
