The Google Pixel Watch reportedly uses a 4-year chip

Anyone excited by the announcement of Google Pixel Watch last week may be shocked to find out what hardware this new smartwatch is powered by.

As reported by 9To5Google (Opens in a new window), an anonymous source claims that the Pixel Watch will use an old Exynos processor, which Samsung released in 2018. Exynos 9110 (Opens in a new window) is a 10nm dual-core ARM processor running at 1.1 GHz and uses the Mali T270 GPU.

There’s nothing wrong with choosing an older chip if it works, but if it’s true, Google will launch a smartwatch with a big disadvantage over the competition. In comparison, Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 uses Exynos W920 (Opens in new window), which is a 5nm dual-core ARM processor running at 1.18GHz and uses Mali G68 GPU.

According to Samsung, the W920 offers about a 20% increase in CPU performance (opens in a new window) and ten times better graphics performance than the previous generation. Switching to 5nm also brings with it energy savings, which allows the small battery in the smartwatch to last so much longer.

As for why an old chip is used, it is speculated that Google launched the Pixel Watch project in 2018/19, when 9110 was still a new chip. Moving to a new processor will require more work and delayed startup, so Google decided to stick to the original hardware specification. The influential effect for Google is the cheaper components, but the risk is a smartwatch that simply can not compete with the latest models from Samsung and Apple.

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Maybe Google is making part of Nintendo’s book with the Pixel Watch – it may not be the latest hardware, but if it’s fun to use and has a good battery life, consumers will buy millions of them. We’ll see how well this approach works when the Pixel Watch launches in the fall.

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