The Tensor was Google’s first in-house chip, made in collaboration with Samsung. Instead of using one big core, three medium cores, and four small cores for the SoC like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips and Samsung’s Exynos chips, Google went for two cores for handing foreground processing duties, two medium cores, and four small cores.
Alleged Pixel 7 Pro benchmark scores
This can be attributed to two things: the G2 is apparently based on the 4nm process, which should make it more powerful and efficient than the first-gen chip, and the X1 cluster and A76 cores now run at higher clock speeds.
Also, as was the case with the first proprietary chip, Google appears to be prioritizing power-efficient performance and responsiveness, and doesn’t seem concerned with smashing benchmark records.
Tensor G2 rocks a new GPU and modem
The Tensor G2 allegedly also has a better TPU codenamed “Jaineiro”, presumably for new AI experiences. Other than that, Google appears to have made improvements to the video encode/decode block and ISP.
The device may pack a new Samsung-made S5300 modem and hopefully, this will help with connectivity woes experienced by Pixel 6 users.
All in all, even though the Tensor G2 is highly unlikely to be the fastest mobile SoC around, Google’s approach will presumably ensure that it will not heat up and as has been said before, most modern smartphones are plenty fast already, and there is more to the smartphone experience than raw CPU performance and other factors such as software optimization, which Google is good at, also play a huge part.
