If you’re an Android power user, getting a Pixel is a double-edged sword. Sure, you get access to a stock Android experience and most new features land on your device way ahead of models from other manufacturers. However, power users love benchmarks and raw performance and the OEM doesn’t deliver on that front.
With a switch from Samsung Foundry to TSMC for fabrication of the Google Tensor G5, there might have been an assumption that things were going to get better overall, but that’s not the case. The Google Pixel 10’s chip might make some improvements to the imaging experience, but performance seems like it will stay at its usual levels.
The Google Tensor G5 Will Likely Stay on the Same Performance Level
Manufacturing chips is not simple, even for the biggest tech companies in the world. That shouldn’t be too surprising considering the SoC is the single most complex piece of technology inside your smartphone. Since the Tensor SoCs were introduced, working with Samsung, which has experience with its Exynos, made things easier for Google, as the South Korean OEM could use its hardware or third-party hardware to fill the gaps.
With Google set to switch its fabrication from the struggling Samsung over to the industry-leading TSMC, my initial expectation was that things were going to get a whole lot better. There was no reason to believe that wouldn’t be the case. Unfortunately, with a recent leak provided by Android Authority, it is clear that things won’t be that rosy for the Pixel lovers.
The Google Tensor G5 will make the upcoming Pixel 10 series its home, and isn’t going to make drastic changes, especially in performance. Both Samsung and TSMC Tensors will have Arm Cortex CPU cores (allegedly the same configuration for the G4 and G5), but the G5 will leave Arm Mali GPUs behind and opt for an Imagination Technologies DXT GPU. It’s usually a Mali or Adreno in flagship phones, so I’m curious to see how this stacks up.
Other Tensor Components Are Set to Change, Particularly in the Imaging Department
Google is going to stick to a lot of the SoC components that it used back when it was working with Samsung. The audio processor, memory compressor, DSP, and TPU in the Google Tensor G5 will all continue to be Google-made options, though some of them will be next-gen models.
However, outside of those, Google will be switching a lot of things up, particularly to third-party options. The Samsung and Google video codecs from before are replaced by the Chips&Media WAVE677DV. The display controller leaves Samsung and takes shelter with VeriSilicon’s DC9000. Similarly, other parts like the SPMI controller, and PWM controller have been taken over by third parties.
Most notably is that the Samsung ISP with a little bit of Google magic is now going to be replaced by a full Google ISP. That should likely mean you will get some major improvements to the imaging experience on a Pixel phone, and they were already pretty high up in that regard. Hopefully, it’ll be enough to make up for the relatively stale performance that we’re expecting.
