New Wear OS eligibility confirmed — can your smartwatch upgrade?

New Wear OS eligibility confirmed — tin can your smartwatch upgrade?

(Prototype credit: Tom's Guide)

When shopping for a new Vesture Os smartwatch, y'all might check the specs for special features or bombardment life estimates. But at present there'south a more pressing reason to read fine print before checkout.

Google but confirmed that the unified Wear OS — officially chosen Wear Bone 3 — won't be uniform with smartwatches powered past a Snapdragon Wear 3100 chip or older. The crumbling chipset is found on a number of smartwatches currently bachelor, including the Fossil Gen 5 LTE, Xiaomi Mi Watch and the Suunto 7, one of the best running watches.

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If you want to benefit from Wear Os three, a revamped version of Google's article of clothing software merged with Samsung's Tizen and Fitbit'southward fettle platform, steer clear of Snapdragon Wear 3100 smartwatches.

Instead, a select drove of Article of clothing OS smartwatches volition be eligible for Wearable Bone three when information technology rolls out to older devices in 2022. Any model running the Snapdragon Wear 4100 can elevate to the new software. Right now that list is limited to the Mobvoi's TicWatch Pro 3 and the TicWatch E3.

There might non be many Snapdragon Wear 4100 smartwatches out in the wild, just the offerings are expected to with future TicWatch devices, as well as the next-generation Fossil collection.

It's safe to assume any smartwatch debuting next year will ship with Habiliment OS three installed. Existing Snapdragon Vesture 4100 smartwatch owners won't be and then lucky. Google warns that updating will require a reboot to manufactory settings, which could crusade disruptions to the user experience.

In other words, you might non want to upgrade to Wearable OS 3, fifty-fifty if you accept an eligible smartwatch. Although the Samsung Galaxy Spotter 4 will ship with Wear OS 3, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and earlier Galaxy Sentry models will stick to Tizen, if that'due south any consolation.

Either fashion, think twice before buying a Snapdragon Wear 3100 smartwatch. You might see Amazon deals or other discounts on these devices as we get closer to Wear OS three'due south official rollout.

Yous'll also go a preview of the updated Wear Os on the new Galaxy Watch next month, just go along it mind it'll be layered by Samsung'due south One UI Watch and run an exclusive Exynos 9110 chipset, not the Snapdragon 4100.

Next: Habiliment OS vs. watch Bone — which software will win?

Kate Kozuch is a senior author at Tom's Guide covering wearables, TVs and everything smart-dwelling related. When she's not in cyborg mode, y'all can find her on an exercise bike or channeling her inner celebrity chef. She and her robot army will rule the world i solar day, but until then, reach her at kate.kozuch@futurenet.com.