Pixel 7 Pro prototype indicates the Tensor 2 might be much less capable

A Google News Telegram group was contacted by someone with a bricked Pixel 7 Pro but they got to know some interesting thing about the phone's chip from boot logs (via Android Authority).

That also shows that the Pixel 7 Pro will be getting a slight display upgrade. Pixel 6 Pro uses Samsung S6E3HC3 panel, while the Pixel 7 Pro reportedly uses the S6E3HC4 display with same resolution ( 3120x1440 ). So even though it might not be a huge of an upgrade but an upgrade is an upgrade.

The Tensor 2 chipset will continue to have a 2+2+4 CPU configuration, with two prime cores, two performance cores, and four high-efficiency cores.

As for the high-efficiency cores, according to the logs, Google has decided to use with Cortex-A55 cores and this is an Armv8 CPU core, that means it will not have any Armv9 cores like Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710, Cortex-A510. If you don’t know new generation old generation cpu cores cannot be mixed and matched with each other.

That simply means the other CPU cores could be the Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1. For reference, these cores are used in the Snapdragon 888 chip. So at the time of launch, it will be a two year old chip from inside it will lag behind current flagship chipsets such as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or the 8 Plus Gen 1, at least on paper then just think about the comparison between the Tensor 2 and Qualcomm snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip which will have an insane configuration.

Keep in mind that specs on paper aren’t everything, the day to day experience can be enhanced though optimization. On top of this Google isn’t trying to focus on the RAW power, they might focus even more on the AI side of things. The Telegram group also spotted references to some code names of the pixel phones like Panther (Pixel 7), Cheetah (Pixel 7 Pro), and Felix (maybe the Pixel 7a).

As for the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro phones, these two devices will be a refined variant of the current pixel models. The biggest change from the outside will be a slightly refined design and a new camera bump. So most of the upgrades expected are in software and optimization. This year we will not see massive hardware upgrades. But that’s not it, Google might even come up with another Pixel 7 series model alongside the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. Nonetheless it will been interesting.