Pixel 8 hardware leaks suggest faster chip, tweaked screen ratios - Ars Technica

Only 11 months to spell —

The adjacent Tensor SoC could usage a 3 nm Samsung Exynos spot arsenic its core.

Kevin Purdy - Nov 9, 2022 5:08 p.m. UTC

Enlarge / If the earliest of Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro rumors are to beryllium believed, determination could beryllium much RAM and a notably antithetic spot wrong adjacent the lower-spec Pixel 8.

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica

Google's Pixel enactment changes from twelvemonth to year, but 1 country of consistency is predominant proviso concatenation leaks astatine each signifier of a Pixel's life. Just a fewer weeks aft the Pixel 7 arrived successful astir people's hands, a German website claims to person details of 2 Pixel-like devices being tested astatine Google.

WinFuture cites devices codenamed "Shiba" and "Husky," some moving Android 14 "Upside Down Cake" and sporting a caller Tensor G3 system-on-a-chip developed with Samsung's Exynos division. WinFuture's root suggests the package, codenamed Zuma, would person the aforesaid 5G modem arsenic the Tensor G2, but the processor would beryllium based connected Samsung's 3 nm Exynos 2300, with the emblematic Google AI/ML improvements baked in. The Exynos 2300 was seemingly connected the verge of cancellation but has precocious shown up again successful Bluetooth certification documents.

A 3 nm, Exynos-2300-based Tensor matches up with what noted Pixel hardware-watcher Kuba Wojciechowski has seen successful export databases and heard from sources.

Our review of the Pixel 7 Pro noted that Google's 5 nm Tensor chips, introduced due to the fact that the institution was supposedly "held backmost for years" by Qualcomm's offerings, were slower than the newest Qualcomm offerings. A alteration successful fabrication could assistance propulsion Pixels beyond run-of-the-mill Android show (but apt not adjacent interaction Apple's important lead).

The biggest alteration WinFuture suggests to these purported prototypes is 12GB of representation successful some the 8 and 8 Pro models, making the modular 8 basal retired much from the mid-to-higher-end competition. Screen signifier and ratio could displacement slightly, too, from 2400×1080 to 2268×1080 connected the modular exemplary and 3120×1440 to 2822×1344 connected the Pro.

All this, WinFuture notes, is "pure speculation," and the devices could beryllium "only trial platforms of Google's hardware team." There are so a fig of Pixel platforms with hardware ideas floating around, including what could go the Pixel 7a, a highly speculative Pixel Fold (potentially delayed to 2023), and an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor trial model connected a "Pixel G10."  That said, it's easier to judge a leak astir a Pixel merchandise than conscionable astir immoderate different flagship instrumentality retired there.