The Pixel 7a’s Tensor G2 chip is not the same as the Pixel 7
The Google Pixel 7a might seem like a great value for money phone, especially when you consider that the heart of the phone, the Tensor G2 chipset, was used to power the Google Pixel 7.
This means that in theory and in terms of performance, the Pixel 7a should be able to hold up to the Pixel 7, right? Turns out that might not be the case. According to a tweet by Kamila Wojciechowska, they have uncovered some evidence that suggests that the Tensor G2 chipset in the Pixel 7a might actually be a “slightly worse” version compared to the one in the Pixel 7.
While researching for one of the Google Pixel 8 articles I found something interesting: it turns out that the Pixel 7a uses a different, possibly slightly worse version of the Tensor G2 than the Pixel 7! 🧵
— kamila 🏳️⚧️ 🌸 (@Za_Raczke) June 19, 2023
Basically, without getting too technical, the way Google packaged the Pixel 7a’s Tensor G2 chipset is different from the way they did with the Pixel 7. Instead of using Samsung’s FOPLP-PoP technology, they opted for a potentially cheaper alternative, which is IPOP, which results in a chipset that is thicker, larger, and apparently runs hotter than the FOPLP-PoP version.
Wojciechowska mentions that it is unclear what real-world implications this might have for the Pixel 7a, but it is possible that because it might not necessarily be as heat-efficient, it could result in bottlenecks and could see the phone run slower in certain situations. To be fair to Google, we get it as the company is probably trying to cut costs otherwise the final retail price of the Pixel 7a might be too high.
It also doesn’t necessarily mean that the Pixel 7a is a bad phone by any means, it’s just that you should probably go in with slightly lower expectations, especially if you were hoping for similar performance to the Pixel 7.
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