While Google‘s Pixel phones regularly make our best phones and best Android phones lists, we have to admit that they lag behind rivals Apple and Samsung when it comes to performance.
There was some reason to celebrate when it was leaked that Google is transitioning away from 4nm Samsung made processors to 3nm Tensor G5 SoCs from chip giant TSMC for this year’s Pixel 10 series.
G5 is basically TSMC-made version of G4.
Chunvn8888
However, new leaks paint a picture of a chip that could lag well behind the A19 chip inside the iPhone 17 series and the Snapdragon 8 Elite in the Galaxy 25..
Leaker Chunvn8888 responded to comments on X claiming that the Tensor G5 “gonna stay the same, G5 is basically TSMC-made version of G4.”
Further down the thread, he added that the G5 chip will only support UFS 3.1 while other other flagship phones are upgrading to UFS 4.1 or NVME SSD memory storage.
Both are fairly damning claims, especially since the Tensor G4, which supports UFS 3.1, was already behind last year as other phones were getting UFS 4.0.
Weak benchmarks
This isn’t entirely a surprise since a benchmark shared by reliable tipster Jukanlosreve in November of 2024 revealed a single Geekbench benchmark score that was much lower than scores for the Pixel 9. It showed a single core score of 1323 and a multicore score of 4,004.
In Tom’s Guide testing, the Pixel 9 had a single core score of 1,758 and a multicore score of 4,595. Still, far lower than the Galaxy S25 and the iPhone 16, but outpacing this rumored test.
| Row 0 – Cell 0 |
Google Pixel 9 |
Google Pixel 8 |
Samsung Galaxy S24 |
iPhone 15 |
|
Battery size |
4,700 mAh |
4,575 mAh |
4,000 mAh |
3,349 mAh |
|
Battery Life (Hrs:Mins) |
13:18 |
9:43 |
13:28 |
11:05 |
|
Charging Speed |
27W |
27W |
25W |
20W |
|
Charge % after 30 minutes |
54% |
60% |
54% |
53% |
To be fair to Google, the leaked benchmark is one test session and Google and TSMC may already have improved the chip between then and now. And there is several months still to go before the rumored Pixel 10 launch.
Additionally, around the same time as the benchmark leak, a treasure trove of internal reports were leaked by Android Authority with performance reports suggesting the new TSMC Tensor chip will still underperform compared to Apple’s next A-series chip and the latest Qualcomm SoCs.
Even if the CPU is unimpressive, it’s supposed to have a great GPU with raytracing seen in the best gaming phones. So the Pixel 10 might be a decent gaming machine.
Skip it or pick it?
We expect Google to launch the Pixel 10 lineup in August, like it did with the Pixel 9 last year.
The question is whether or not you should you skip this year’s version or wait for next year’s Pixel 11 once Google and TSMC have really ironed out their processes.
It may still be a great phone, and Tom’s Guide will put Google’s latest through its paces in our testing to see if the Tensor G5 is actually as behind the times as the leaks claim.
