At this year's Google I/O, the long-awaited Google Pixel Watch was finally shown, however the firm was unusually tight-lipped about its features. Apart from the fact that it was going to be released alongside the Pixel 7 series, we didn't have much information. However, according to a recent claim from 9to5Google, it will be equipped with the Exynos 9110, a four-year-old CPU.
While it's understandable that Google's first wristwatch doesn't include the newest Exynos W920 processor, there are probable reasons for this. The most likely reason is that the Pixel Watch has been in the works for quite some time. The business has been preparing it since the debut of the original Google Pixel smartphone, and speculations resurfaced in 2018 ahead of the launch of the Pixel 3 series.
Given all of this, it's quite likely that this is being built on older technology due to the fact that the gadget is technically older. According to 9to5Google, the Pixel Watch is based on Android 9 Pie. It's possible that switching to the Exynos W920 would have further slowed development.
However, it isn't all awful. The Exynos 9110 is a 10-nanometer processor with two Cortex-A53 cores. That implies it'll be more energy efficient than Qualcomm's current offering, and should work well with the 300 mAh battery. Qualcomm's most recent wearable processor is the Snapdragon Wear 4100 Plus, which is built on a 12nm technology and features four Cortex-A53 cores.
The Pixel Watch's sole flaw is that it won't be able to compete with Samsung's finest, with the Galaxy Watch 5 series set to arrive before the Pixel Watch. The Galaxy Watch 5 will very certainly have an Exynos W920, which means it will still outperform the Exynos 9110 in real-world usage, but not by a significant margin.
While having the latest and greatest chipset in Google's first major wearable release would be fantastic, CPUs aren't everything. We saw this with the Google Pixel 6 series and how, despite being built on a technically inferior Exynos chipset, Google Tensor remained competitive against the current generation of chipsets because to Google's optimisations. We'll have to wait and see whether the reports are real, and if they are, what Google can accomplish with an older processor.