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Google has spent years telling us that Tensor is about more than chasing benchmark scores. And that’s fair; a phone’s processor is about AI, photography, connectivity, battery life, and all the clever features that make a Pixel a Pixel.
But there’s a point where the performance gap becomes too large to ignore, particularly when we’re talking about $1,000-plus flagship phones. The Pixel 11 series has some genuinely impressive tricks up its sleeve, but its Tensor G6 processor is increasingly looking like the weakest link.
The problem isn’t simply that rival phones are faster. It’s that they’re much faster, offer longer battery life, and sometimes cost far less than Google charges. Even though the Pixel 11 series is fresh out of the gate, rival phones already on the market make the Tensor G6 feel outdated.
Which of these makes your Pixel run the hottest? 73 votes Navigation 21 % Charging 22 % Gaming 42 % General use 15 %
iPhone 17 — that’s how to build custom silicon
Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority
If you want to talk raw performance, plenty of flagships surpass the Pixel 11 series across a raft of benchmarks, and the phone comes in a considerable distance behind the US top-seller, the iPhone 17 series. Apple’s custom silicon project, with the A19 and A19 Pro being the latest, makes the Tensor project look positively glacial across popular benchmark tests.
The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max’s CPU scores clock in up to 43% faster in single-core and 35% faster in multi-core scenarios, while Apple’s custom GPU obliterates Google’s partnership with Imagination Technologies, scoring up to 73% faster in GPU benchmarks. While Google might like to consider its Pixel lineup in the same flagship sphere as the iPhone, given that it also designs its own chips, it’s clear that Apple’s end-to-end control over CPU, GPU, AI acceleration, and increasingly modem capabilities is helping it build far higher-performance, yet still fully customized flagships.
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