The next Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra will use the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip!
At the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 exhibition, Qualcomm introduced its first Elite-tier Snapdragon Wear chip, the Snapdragon Wear Elite, for smart watches. It will power Samsung’s next-generation Galaxy Watch models.
The announcement was unexpected and suggests that Samsung’s chip dual-sourcing strategy, which it already follows in its Galaxy smartphones, could be extended to its smartwatch lineup. Qualcomm developed this new chip in collaboration with Google, Motorola, and Samsung.
The Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 may use the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip
Snapdragon Wear Elite is Qualcomm’s first 3nm processor designed specifically for wearables. It’s also the company’s first Snapdragon Wear chip to adopt the big.LITTLE architecture, which includes one high-performance CPU core and four energy-efficient cores. Qualcomm claims that this new design delivers up to 5x faster CPU performance compared to the previous generation’s Snapdragon Wear chip.
Qualcomm’s new wearable chip includes a GPU that is seven times more powerful than its predecessor and capable of driving Full HD displays at a smooth 60 frames per second.
This configuration is exactly the same as Samsung’s Exynos W1000 chip, which is also built in the 3nm process and uses one high-performance core next to four high-performance cores.
The Snapdragon Wear Elite also has a built-in Hexagon NPU that supports AI models with up to 2 billion parameters that run entirely on the device. This allows advanced on-device processing of functions such as fitness and health, health check-in, digital assistants, language translation, and voice transcription to run directly on the device.
In addition, the chip includes a dedicated low-power eNPU designed for tasks such as always-on task recognition, voice assistant keyword detection, and noise suppression.
Communication is another highlight. The chip supports GNSS, including GPS and similar satellite systems, NB-IoT for direct satellite communication, 5G RedCap, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 6.0, and ultra-wideband.
Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon Wear Elite can deliver 30% longer battery life thanks to its improved architecture and improved manufacturing process. The chip also supports fast charging. Devices powered by batteries ranging from 300mAh to 600mAh can charge up to 50% in just 10 minutes.
The first smartwatches powered by this new chip are expected to launch within the next few months. It is likely that the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 will use the Snapdragon Wear Elite, while standard models such as the Galaxy Watch 9 may continue to use Samsung’s in-house Exynos W1000 processor.
Both upcoming Galaxy Watches may launch in July 2026 alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8.
InKang Song, Executive Vice President and Head of Technology Strategy Team at Samsung MX, said, “Samsung and Qualcomm Technologies share a long history of advancing the possibilities of mobile computing, and we’re excited to extend this partnership into the wearable category. By incorporating the new Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, the next-generation Galaxy Watch will become an even more complete health companion. This marks an important step in our ongoing efforts to deliver a more efficient and personalized experience, right from your fingertips.”
