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Google is one of the biggest tech companies in the world, bigger than Xiaomi, bigger than Samsung, and bigger than OnePlus. Still, despite its size and resources, Google has chosen to put weaker and less efficient chipsets in their Pixel flagship smartphones compared to other smaller competitors. But why is that? The tech world was excited when Google announced that they would engineer their own chip, similar to Apple and Samsung, promising to bring new AI and camera enhancements to their Pixel smartphones. Sadly after its release, the Tensor chip fell short in many ways. The chip is noticeably less powerful than competitors, it has never been efficient in terms of battery, and reliability for the Tensor chip was non-existent for the first 3 generations. So, this is my theory on why the Google Tensor sucks.
So, the Google Tensor chip was developed in collaboration with Samsung, adding some impressive features like an on-device transcription, a magic eraser for photo editing, and real-time translation. The problem is that the chip does not offer raw power and reliability, and in my personal opinion, those two things are more important than the extra features. Through benchmarks and everyday usage, the Tensor chip lags behind the f lagship from Snapdragon and Apple’s A-series chips every year, and the first two generations of the Tensor chip suffered from overheating. Even with Pixel phones running a clean build of stock Android which should optimize the experience, the performance issues were still glaring and hard to ignore. I’ve used the Pixel 7 Pro which lagged far too often and overheated so much so that I became frustrated using the phone.
Now here’s where things get a little interesting, while other companies rely on chips manufactured by TSMC (a leader in semiconductor production) Google has chosen to partner with Samsung. Why is that a problem? Samsung’s own Exynos chip has struggled to match the performance of Snapdragon and Apple’s processors. In fact, Samsung itself often releases the Galaxy S series flagship phones with Snapdragon chips instead of their own Exynos chips in competitive regions. This year, for example, the full s25 lineup offers the Snapdragon chip across all devices here in the United States. It’s head-scratching to see how Google with its massive resources chooses an inferior manufacturing partner. TSMC has been leading the semiconductor industry for decades thanks to its rigorous manufacturing process. After doing some research about its founder, Morris Chang, and the history of TSMC, I’ve come across a philosophy that may be the catalyst to its success, (The faster you identify and fix manufacturing defects the quicker you can achieve higher success yield). One of the best ways to expose issues and defects within an assembly process is to get your ‘reps’ in. Yield refers to the usable output generated by a production process, and Morris over his tenure found out that maximizing yield comes by maximizing production volume. With more volume, you maximize the opportunity to identify issues and come up with solutions and innovations. This way of thinking is still important today and this is where my theory comes into play.
Samsung needs an outlet to improve its semiconductor production just like TSMC. By using Samsung chips Google helps Samsung gain valuable experience and ‘reps’ in semiconductor manufacturing. In return, Samsung likely offers Google a better deal financially or strategically. Easing any tension between the companies and furthering their relationship. After all, Google makes flagship smartphones that directly compete with Samsung Galaxy flagship smartphones, which may be a conflict of interest for the two companies, but the Tensor collaboration might play a key role in strengthening and improving the relationship. This may explain why Tensor chips feel like a work in progress rather than a finished product. Samsung needs those ‘reps’ to catch up to TSMC and Google is essentially helping them in that area, and maybe at the expense of Pixel owners.
Nevertheless, rumors have suggested that Google might switch to TSMC for manufacturing their future chipsets in the upcoming Pixel 10 line of devices. If true, this could finally bring the performance and efficiencies we’ve all been waiting for. At the end of the day, this is just my personal theory, Google is a tech giant and there must be a reason why they haven’t invested more in creating a truly competitive chipset. Whatever the case, Tensor chips have a lot of catching up to do.
