If you’ve followed the release of many Android Wear smartwatches, you’ve probably noticed that they all basically run on the same processor and hardware. With the real differences being the display size, shape and resolution. Aside from the original Moto 360 (and the TAG Heuer watch announced this morning), just about every Android Wear smartwatch has been running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. A very capable processor, but with Huawei having their own processors, one had to wonder, will they make a processor for their next smartwatch? At this point, the answer is no.
While we were in China last week for Huawei’s Media Tour, we got to meet with the head of Huawei’s Watch Product, Mengran Duan, and asked quite a bit of questions about the Huawei Watch as well as their wearables in general. One of the bigger questions was regarding processors. With the Kirin 950 being announced last week, we asked if Huawei was looking to use their own processors in upcoming Android Wear smartwatches. Right now, they are looking to stick with the Snapdragon 400. Of course, that could change in the future. The Snapdragon 400 is an easy choice for most smartwatch makers because it’s easy to integrate into the hardware, and works really well, unlike the TI OMAP Motorola used on the original Moto 360.
Huawei makes some pretty powerful processors out of their Kirin line of chipsets, with the Kirin 950 being the latest, and it’s an octa-core processor, announced last week that will power a few upcoming smartphones for the company. It is faster, and more powerful, yet uses less battery life. Making the experience for users even more enjoyable. In the US, Huawei mostly sticks with Qualcomm due to them having certification with the carriers already, for LTE and CDMA networks. That could also change very soon as well.
While Huawei didn’t say that they were working on the next version of the Huawei Watch already, we pretty much know they are. But they are looking to take their time, as they don’t want to flood the market like other manufacturers. So it’ll likely be quite a while before we see a second generation of the Huawei Watch. And it’s likely going to be even better.