Samsung Gear Live torn down, found hiding a WiFi chip

Android Wear smartwatches, like most other smartwatches, connect to your smartphone to get any data. This tethering allows the wearable to use your data connection. However, when during a teardown of the Samsung Gear Live, something strange was found: a WiFi chip.

Left unused, this WiFi chip sits alongside the Snapdragon 400 processor and may hint to another product Samsung has yet to release. It’s been rumored that Samsung has a cellular-enabled watch planned that won’t need a smartphone for a data connection, but there is no official news yet. Maybe it’ll use the same hardware as the Gear Live whenever it’s released.

For now, the Gear Live’s WiFi chip remains dormant. Maybe some developers might think of a good use for it in a custom ROM; we’ll just have to wait and see. But it’s interesting that Samsung managed to fit a WiFi chip into a device where space is at a premium. What do you think it could be used for? Leave a comment!