How Qualcomm’s new wearables chipset could spell the end of smartphone dominance

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ZDNET’s key takeaways 

• Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. 
• It will power new smartwatches, smart glasses, and AI pins. 
• Advancements include longer battery, faster processing, and low-power connectivity. 
  

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Right now, mobile phones are the main hub of our personal device ecosystem. But as AI integrates into glasses, rings, headphones, and portable form factors, we could see our very own handsets step off center stage, and these wearable devices take their place. This requires lots more on-device AI and interconnectivity than what is currently available. 

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Qualcomm is betting on its latest chipset, unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2026, to power this new era of personal AI. Snapdragon chips already power some of the most common mobile devices, and its new Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset is included in the next generation of wearables from Samsung, Google, Motorola, and more. 

Here’s what the chip can do, and how it will change the next smart wearable you purchase. 

What is the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip?

The chip integrates Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU, supporting billion-parameter models at the edge. It makes high-performance AI processing on a device a reality. And it’s bolstered by “ultra-low power” Wi-Fi connectivity, thanks to Micro-Power Wi-Fi, which enables continuous AI syncing and data exchange at significantly lower power levels.

Compared to its W5+ Gen 2 Wearable Platform, the Snapdragon Wear Elite boasts significant power efficiency and speed, according to Qualcomm. Its single-core CPU performance is five times stronger, and seven times faster for launching apps, multitasking, and rendering visuals smoothly, Qualcomm said. 

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“Spanning a broad range of form factors, these devices are no longer simply extensions of the smartphone, but active participants in a distributed AI network across mobile, compute, XR, wearables, and more,” said Alex Katouzian, EVP and Group General Manager, Mobile, Compute, & XR (MCX), Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, in a press release. 

This new chip will help extend the battery life of the next generation of wearables, so people can use their AI pendants, glasses, watches, and more for longer. Qualcomm said the new chip elongates daily use by 30%. Plus, fast charging improves the chip. According to Qualcomm, it charges devices to 50% in about 10 minutes, so you can quickly top off your device in a pinch. 

How the chipset benefits you

Snapdragon Wear Elite makes your wearable devices — your smartwatches, headphones, pendants, and smart glasses — more contextually aware of your environments and the recommendations they provide. 

This sort of feature could be a boon for those wearable AI pendants and smart glasses that use environmental context to provide tips and sort through information. It also enables more natural language communication, so interactions between a user and a device can feel more conversational. 

The chip lays the foundation for agentic AI tasks to take place. We got a hint of one of the first agentic features to drop on Samsung’s newest lineup of phones it unveiled last week, and since Snapdragon powers Samsung’s smartwatches, it’s reasonable to assume that these agentic capabilities could be coming to its Galaxy Watch 9 later this year. Maybe we’ll be able to order meals on Grubhub simply by speaking into our smartwatch very soon. 

“By integrating the new Snapdragon Wear Elite platform, the next generation Galaxy Watch will be an even more holistic wellness companion,” said InKang Song, EVP and Head of Technology Strategy Team, MX Business at Samsung Electronics, in a Qualcomm press release. 

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While Qualcomm stresses that the benefits of the chip don’t only apply to smartwatches, it’s easy to imagine all the ways the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform could boost the next lineup of Pixel Watches, Galaxy Watches, smart rings, and other health-tracking devices. The chip opens up new opportunities for health tracking and life logging, the Qualcomm team explained during a briefing. 

That aforementioned life-logging feature will also power the next generation of AI pendants or glasses. The chip simplifies and speeds up information recall, such as “Where did I put my keys?” or “What cafe did I visit last week in Paris?” 

We’ll get a glimpse of this next era when the first few devices from these major tech brands arrive later this year. The chip will likely power Samsung and Google’s next smartwatches, smart glasses (Samsung is rumored to launch a pair this year), smart rings, or pins.