Google’s Subsequent Phone Chip Will Be Quicker, and Nonetheless Not Quick Sufficient

We might not want Jimmy Fallon to squawk “Tensor” to get slightly extra excited in regards to the efficiency of Google’s subsequent telephone. The Tensor G6 may very well be the Pixel maker’s strongest chip but. But in the event you’ve been protecting monitor of Google’s Tensor’s efficiency over the previous few generations, that might not be saying a lot.

With Samsung’s newest Galaxy S26 telephones making use of a 3nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 CPU, Google’s reply is to craft one thing that’s doubtlessly extra environment friendly. Last week, Telegram {hardware} leaker Mystic Leaks shared extra particulars in regards to the Tensor G6 chip constructed for Google’s new {hardware}. The Tensor G6 is designed once more by TSMC, and it’s constructed on a brand new 2nm course of node. The Samsung Exynos 2600 was one of many first smartphone chips to supply the scale of node, however we haven’t seen it featured in a tool you should buy, at the least not but.

The purpose why 2nm is important is as a result of it means you may pack extra transistors onto a chip the thickness of a fingernail. This provides to power effectivity and—hopefully—efficiency from Google’s subsequent Pixel 11 sequence. According to the leak, the chip will run on one ARM C1-Ultra core hitting 4.11GHz clock speeds, 4 C1-Pro cores at 3.38GHz, and a further two C1-Pro cores at 2.65GHz. As famous by Android Authority, these are the identical cores powering a MediaTek Dimensity 9500 smartphone chip, although that chip packs three more-performant ARM C1-Premium cores.

What does all this imply? The Tensor G6 may very well be extra performant than the Tensor G5 on the Pixel 10 sequence. But single-core efficiency will imply the machine performs higher with individualized duties, like how briskly internet pages might load. We received’t know simply how properly the Pixel 11 will hit the mark with one thing extra demanding, like gaming. Mystic Leaks suggests we’ll get efficiency from a PowerVR C-Series CXTP GPU, aka the graphics processing unit. We received’t know the way properly Google’s new telephone handles real-time graphics. The Tensor G5 considerably underperformed Qualcomm’s and MediaTek’s flagships in pure body charges.

If the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 already loses to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in benchmark efficiency, what hope does Google have of hitting again in opposition to Qualcomm and even Apple’s newest A19 and A19 Pro? Google’s Pixel telephones will nonetheless not be the head of efficiency, however Google will attempt to make up for it in different methods—probably with a number of Gemini AI options, improved digital camera sensors, and a spunky RGB pixel array akin to the Nothing Phone 3.

There’s a purpose why Google’s earlier Pixel 9a was an awesome deal in midrange smartphones. It maintained the Tensor G4 chip of its $800 Pixel 9 from 2024. This 12 months, Google launched the Pixel 10a, which is actually the identical rattling telephone because the earlier iteration with the identical rattling chip.

Google’s Tensor chips outmatch different midrange telephones, however Google received’t be promoting its telephones for much less. These leaks additionally recommend Google has bowed to the pressures of shrinkflation and lowered base RAM specs on its Pixel 11 Pro Fold. At the identical time, if Google desires to push extra Gemini AI, it would probably harp on its TPU, a tensor processing unit, constructed for tweaking your photographs on the fly. Google once more has to show software program could make up for a lower-performance, although nonetheless costly, smartphone.