Google Tensor G3 will reportedly bring significant improvements to Pixel 8 series

Google announced the Tensor SoC for its Pixel 6 series of flagship smartphones, and the company has been using it since 2021. Google’s smartphones are some of the best on the market, and the Google Pixel 7 series are powered by the second generation Google Tensor G2 chips.

As we found out, not that long ago, Google uses Samsung’s semiconductor division to engineer and customize its chip. The Google Tensor SoC is based on Exynos chips, and they’re known to be less powerful than Qualcomm’s latest premium Snapdragon chips when it comes to benchmark scores – otherwise, the chip is plenty powerful enough for most and everyday tasks such as multitasking and gaming.

The second generation Google Tensor G2 chip was faster and more efficient than the first version, and we’re now hearing that the third generation is under development. According to AndroidAuthority, the chip may be due for some significant improvements this year, and we could see noticeable upgrades when it comes to performance and efficiency.

According to the latest news, the new Google Tensor G3 will be a more up-to-date chip, and come with nine CPU cores – four Cortex-A510s, four Cortex-A715s, and a single Cortex-X3. The frequencies will be raised from the previous generation slightly, which should not only provide faster speeds in benchmarks, but we could see a small improvement when gaming. The performance should be equivalent to 2022 flagship SoCs, and we’re hoping that Google continues to work on cooling to ensure the device doesn’t throttle under heavy loads.

Instead of using the new ARMv9.2 cores, Google is rumored to fall behind and opt for the slightly older ARMv9 cores. Although it’s slightly older, it’ll enable Google to implement new security technologies. AndroidAuthority also reports that the Pixel 8 series will feature ARM’s Memory Tagging Extensions (MTE), which can prevent memory-based attacks. Other devices already support MTE in hardware, but it hasn’t yet been enabled in Android on the OS level. The Pixel 8 is rumored to come with this enabled by default.

Google Pixel 7 Pro

The Google Tensor G3 will also remove 32-bit support completely, which Goole has already implemented in the Pixel 7 series. The GPU will use the Mali-G715 with 10 cores clocked at 890MHz. The chip will reportedly support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and games should not only look nicer, but they’ll also run better with greater detail. That’s not all, the chip will also support Samsung MFC (Multi-Format Codec) encoding and decoding 8K 30fps in both h.264 and HEVC formats.

Aside from the CPU, GPU, and encoding features, the Tensor G3 will also support UFS 4.0, which is a significant upgrade over the previous UFS 3.1 – and it should yield up to 50% faster speeds. Phones such as the Galaxy S23 Ultra already support UFS 4.0 storage, and it’s great to see that Google’s Pixel 8 series could follow suit and catch up to the highest-end premium flagships.

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  Google Pixel 7

  The new Google Pixel 7 is powered by the all-new Google Tensor G2 chipset. The device is coupled with 8GB of memory, and it has 128/256GB storage tiers. The phone comes with a significantly improved camera system, and it’s more portable than the last generation.  The Pixel 7 is available in Obsidian, Lemongrass, and Snow colors. 

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  Google Pixel 7 Pro

  The Google Pixel 7 Pro, powered by the new Google Pixel Tensor sensor, provides great graphics performance and computing power to let you easily play all of your favorite games and multitask. The device also has a highly capable camera setup that’s backed by a unique post-processing algorithm that helps achieve great results.

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  Google Pixel 7a

  $450 $500 Save $50

  The Pixel 7a is the new affordable smartphone from Google, featuring much-awaited features such as a 90Hz responsive display, a more powerful camera setup, and support for wireless charging. The Pixel 7a is powered by the Tensor G2 chipset, and it’s the best device in the A series yet.