There have been a great deal of stories circulating recently in regards to the Android Wear update and Wi-Fi support. Those stories have a tendency to focus on which smartwatches defintely won't be getting Wi-Fi support (probably the most exciting portion of the Wear update), and not so many within the reason why. We contacted the firms involved to arrive at the bottom of the Android Wear Wi-Fi situation.
Wi-Fi is not the main Snapdragon 400
Contrary to popular belief, Wi-Fi is just not a default a part of all Snapdragon 400 chips. The Snapdragon 400 may be the de facto standard chip for that vast majority of smartwatches right this moment, and not all Snapdragon 400-equipped smartwatches are obtaining Wi-Fi support.
This happens because the Snapdragon 400 is usually a system-on-a-chip (SoC), that contains various components however, not all the hardware needed for those components to function. So even though a Snapdragon 400 includes a Wi-Fi module onto it, that isn't to say it's functional. This is where the designers come in. This is what Qualcomm told AndroidPIT:
Wi-Fi just isn't built-in for the Snapdragon processor. It is really a separate part that needs to be integrated into the perception of the watch in the first place. It is around each OEM the things they choose to incorporate.
Visionary decisions
From this it truly is clear that some devices, much like the Gear Live from Samsung plus the Smartwatch 3 from Sony, do add some additional hardware instructed to support Wi-Fi for the Snapdragon 400, although some, much like the Asus ZenWatch and original LG G Watch, will not.
So what around the Moto 360 and LG G Watch R? The Moto 360 posseses an older Texas Instruments OMAP3 chip that doesn't have a built-in Wi-Fi module in any respect, yet Motorola was visionary enough to provide a separate Wi-Fi module and antenna. Samsung, which brought the Gear live out concurrently, admittedly had less work to do with the Gear Live, nonetheless it too supports Wi-Fi about the latest version of Android Wear.
The LG G Watch R isn't dead yet
The situation with LG isn't so clear though. It's definite that this original G Watch will never get Wi-Fi support. But the G Watch R might just.
We asked LG why the G Watch R may not be getting Wi-Fi support and informed that LG was investigating getting Wi-Fi enabled within the GWR. So it seems, eventhough it has not been confirmed yet, how the G Watch R might in reality have the necessary hardware for Wi-Fi support, but that there are some additional work to be achieved to get it activated. Here's what LG had to convey:
LG happens to be evaluating the most up-to-date Android Wear update and G Watch R to ascertain if it can be upgraded to make available Wi-Fi capabilities.
We'll update this story whenever we hear more from LG, however the good news is always that all hope will not be lost an advanced G Watch R owner – might even get Wi-Fi support in the end. Of course, the newest LG Watch Urbane will likely be pretty much appearing out of the box with Android Wear D.
Asus ZenWatch owners, within the other hand, are certainly not so fortunate. Asus were quick to create the record straight: ''ZenWatch won’t support [the Android Wear] Wi-Fi function mainly because it needs hardware to guide this.'' This reinforces Qualcomm's earlier statement that Wi-Fi functionality is just not pre-loaded fully on every Snapdragon 400. As I hope we've covered, it is usually a choice that OEMs must make to incorporate or take out the additional parts required.