Qualcomm has just debuted its newest wearable processor, which is the Snapdragon Wear 1200. It’s a lower-end processor for wearables, and it’s actually targeted more at kids wearables than a regular smartwatch you might see from Huawei, Fossil or even TAG Heuer. The Snapdragon Wear 1200 is aimed at updating these kids wearables from 2G to 4G LTE. These kids wearables are pretty popular over in China, Japan and South Korea, but they are beginning to gain traction in other parts of the world. With these wearables, parents are able to see where their kids are, and even send them messages if need be, and with 2G networks getting shut down soon, it’s important to upgrade these wearables to 4G LTE. The Snapdragon Wear 1200 is not replacing any of Qualcomm’s current SoC’s targeted at wearables, but it will compliment the Snapdragon Wear 1100 and 2100.
The Snapdragon Wear 1200 is made for those wearables that consumers are wanting to be a bit smaller than what is available today. Since this is a smaller chip, manufacturers are able to make their products smaller, or just add a larger battery to make them last longer. It does also feature ultra-low power management so that you can keep the wearable (whether it’s a watch, fitness tracker or something else) going as long as possible. Qualcomm has also included some pretty robust features for location, including its own cloud based location services with comprehensive global terrestrial positioning which uses both WiFi and cellular service. Of course, there’s also the usual GPS, GLONASS, Gallileo, and BeiDou constellations and low power geofencing available. This new processor does also support voice over LTE, WiFi and Bluetooth, so there does not need to be a phone connected to it, to make calls.
Qualcomm notes that the Snapdragon Wear 1200 is available now – meaning it’s in its partners hands – and it will be shipping in some devices in the very near future. In fact, Qualcomm has worked with a couple of partners to create reference devices, including Borqs and Quanta. Now Quanta is actually a pretty popular company in wearables, even though most people have never heard of it. Quanta has created smartwatches like the Wear24 for Verizon, which is Android Wear 2.0 smartwatch. And now it has a reference design for the Snapdragon Wear 1200 as well.