Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica
Google’s Pixel line adjustments from 12 months to 12 months, however one space of consistency is frequent provide chain leaks at each stage of a Pixel’s life. Just a number of weeks after the Pixel 7 arrived in most individuals’s palms, a German web site claims to have particulars of two Pixel-like units being examined at Google.
WinFuture cites units codenamed “Shiba” and “Husky,” each operating Android 14 “Upside Down Cake” and sporting a brand new Tensor G3 system-on-a-chip developed with Samsung’s Exynos division. WinFuture’s supply suggests the bundle, codenamed Zuma, would have the identical 5G modem because the Tensor G2, however the processor could be primarily based on Samsung’s 3 nm Exynos 2300, with the everyday Google AI/ML enhancements baked in. The Exynos 2300 was seemingly on the verge of cancellation however has not too long ago proven up once more in Bluetooth certification paperwork.
A 3 nm, Exynos-2300-based Tensor matches up with what famous Pixel hardware-watcher Kuba Wojciechowski has seen in export databases and heard from sources.
“Zuma” is most definitely going to be fabricated on the Samsung 3nm GAAFET course of node, which, as I’ve been instructed by sources within the business, is wanting excellent thus far with effectivity that ought to at the least match TSMC’s 3nm course of. We will see the way it seems in the long run, although.
— Kuba Wojciechowski⚡ (@Za_Raczke) September 16, 2022
Our overview of the Pixel 7 Pro famous that Google’s 5 nm Tensor chips, launched as a result of the corporate was supposedly “held again for years” by Qualcomm’s choices, had been slower than the latest Qualcomm choices. A change in fabrication might assist push Pixels past run-of-the-mill Android efficiency (however seemingly not even contact Apple’s important lead).
The greatest change WinFuture suggests to those purported prototypes is 12GB of reminiscence in each the 8 and eight Pro fashions, making the usual 8 stand out extra from the mid-to-higher-end competitors. Screen form and ratio might shift barely, too, from 2400×1080 to 2268×1080 on the usual mannequin and 3120×1440 to 2822×1344 on the Pro.
All this, WinFuture notes, is “pure hypothesis,” and the units may very well be “solely take a look at platforms of Google’s {hardware} workforce.” There are certainly quite a lot of Pixel platforms with {hardware} concepts floating round, together with what might turn into the Pixel 7a, a extremely speculative Pixel Fold (doubtlessly delayed to 2023), and an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor take a look at mannequin on a “Pixel G10.” That stated, it is simpler to imagine a leak a couple of Pixel product than simply about some other flagship system on the market.