Qualcomm’s new chip is geared toward wearable AI gadgets
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AI wearables, all the way down. | Image: Qualcomm
Like it or not, more AI wearables may be on the horizon - or at least Qualcomm seems to think so. Today the company announced its new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip.
At a press briefing, Qualcomm said it considers the Elite to be a "wrist plus" chip. Meaning, it won't replace the previous W5 Plus , but exist alongside it. The company said it expects the Elite will appeal to gadget makers looking to create AI wearables such as pendants, pins, and potentially display-free smart glasses. (More powerful smart glasses will likely use its AR chip.)
On top of being upgraded to the 3nm process, the Elite chip will have an eNPU and a Hexagon NPU for A …
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Tech Gadgets News Qualcomm’s new chip is geared toward wearable AI gadgets Pins, pendants, and longer battery life are on Qualcomm’s mind. Pins, pendants, and longer battery life are on Qualcomm’s mind. by Victoria Song Mar 2, 2026, 7:00 AM UTC AI wearables, all the way down. Image: Qualcomm Part Of LIVE MWC 2026: all the phones, gadgets, and announcements from Barcelona see all updates Victoria Song is a senior reporter and author of the Optimizer newsletter. She has more than 13 years of experience reporting on wearables, health tech, and more. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine. Like it or not, more AI wearables may be on the horizon – or at least Qualcomm seems to think so. Today the company announced its new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. At a press briefing, Qualcomm said it considers the Elite to be a “wrist plus” chip. Meaning, it won’t replace the previous W5 Plus , but exist alongside it. The company said it expects the Elite will appeal to gadget makers looking to create AI wearables such as pendants, pins, and potentially display-free smart glasses. (More powerful smart glasses will likely use its AR chip.) On top of being upgraded to the 3nm process, the Elite chip will have an eNPU and a Hexagon NPU for AI processing. The former handles low-power AI functions like keyword recognition and activity detection, while the latter can handle more compute-heavy tasks. Qualcomm says the Hexagon NPU can handle two billion parameters on-device, and as many as 10 tokens per second. While the Wear Elite has a similar co-processor architecture to the W5 Plus, Qualcomm says it’s improved power efficiency so that more functions can be handled by the main chip. For example, GPS tracking requires 40 percent less power. As far as battery, the Elite will support 9V quick charging, which means you should get an estimated 50 percent charge in about 10 minutes. Qualcomm also estimates 30 percent more “days of use” in overall battery life. That’s ...
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