Preparing a new device to be unveiled and then put on the market takes a lot of work. In almost every market, there is a regulatory body that must use the large rubber stamp that says, “Approved.”
According to MySmartPrice, the Pixel Watch 2, which is expected to hit the scene alongside the Pixel 8 series in October (likely during the first week of the month), has been certified by the IMDA site (Infocomm Media Development Authority) from Singapore.
The model number listed on the site, “G4TSL”, has already been seen on FCC documentation and this model is the Wi-Fi only variant of the watch which is equipped with Wi-Fi connectivity (2.4 GHz) and Bluetooth. On the IMDA website, the Pixel Watch 2 has been listed under the “Low-power device” category. The Global 4G/LTE model, which has not been listed by IMDA, has model number GC3G8; the 4G model number for the United States is GD2WG.
We expect that the Pixel Watch 2 has a screen with a resolution of 383 x 384 pixels and the device would be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 SoC. This would be a huge improvement over the SoC used by the first Pixel Watch, the Exynos 9110.
This chip powered the first Galaxy Watch in 2018! The Exynos 9110 was built using a 10nm process node with two Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.15 GHz. Compare that to the 4nm Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 which has four Cortex-A53 cores with a clock speed of 1.7GHz. The GPU has also been improved. Wear OS 4 should come pre-installed.
A little heartbreak
On paper, and based on rumors, it looks like the performance of the Pixel Watch 2 should leave the original version far behind. While Google is expected to ship the sequel with 2GB of RAM like the original model, battery is rumored to increase by 4%going from 294 mAh to 306 mAh.
Just like the visit to the FCC, IMDA website does not mention Ultra-Wideband (UWB) feature which is supposed to be part of the Pixel Watch 2. Thanks to UWB, the Pixel Watch 2 would be part of Google’s enhanced Find My Device network when it launches. UWB would provide precise directions to Pixel Watch 2 users and help them find lost, missing, or stolen items with an as-yet-unannounced Google object tracker.
