The Snapdragon 8 Elite Should Be a Wake-up Call for Google
The launch of Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset shows that there’s still a lot of progress that can be made when it comes to mobile silicon performance. Yes, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and 8 Gen 3 were impressive flagship chips, but the 8 Elite’s performance is certainly a big improvement overall. Even rival manufacturers like MediaTek and Apple have stepped up their offerings with the Dimensity 9400 and A18 Pro, for example.
READ: Snapdragon 8 Elite benchmarks blow the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 out of the water
And then there’s Google – the Mountain View company’s decision to stick to its Tensor chips has certainly been a divisive one, and it’s not been the smoothest ride as well. While the latest Tensor model is mostly a more stable and efficient improvement over its predecessors, issues with overheating, wireless connectivity, and even bricking with older models have painted a rather unflattering image for the Tensor chips as a whole.
Already on its fourth iteration, Google’s current Tensor G4 lags behind its competitors, and even older chips like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 from a couple of years back out-perform it in most aspects. While the G4 comes with notable enhancements to power consumption and thermal management, it still has a long way to go before it can catch up with its contemporaries, especially as far as raw power is concerned. Even the company is aware of this – Google’s Soniya Jobanputra comments:
When we are designing the chip, we’re not designing it for speeds and feats. We’re not designing it to beat some specific benchmark that’s out there. We’re designing it to meet our use cases.
Sure, one can argue that the Tensor chips are perfectly fine for the type of usage (and users) that the Pixel phones are designed for. As someone who owns a Pixel 9, I can say that daily usage has been smooth without any slowdowns and overheating, which is noticeable when looking back at my experiences with older Pixels. But with the prices that Google is charging, it’s perfectly understandable that some buyers will expect performance comparable to that of similarly-priced smartphones. With the arrival of the 8 Elite, this gap in performance and price becomes even more apparent.
Based on new reports however, it seems that Google has been listening, after all. There’s word that next year’s Tensor G5 will be made in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC). For those not in the know, all Tensor chips up until now were developed in collaboration with Samsung, a fact that many are quick to bemoan due to the latter’s track record with its Exynos chips, which are somewhat infamous for performance and overheating issues.
There have been reports that next year’s Tensor G5 will be made in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC).
It’s now expected that next year’s Tensor G5 (codenamed “Laguna”) will be built using TSMC’s 3nm N3E, the same process node that Apple uses for the iPhone 16 Pro’s A18 Pro, as well as the M4 chips in some of its laptops. Given how impressive the latter two chips have been so far, it’s safe to say that the G5 will easily out-perform previous Tensor chipsets, at least in theory. Additionally, the Tensor G6 (set to launch in 2026) will be made with TSMC’s N3P, which – if rumors are to be believed – will also be used for Apple’s A19 chip.
With all that being said, it’s still a bit too early to be too optimistic. After all, we’ve just gotten the Pixel 9 a couple of months ago, and things could still change as the months go by. At the same time however, Google has been playing catch-up for far too long at this point – it’s about time that the company who owns Android might want to step up its game, especially if it aims to keep the Pixel line up and running for years to come.