Qualcomm Announces its Smartwatch Platform - Qualcomm Toq (Update: Now With Specs)
by Brian Klug on September 4, 2013 1:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Qualcomm
- Mobile
- Uplinq
- Tablets
- Trade Shows
- Toq
We’re at Qualcomm’s Uplinq 2013 conference where Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs has announced Qualcomm Toq, a smartwatch with a Mirasol color screen that can still be viewed outdoors in bright sunlight with touch capabilities, and wireless charging capabilities through WiPower LE.
The Toq shows notifications and looks like it has a few applications of its own, can control music playback and play locally to wireless headsets, and looks like it can do things like screening calls and show a variety of different watchfaces. Qualcomm is trying to leverage its mobile silicon leadership, Mirasol display, and enable partners to deliver better wearable products. The Mirasol display stays on all the time, never turns off, but still lets the Toq last multiple days between charges.
Later this month Qualcomm will make a limited number of Toqs available and continue to release more details about availability. There still are a lot of unknowns but we're hopefully going to find a lot more about Toq shortly.
Update: Qualcomm also posted the highlights video for the Toq it showed during the Uplinq keynote.
Update: Qualcomm has made its toq minisite live with a bit more detail, Android 4.0.3 is a requirement according to the voucher we were handed. We're hopefully going to get hands on with the Toq soon.
Update: We're still getting more information, but the SoC inside Toq includes an ARM Cortex M3, battery life is somewhere around 3 days, and uses Qualcomm's Alljoyn for pairing which uses Bluetooth in a serial mode. Qualcomm's Mirasol display looks to be very high dot pitch in person, and also includes front lighting. The platform is also water resistant.
Update: I've built a table with all the information I've been given about the Qualcomm Toq platform, and additional hands on photos:
| Qualcomm Smartwatch | ||||
| Toq | ||||
| SoC | 200MHz ARM Cortex M3 based (Not Snapdragon) | |||
| Display | 288x192 1.55-inch diagonal Mirasol color display | |||
| Dimensions |
Wrist bands adjustable to fit wrist sizes between 6 inches and 8.7 inches Total watch face size 43.3mm high 47.6mm wide and 9.96mm thick |
|||
| Mass | 0.2 lbs | |||
| OS | Toq Runs ThreadX, Android 4.0.3 or higher required | |||
| I/O | Bluetooth | |||
Source: Qualcomm
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p1esk - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
So, what is the purpose of this thing? The display is too small for browsing or texting. Use it as a dumbphone for old-fashioned phone calls? Maybe, I don't know...And no, I don't care about music players as a separate device.
Brian Klug - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
Similar to every smartwatch that's out currently – notification delivery, screening of calls, playback control, and of course information display (weather/time/appointments). I'll have a full functionality rundown soon.-Brian
p1esk - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
Are there any "smartwatches" out currently? The only one I've ever seen was Nike bracelet with no display.The more I think about it, I could actually see myself using a "smartwatch" as a dumbphone, especially if it offers good voice recognition for texting.
It has to look a lot more elegant than this one though.
p1esk - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
Well, I guess you can say that Nike bracelet has a "display".Brian Klug - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
Off the top of my head, there are now:1) Pebble
2) Sony SmartWatch and SmartWatch 2
3) MetaWatch
4) Motorola MOTOACTIV
5) Samsung Galaxy Gear
-Brian
jeffreytz - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
I currently own:- Martian Passport (my favorite, wear it every day to work)
- Pebble
- MetaWatch (original TI developers version)
- MetaWatch Strata (Kickstarter)
- Sony LiveView (awful)
- Sony SmartWatch (better, but looks like a plastic toy on your wrist)
- I'm Watch (disaster)
Of the new contenders, the Toq definitely looks the best to me, I'm really interested in this one. I'm not impressed at all with the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but I don't use Sammy phones (my old Galaxy Nexus doesn't count) and I'm not going to pair it to my Samsung Galaxy Camera. I think the design of the new Sony SmartWatch 2 looks far better than the last SmartWatch but I need to see it in person.
I like the Martian best because I get all the notifications I want on the OLED screen at the bottom on a device that is a real analog watch. That said I do like the MetaWatch and the Pebble as far as how much information you can see at a glance, so there's trade-offs. The other cool thing about the Martian is you can answer a call on it without taking the phone out of your pocket, it has a mic and speaker, pretty handy when you're driving and didn't put your phone in the cradle.
JT
Brian Klug - Wednesday, September 4, 2013 - link
Wow I had no idea about the Martian Passport, that looks phenomenal. Also that's a super comprehensive list there.I might try and get a Martian Passport, I like the style.
-Brian
dabotsonline - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
Brian, is there any chance that you'll be able to get hold of a review sample of the Omate TrueSmart at the same time the Kickstarter developers receive them (October?) The Sapphire Glass face has now been included as a standard feature and backers can pay $20 to upgrade the RAM from 512MB to 1GB.Brian Klug - Thursday, September 5, 2013 - link
Getting review samples of kickstarter products is usually really difficult or impossible, unless you know someone personally.-Brian
jleach1 - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
Yep, Motorola has the MOTOACTV, and there are a few others that can not only interface with android, but they run it as well...which means that we can hack, flash, and mod them until our geeky hearts are full of love and are content.