The chips inside the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro may not get a major upgrade next year, with a new report claiming that the Tensor G4 that powers the two flagship phones will only be a minor upgrade over the Tensor G3. This could mean Google will rely on Samsung's Exynos design while sticking to the Korean company's manufacturing processes, rather than going in the direction of TSMC.
It is rumored that TensorG4 will also use the same ARM GPU as TensorG3, and there will be no improvement in graphics performance.
A report published by Kamila Wojciechowska on AndroidAuthority mentioned that according to Google insiders, TensorG4 is codenamed "ZumaPro", while TensorG3 is codenamed "Zuma". The similarity in codenames is enough to prove that the G4 will be a minor update to the G3, so the Pixel 9 and Pixel 9 Pro will once again fall behind the competition.
In addition, Revegnus has announced on the Google may not want to invest more resources in 2024, as it will be looking far into the future, where it will launch its first-ever fully custom chipset, dubbed TensorG5.
From the looks of it, Google has a long-term plan to compete with Apple by bringing custom chipsets to its Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro. Sadly, the TensorG5 isn't expected to launch before 2025, but the advantage is that TSMC is said to be mass-producing custom solutions rather than Samsung, meaning Google could eventually keep up with its competitors in terms of performance-per-watt improvements.
The report mentioned that TensorG5 is codenamed "Laguna Beach" and the development board is called "Deepspace" internally. However, it should be pointed out that the G5 was previously codenamed "Redondo"; the significance of this change is beyond people's imagination. First, Google will no longer be responsible for the design of the chipset, which is currently handled by Samsung. While it’s disappointing that TensorG4 won’t be a major upgrade, the future of Google’s chip division is still worth paying attention to.