Samsung is poised to significantly upgrade its next generation of Galaxy Watch smartwatches, moving away from its in-house Exynos chips to those developed by Qualcomm. This shift promises substantial improvements in performance and, crucially, battery life for the upcoming devices, potentially including the Galaxy Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2. The move marks a departure from Samsung’s long-standing reliance on its own silicon for wearable technology.
The core of this upgrade lies in the integration of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset. According to Qualcomm, the modern chip offers a 30% increase in power efficiency compared to the previous generation W5+ Gen 1, already a highly efficient Wear OS chipset. This improvement is expected to translate directly into longer runtimes between charges for Galaxy Watch users. The change is a significant step forward for Samsung’s smartwatch line, aiming to address a common consumer concern: battery life.
The Snapdragon Wear Elite utilizes a “big.Little” architecture, combining a high-performance core with four efficiency cores. This design allows the chip to dynamically adjust power consumption based on the task at hand, maximizing battery life without sacrificing performance. Qualcomm claims the new chipset delivers up to five times faster CPU performance and seven times faster GPU performance. The chip is also built on a more efficient 3nm process and supports 5G RedCap technology for energy-conscious connectivity, as reported by Android Authority.
While the overall design of the Galaxy Watch 9 is expected to remain similar to its predecessor, the Watch 8, Samsung plans to leverage the enhanced AI capabilities of the Snapdragon Wear Elite to improve on-device artificial intelligence features. This includes potential advancements in fitness tracking, personalized insights, and smart assistance.
The Snapdragon Wear Elite includes a dedicated Hexagon NPU, alongside a secondary low-power eNPU, making it the first Snapdragon wearable chip to include a proper Hexagon NPU. This allows the chip to handle AI models up to two billion parameters and deliver around 10 tokens per second, enabling features like smart replies, text summaries, and AI-powered fitness coaching directly on the device, as Gadgets and Wearables details.
Samsung’s InKang Song, Executive Vice President and Head of Technology Strategy, confirmed the switch to Qualcomm’s silicon at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026, lending significant weight to the announcement. What we have is the first time Samsung is incorporating Snapdragon chips into its mainstream Galaxy Watch lineup, a move that signals a strong commitment to performance and efficiency. Smartwatch Insight notes the Galaxy Watch 9 is slated for a 2026 release.
Further details regarding the Galaxy Watch 9, including specific features and pricing, are expected to be unveiled this summer at Samsung’s official launch event. The event is also anticipated to showcase the new Watch Ultra 2 and the latest Galaxy Z-foldable devices.
The move to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite represents a strategic shift for Samsung, prioritizing performance and battery life in its wearable offerings. As the smartwatch market becomes increasingly competitive, these enhancements are crucial for maintaining a leading position. The integration of advanced AI capabilities, powered by the new chipset, also suggests Samsung is focused on delivering a more intelligent and personalized user experience.
What remains to be seen is how Samsung and Google will optimize software to fully leverage the capabilities of the Snapdragon Wear Elite. The success of the Galaxy Watch 9 will depend not only on the hardware improvements but also on the seamless integration of software and AI features.
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