Commentary: Tensor G2 needs work on heat and battery life for Pixel 7

Google’s next Pixel finally has a launch date. The Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will debut on October 6, bringing with them the Tensor G2 chip. While the first generation of Tensor left a lot of room for improvement, this time energy efficiency and heat generation need the most attention.

The original Google Tensor chipset was Google’s very first mobile chip and it put on a pretty good show at first. Admittedly, Google’s design was very heavily based on Samsung’s Exynos foundation, but the company’s decision to focus on AI strength rather than sheer performance clearly didn’t hurt the final package.

But over time, it’s become clear where Google’s chip struggles to keep up with the competition.

In my own experience, I had very little to complain about with Tensor, at least until my upgrade to the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which really brought Tensor’s issues into focus. My Pixel 6 Pro ran toe-to-toe with the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and its Snapdragon 888, and in day-to-day use I could hardly tell any difference to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the Galaxy S22 series. There are a few hiccups here and there, but overall I was very happy with it.

The two things I really felt were heat and battery life.

In the months since our review of the Pixel 6 Pro, I’ve noticed that the battery life has been greatly reduced. Where I could last a full day at launch, the Pixel 6 Pro feels like it needs to be charged until dinner every day, especially when I’m spending a lot of time on a cellular network rather than just using Wi-Fi. A big culprit for battery drain is the modem, which has been proven to lag far behind the competition and seems to use more power to keep its signal.

Another side effect of Tensor’s shortcomings is heat. While it wasn’t a huge problem in my North Carolina area in the fall, winter, and spring, the summer heat really showed how hard the Pixel 6 Pro is struggling to stay cool. Anytime I was out in the sun, keeping the phone cool was harder than keeping myself cool. I’ve often put the phone in my pocket next to a bottle of water while playing disc golf, just to keep it from overheating. And far too often I found the Pixel to be hot to the touch, to the point where I could feel the heat in my pockets like walking around on a hot day.

This heat really stood out compared to any other phone I’ve tried over the summer months. The OnePlus 10T has stayed consistently cool, as have Samsung’s latest foldables, and even my Fold 3 from last year has never gotten anywhere near as hot as the Pixel over the past few months.

Tensor seems to be the biggest culprit here, as the processor is generally the part of a phone that generates the most heat. Dissipation is key to keeping a phone cool, but other chips have improved their overall efficiency to reduce the generation of that heat in the first place.

Of course, there’s not much Google can do to solve these problems. Much of the blame lies with the Samsung foundry that makes the original Tensor chip and will continue to produce Tensor G2.

As proof of this, we can look at a few places. For one, Exynos chips have historically been associated with heat issues. The Exynos variant of the Galaxy S20 Ultra has had many overheating issues, and devices at the same time even prompted fans to ask Samsung to stop using the chips.

In addition, Qualcomm has proven the difference a chip can make when made by Samsung or the other main player TSMC. Produced under the direction of Samsung, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a pretty solid chip overall. But just a few months later, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 came out, and it was a massive improvement across the board, despite being essentially the same chip at the design level. The biggest win was battery life thanks to better power efficiency, which Qualcomm claimed could increase overall endurance by about 30%. Based on our time with the Galaxy Z Fold 4, which has the same battery size and virtually the same displays as the Fold 3, all indications certainly pointed to Qualcomm’s chip being the main improvement to the foldable’s endurance, and it It really all came down to switching to the much more efficient build of TSMC.

In reality, Google is probably years away from even remotely matching what Qualcomm has managed. Not even MediaTek, which uses the same TSMC production as Qualcomm now, can match a top-of-the-line Snapdragon. In addition, Tensor “G3” is said to be in the works, with Samsung still in the founding phase.

Still, we recognize that this is one of the biggest areas where Google needs to catch up. The Pixel 6 series was a pretty close match to Snapdragon-powered flagships in terms of day-to-day performance, but persistent heat and battery life issues really detract from the experience. Tensor G2 is the first step in Google’s chance to bridge the gap.

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