News The Tensor G4 is a key piece of Google's smartphone vision

[AC News]

When it comes to phones, Google thinks it can do better than others and the tensor G4 is proof of it. Will consumers agree?

The Tensor G4 is a key piece of Google's smartphone vision : Read more

 

[kiniku]

I bought a Pixel 8 Pro recently. After I had owned a couple of Snapdragon 8 based phones. So battery life is important to me. When the initial P8P reviews hit the net, I ruled it out completely. But what I failed to understand is I am not a phone gamer. I don't need the "gaming" performance nor the respective longevity of those type phones. With my moderate to mid heavy use, the P8P can last 1 to 1 1/2 days easily. As it stands, the Pixel 8 Pro is an innovative, powerful phone that I greatly enjoy.

 

[dannychan]

Save yourself disappointment dealing with Google pixel flaws and low benchmark performance, instead of tensor G4 powering the pixel 9 pro why not just get a phone powered by Qualcomm snapdragon 8 Gen 4 instead? While Google boasts that the tensor SoC is all about AI, Qualcomm is ahead of Google in AI.

 

[stangpilot]

I have a Pixel 7 Pro and it's been perfect for my uses (no gaming) and runs perfectly smooth. I feel I am probably the target user for Google and I love everything about this phone. I may consider getting the Pixel 9 if there is any significant improvement in photo and video performance.

 

[dannychan]

If you can wait for Google pixel 9 powered by tensor G4 to come out, you can also wait for phones powered by Media Tek dimensity 9400 and Qualcomm snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to come out and I assure you that either phone will be far better than pixel 9. Since 2021 when Google ditched Qualcomm and came out with their custom chip tensor, pixel phones have lagged behind the competition.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

This sounds nice, except Tensor has had zero advantage compared to other chips on AI.

Heck, the Tensor G3 on the Pixel 8 - Google's flagship line of phones, couldn't even run Gemini Nano until very recently (or is it still to come?) whereas Samsung's phones on other processors - Snapdragon or Exynos can run Gemini Nano from day one.

So if Tensor had an obvious advantage to other processors on AI, sure, the author would have a point, but we've seen no evidence of it being tangibly better. Add to that, all the AI processing for things like photos are being done on the cloud and available to anyone with Google Photos subscription/free offer.

Tensor is already behind competing chips in raw processing power, battery life and reception. Now it seemingly has no advantage in AI. So what's the point of going with Tensor? We're three generations in and the chips are miles behind the competition. Somehow we're expecting them to turn the ship around?

 

[Patrizio Bruno]

If you can wait for Google pixel 9 powered by tensor G4 to come out, you can also wait for phones powered by Media Tek dimensity 9400 and Qualcomm snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to come out and I assure you that either phone will be far better than pixel 9. Since 2021 when Google ditched Qualcomm and came out with their custom chip tensor, pixel phones have lagged behind the competition.

This sounds nice, except Tensor has had zero advantage compared to other chips on AI.

Heck, the Tensor G3 on the Pixel 8 - Google's flagship line of phones, couldn't even run Gemini Nano until very recently (or is it still to come?) whereas Samsung's phones on other processors - Snapdragon or Exynos can run Gemini Nano from day one.

So if Tensor had an obvious advantage to other processors on AI, sure, the author would have a point, but we've seen no evidence of it being tangibly better. Add to that, all the AI processing for things like photos are being done on the cloud and available to anyone with Google Photos subscription/free offer.

Tensor is already behind competing chips in raw processing power, battery life and reception. Now it seemingly has no advantage in AI. So what's the point of going with Tensor? We're three generations in and the chips are miles behind the competition. Somehow we're expecting them to turn the ship around?

The thing most non-Pixel users don't get is that Pixel users don't care about what non-Pixel users care. I'd never go back to Samsung or any other Android after having tried the Google version of Android on my first Pixel 2 XL. Forget the fact that I love the Pixel design. Using a Pixel is just easy and consistent in a way that Samsung never was. And I've been a Samsung Galaxy S user for 7 years. And as a software engineer for over 25 years, I do appreciate quality software when I see it. In fact I'd switch to Apple in a heartbeat if I liked walled gardens. Pixel is the only non Apple experience that is comparable to Apple's.

You need benchmarks and power hungry video games on your phone? Good for you, you're spoilt for choice. You like a Pixel experience? Too bad, you only have Google or Apple. Hopefully Google's hardware will one day be on par with Apple. But if not, so far I'm satisfied enough with my Pixel stuff.

 

[I Can Be Your Hero]

The thing most non-Pixel users don't get is that Pixel users don't care about what non-Pixel users care. I'd never go back to Samsung or any other Android after having tried the Google version of Android on my first Pixel 2 XL. Forget the fact that I love the Pixel design. Using a Pixel is just easy and consistent in a way that Samsung never was. And I've been a Samsung Galaxy S user for 7 years. And as a software engineer for over 25 years, I do appreciate quality software when I see it. In fact I'd switch to Apple in a heartbeat if I liked walled gardens. Pixel is the only non Apple experience that is comparable to Apple's.

You need benchmarks and power hungry video games on your phone? Good for you, you're spoilt for choice. You like a Pixel experience? Too bad, you only have Google or Apple. Hopefully Google's hardware will one day be on par with Apple. But if not, so far I'm satisfied enough with my Pixel stuff.

Except I am a Pixel user. I've owned multiple Pixel phones in the past and I just recently had the Pixel 8 Pro which I sold for the Galaxy S24 Ultra because the Pixel was so buggy and frustrating with awful battery and reception.

I'm not even a huge fan of Samsung, but they just make better phones. The Galaxy is less buggy, has excellent battery life and actually great reception. It also doesn't heat up randomly. The UI can be as clean as you want it to be and you don't need a 3rd party launcher to get rid of the search bar and at a glance widget.

Add to that, I get all the AI features the Pixel gets, which is supposed to be all about AI. I even get better AI features, like call screening is just objectively better on the Galaxy as you can have custom messages if you want, which the Pixel doesn't have.

The 'Pixel experience' is overheating, buggy phones with bad battery life and reception.

When users have experiences like this: https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/my-experience-with-google-pixel-6-two-years-later

It's not hard to see why Pixel loyalty is abysmal and only 25% of users plan to stick with the phones and 57% 'very likely' to change phones: https://www.statista.com/chart/26001/smartphone-user-loyalty-by-brand-gcs/

Apple and Samsung users are much less likely to change phone brand (34%). Why is that? Are all iPhone and Galaxy users 'power users' and only care about benchmarks and power hungry videogames like you talk about? Of course not. They're likely to stick to Apple and Samsung because they're providing better experiences: smooth, bug-free experiences, excellent battery life, great reception. You know, the basics of a smartphone. Google are simply not doing that right now and the consumers are finding that out.

It's not, and has never been about benchmarks and games. It's the awful battery life, reception and bugs the Pixel phones are notorious for.

 

[Dja]

I don't care about gaming or benchmarks, or even AI features; I only care about routine daily use performance. In that regard, my P8 is excellent. However, I also care about power efficiency and my P8 is just OK. I was initially disappointed by idle battery drain and drain during low-stress internet browsing -- especially compared to my two-year-old P4a 5G with hundreds of charge cycles. I still am.

I will likely stay with a Pixel when buying again, but I'm not buying a P9 or any other model using a version of the current Exynos-based Tensor. I'll jump over the P9 if the P10 uses new, more efficient silicon.