Google finally officially revealed that it’s working on the much anticipated and leaked Google Pixel Watch. The software giant announced the news at the Google I/O 2022 developer conference earlier last week, and we also have a Google Pixel Watch Page set up explaining everything you need to know about it.

The newly announced Google Pixel Watch looks identical to the device we saw leak a long time ago. The only different thing that we’ve seen is the watch faces, but given that this is still a prototype and not a final product, it’s something that we can look past as the developers might still be designing it.

Google didn’t reveal too much information about the company’s first smartwatch, but it did share that it would be officially unveiled alongside the new Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro sometime in the fall. We don’t know the specifications, dimensions, screen size, how it will be charged, or any other important tidbits that would give us a better idea of what the watch can handle.

However, 9to5Google appears to have a source that suggests that the Google Pixel Watch might be equipped with a Samsung Exynos 9110 chip, built on the 10nm process. The reason why this is so important is because the chip was announced all the way back in August of 2018, and released alongside the Samsung Galaxy Watch (first generation). The same chip was also used in the Galaxy Watch Active, Galaxy Watch Active 2, and even in the Galaxy Watch 3, which was revealed in August 2020.

Samsung Exynos 9110 SoC

Samsung Exynos 9110 SoC

Source: Samsung

As a reference, the Exynos 9110 is built on the 10nm process, and it has a dual-core 1.15 GHz Cortex-A53 chip inside and a Mali T720 GPU. The Galaxy Watch 3 packed 1GB of RAM, and it had anywhere from a single day to three days of battery life thanks to the Tizen OS. The new Exynos W920 that is used in the Galaxy Watch 4 series has a dual-core 1.18 GHz Cortex-A55 CPU, and a Mali G68 GPU inside with 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. The latest Samsung chip is built on the 5 nm process, and it’s more efficient than Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus chip that’s built on the 12 nm process.

The news of the brand new Google Pixel Watch using a four-year-old chipset is disappointing, and while we understand that Google has been working on the smartwatch for many years, we still expected a fairly up-to-date device. We even assumed that it could run a Tensor chip, explicitly made for the smartwatch, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and Google Pixel Watch

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and Google Pixel Watch

Source: Pocketnow

There’s also a chance that Samsung doesn’t license and sell its Exynos W920 chip to other manufacturers, making it difficult for Google to replace the old SoC. It’s also worth mentioning that even if Google managed to find a newer chip, it would need additional time to optimize the software, which could delay the watch's launch even further. Of course, the chip isn’t the entire package, and Google could make up with performance improvements and optimizations to make it somewhat compete with the Galaxy Watch 4 and, later, the Watch 5.

We also don’t have to look that far to see that the Google Tensor chip in the Pixel series 6 isn’t the most advanced and up-to-date chip in the world, yet it provides an excellent performance. Both of the flagship smartphones are power efficient and manage to perform well under-load, making them a great pick for Android users and those wanting to switch. Based on that example, we’re sad about the news but hope that Google manages to release a device that is optimized and can provide an excellent general user experience.

As it stands right now, we’ll have to wait and see until we have more information ready at our disposal. We still have until at least October to go, and Samsung is expected to unveil the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 series sometime in July or August, alongside the new foldable smartphones. The Galaxy Watch 5 is rumored to come with a larger battery, and it may be the device that most people decide to go for, depending on the new benefits and features that Samsung manages to put inside of it.

What are your thoughts about Google using an already outdated chip in the Google Pixel Watch? Let us know in the comments down below!

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