Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been revisiting the Pixel 10 Pro XL, ahead of the Android 17 launch and Google I/O next week. And one thing is clear to me: the Pixel 10 series is really just one decision away from becoming the best phone of the year.
And that decision is…. Snapdragon. I’ve been saying this since the move to Tensor, but Google needs to go back to Snapdragon, or even through MediaTek a bone and use its Dimensity 9000 series, which I actually prefer over the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 right now.
This would solve the Pixel’s biggest problems. Mediocre battery life, poor performance, overheating, that would all be fixed with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or MediaTek Dimensity 9500 inside.
The move to Tensor was supposed to help lower costs for Google, as well as give them a chip that was specifically designed for Pixel, but right now, it’s really not doing either well.
Is Tensor really cheaper than Snapdragon?
While Tensor might be cheaper than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 or even the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, those savings aren’t being passed on to consumers. The Pixel 10 Pro XL has a retail price of $1,199. That’s just $100 short of the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which has far better battery life and performance. Let’s face it, the Pixel 10 Pro XL barely beats the five-year-old iPhone 12 in benchmarks. That’s a problem.
If Google were passing these savings onto the consumer, that would be a different argument. If the Pixel 10 series were a few hundred bucks cheaper than the competition, we might not care as much about the performance. Say, pricing the Pixel 10 Pro XL at $899 instead of $1,199, I think most of us would overlook the performance issues. But that’s not the case here.
To Google’s credit, they are improving it. Moving from Samsung to TSMC last year for the Tensor G5, and now getting ready to launch 2nm very soon. It’s also rumored to get a new modem this year in the MediaTek M90. But Google is improving it very slowly, while competitors are improving their chips much, much faster. The new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 models launching later this year are set to get major clock-speed boosts, pushing Tensor further behind.
Once you factor in all the additional R&D Google has to do to make its own processing cores and processor, you have to wonder whether it really is cheaper to use its own chip than something off the shelf from Qualcomm or MediaTek. I don’t think it is.
This change wouldn’t make the Pixel 11 perfect, but it would make it much more competitive
Switching to Qualcomm or MediaTek’s latest flagship silicon wouldn’t make the Pixel 11 the perfect smartphone, or even really the best in the world. But it would bring it in line with the Galaxy S26 Ultra, which I called the best all-around smartphone for 2026. Sure, vivo, OPPO, and a few other Chinese OEMs will have better cameras, but the best all-around smartphone for the year would be a two-OEM race between Google and Samsung.
The Pixel still has a few other issues, but most stem from the processor. Like the heat. While Google has gotten much better at dissipating heat, it still has work to do. It’s particularly hot right now in the Midwest, and still the Pixel 10 Pro XL gets pretty hot after scrolling X or Instagram for a few minutes. Which is kinda of insane, considering no other phone I’ve used has done that, that quickly. Now I could understand if this happened when its 80 or 100 degrees, and I’m outside using it in the sun. But it’s barely 60 degrees.
Google has a lot of really cool features that are exclusive to the Pixel (and also exclusive to the US usually), which is what keeps a lot of people on the Pixel, despite these performance issues. I really like Google’s software, but when you have the luxury of using other flagship devices that perform tasks much faster, it’s hard to justify using the Pixel 10 series.
Is Google sabotaging itself on purpose?
Of course, there are a lot of theories going around about why Google is doing this. Why is Google purposely putting a mid-range chipset essentially in their flagship phone with a flagship price? Is it to make their partners (Samsung, OnePlus, Motorola, etc) look good? It could be, but I doubt it.
I do believe Google’s initial claim about the Tensor being built for AI, and specifically tuned for the Pixel. But other chipsets are beating it in AI benchmarking now, by a lot. Things might change once Google starts using its own designed core in Tensor, as we do now have its own ISP built into the chip, starting with Tensor G5. But its own core is still a year or two away, unfortunately.
Now with OnePlus essentially leaving the US and a lot of other Western markets, it really limits the number of choices we have. In the US, for a flagship phone, it’s basically Samsung or Apple. Unless you are okay with the slower performance of the Tensor G5 on Pixel. Which is unfortunate, because there are a lot of really great phones from other OEMs, but because of the Trump ban on Huawei, they won’t even touch the US.
Unfortunately, Google won’t be ditching Tensor anytime soon, as its roadmap is set for at least the next two years with TSMC.
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