Of all the hills I’m willing to die on, this might be the one that gets the most pushback. It’s a controversial opinion, I know, but I’m going to say it anyway: I’m glad Google Pixel phones don’t use Snapdragon processors.
Let me start my defense with a little analogy. Imagine that you’re in the market for a new vehicle. Your goal is to take your family on long road trips, exploring national parks and camping under the stars. You need space for people, beds, and maybe even a small kitchenette. A tricked-out Sprinter camper van seems like the perfect solution, which would cost you about $150,000. Unfortunately, your friend, a die-hard car enthusiast, scoffs at your choice. “A Sprinter van? Why would you buy that slow thing?” they ask. “For the same amount of money, you could get a Porsche 911! It can go from zero to 60 in 3.2 seconds, bro!”
You’d probably look at your friend, bewildered. A Porsche is a phenomenal car, obviously, but it’s not at all the right choice for the task you have in mind. You can’t take your family camping in a two-seater sports car, no matter how fast it is.
If the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is a Porsche, then Tensor G5 is a camper van. But is one really 'better' than the other?
This is the conversation I find myself in every time a new Pixel phone is released, with the Sprinter van being Tensor and the Porsche being a top-end Snapdragon. With the launch this week of the powerhouse Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the performance gap is wider than ever. Yet, just like in our car analogy, focusing on that one metric — raw power — misses the entire point of Tensor’s existence.
Anytime I make a video or write an article about Pixel phones, the comments are inevitably flooded with people wishing Google would just give up on Tensor and go back to using Snapdragon chips. And I get it. If real-world benchmarks for this new chip are even close to what Qualcomm has shown us on demo units so far, Tensor G5 won’t stand a chance against it. Despite this, I hope that Pixels never bring back Snapdragon chips.
Before you dismiss me as a delusional fanboy, hear me out.
Why Tensor even exists
David Imel / Android Authority
To understand why Tensor is so important for the Pixel line, we need to rewind a bit. Prior to the Pixel 6 series, every single Pixel phone came with Qualcomm silicon. In fact, from the original Pixel all the way to the Pixel 4 and 4 XL, you’d find the same flagship Snapdragon chip inside that you’d find in the top-tier Samsung Galaxy S phone from that year.
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