Galaxy Watch 4 specs leaks paint a very impressive picture

By Ewdison Then/July 15, 2021 9:29 pm EST

Smartwatches naturally have fewer hardware resources than their smartphone partners, but Wear OS smartwatches have been unpopular for having rather mediocre hardware in comparison to other platforms. That is particularly true with the processor that most vendors use, with technologies dating back to 2018 or older. The upcoming Wear OS attempts to break away from that bold, but its first incarnation might be taking things even farther. If these latest leaks are correct, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 could be one of the most powerful smartwatches yet.

The choice of processor is even more important on smartwatches because of their limited space and batteries. Power efficiency and size play a more critical role for wearables, but there aren't that many wearable chipsets to choose from. Most Wear OS smartwatches utilize Qualcomm's older Snapdragon Wear 3100, failing to take advantage of 12nm Snapdragon Wear 4100+'s more current features.

Despite running Wear OS, the Galaxy Watch 4 will skip that SoC as well, but it's probably for the best. According to SamMobile's exclusive, Samsung's next smartwatches will use a new 5nm Exynos W920 chipset. The smaller size leaves more room for other components while also improving the overall performance per watt. The Exynos W920 is said to have a 1.25x faster CPU and 8.8x better GPU, though it remains to be seen how well it fares against the Snapdragon Wear 4100+.

The Galaxy Watch 4 will also have 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, perhaps the highest capacities in the smartwatch market so far. These upgrades couldn't have come at a better time with the promise of more apps and more functionality via Wear OS and Google Play Store.

These leaks pretty much complete the picture of the Galaxy Watch 4 and the Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, and it's an interesting picture at that. There will be a lot of expectations waiting for Samsung's next smartwatches next month, not just because of the hardware, but also because of a new One UI-styled Wear OS experience.