Qualcomm was means too gradual in bringing superior chips for smartwatches, and that’s when Apple took an enormous leap ahead. Samsung did not depend upon Qualcomm and developed in-house Exynos chips for Galaxy Watches. Whereas Google switched from Exynos to Snapdragon chips for second and third-generation Pixel Watches, it may change to in-house chips sooner or later, just like Samsung.

Pixel Watch 5 may use customized chips from Google

It has been revealed that Google may change to its in-house Tensor chips for its future Pixel Watches, beginning with the Pixel Watch 5 in 2026. Android Authority appears to have glanced at paperwork from Google’s gChips division that describes Tensor chips for wearables. The primary chip is codenamed NPT (may very well be the brief kind for ‘Newport Seashore’), which inserts in with the codename of Tensor G5 (Laguna Seashore).

This chip, just like Samsung’s Exynos W1000 processor, options one Cortex-A78 CPU core. Nevertheless, it solely makes use of two Cortex-A55 CPU cores versus the Exynos W1000’s 4 Cortex-A55 CPU cores. These may not be ARM’s newest CPU cores, however wearables want energy effectivity greater than efficiency, so even a tri-core CPU with one high-performance core can be sufficient.

Google’s in-house Tensor chip for Pixel Watches may use TSMC’s 3nm fabrication course of node. Even the Tensor G6 chip is anticipated to make use of the identical course of node. Furthermore, the doc additionally reveals Google’s plans to modify from ARM structure to the open-source RISC-V structure.

Since Google would not have in-house modems, it could be fascinating to see which one it makes use of. The corporate has trusted Samsung’s Exynos mobile modems previously for Tensor chips, so it’s possible that it’ll do the identical, however it’s far too early to say that with confidence.