At the ongoing MWC 2026 event, Samsung has unveiled its new Snapdragon Wear Elite platform for next-gen smart wearables. The SoC is aimed to introduce on-device AI capabilites to WearOS by Google, Android, and Linux, by incorporating a dedicated NPU engine.
Snapdragon Wear Elite Specifications and Features
Compared to last-gen wearable processors, the biggest upgrade with Snapdragon Wear Elite is the introduction of on-device AI support. It features Qualcomm's Hexagon NPU with 10 TOPS and up to billion-parameter AI models. This localises AI processing and can deliver context-aware suggestions, natural voice interaction, life logging and agentic AI capabilities at the hardware-level.
The overall 3nm cluster is now segregated between the CPU, GPU and NPU. Qualcomm has also revealed a significant performance boost with Wear Elite. It is said to deliver over 5 times the CPU performance and over 7 times the GPU performance compared to the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 chip, which powered last year's Google Pixel Watch 4.
Additionally, Qualcomm is also promising improved battery life with Snapdragon Wear Elite. It introduces an advanced power management system to provide a 30% increase in daily use time and reduced background power drain. The new DoU architecture also ensures that devices with this chip can reach 50% charge in just 10 minutes.
Also, another key area where Qualcomm has improved is connectivity. The Snapdragon Wear Elite features a new connectivity suite architecture, which makes use of six key technologies - 5G RedCap, micro-power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 6.0, Ultra Wideband (UWB) support, GNSS and NB-NTN. Qualcomm claims that the suite is designed to operate with low power consumption and continuous syncing.
Lastly, with Snapdragon Wear Elite, Qualcomm is expanding from only smartwatches to smart wearables. Alex Katouzian, Executive Vice President and Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute, & XR (MCX), Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., has confirmed that the new chipset is designed to fit into a range of smart products. From smartwatches to AI pendants, AI hub and AI Pin, Snapdragon Wear Elite can power the next wave of AI hardware.
Qualcomm expects the first wave of commercial AI hardware products with Wear Elite to hit the market in the next few months. Meanwhile, the upcoming Galaxy Watch 9 series from Samsung and Motorola smartwatches have also been confirmed to feature Snapdragon Wear Elite chip.
