Google wowed the world when it announced that the Pixel lineup will start coming with in-house chips rather than the usual outsourced ones from Qualcomm and MediaTek. The Pixel 6 lineup did pretty well for themselves, which got us excited for the second-generation chipsets from the tech giant. It appears now that we finally have a glimpse of the Google Tensor G2 chip that’s going to be powering the upcoming Pixel 7 series. If we could describe it in one word SO FAR, it would be: underwhelming. Here’s why.
Based on leaked information, the upcoming Tensor G2 will be equipped with two Cortex-X1 cores. This is all well and good, since the X1s are revered as powerful cores ever since their announcement in 2020. They present a significant performance boost over the previous generation and are still considered relatively capable by today’s standards. These have reportedly been shipped with increased clock speeds to a peak speed of 2.85 GHz.
On the other hand, the new chipset is packing two Cortex A76 cores running at 2.35 GHz. These are considered flagship-level, sure, but by 2018 standards. That’s quite a long time, especially in the tech world where things move at a rapid pace. Developer Kuba Wojciechowski mentions that peak performance should more or less be the same as the original Tensor, which already fell behind quite a bit compared to its competitors. There is a high chance that the Tensor G2 will lose out to any 2022 flagship chipsets, much more to examples from next year.
However, one important point to note is that Google is focusing on minimal energy consumption and sustained action for the same levels of performance. It’s not fighting a war at the top, but who can keep it up longer and more consistently. Being manufactured with Samsung’s 4nm process should help reduce draw and maximize battery life on the Pixel 7 devices.
Another factor here is software. Since Android comes from Google themselves, maybe they have a trick up their sleeve to even out the playing field.
Besides the questionable CPU arrangement, everything else is getting a well-defined upgrade if these leaked specs are anything to go by. That includes the GPU which is now rumored to be the Mali-G710, 20% faster and more efficient than the previous option on paper. It’s the same one found in the now-beloved Dimensity 9000 chipset. Also rumored is a brand-new S5300 5G modem from Samsung for a more stable browsing experience when using 5G data. The camera ISP based on Exynos is also now supercharged, potentially adding some extra camera oomph in the processing department.
While we’re a little disappointed by these specs, it feels like the Pixel 7 is meant to be an incremental upgrade to fix everything the 6 wasn’t able to fulfill. With the third-generation Tensor also on the horizon, we can imagine a bright future for Google and its Pixel lineup of devices.
