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Each year, we get a new and more powerful Pixel phone, surprising no one. While we’re still learning about the upcoming Pixel 8 series of phones, we just heard some rather concerning news about the Pixel 9. It appears that the Pixel 9 won’t get an upgraded GPU.
As years pass, new games come out that challenge phones’ hardware. Because of this, SOCs come out with upgraded GPUs to keep up. If a chip falls behind the times, it could hinder the gaming capabilities of hundreds or thousands of phones.
The Pixel 9 might not get an upgraded GPU
In the case of the Pixel series, these phones now use their own chipsets called the Tensor processors. The upcoming Pixel 8 phones are going to use the Tensor G3, and next year’s phones will use the Tensor G4.
Well, according to Tech_reve (via Android Authority), the Pixel 9 won’t see a massive increase in power over the Pixel 8. That is, at least, on paper. The leak claims that next year’s phone will use the same Immortalis-G715 GPU that will power the Pixel 8.
This sort of recycling of parts is definitely frowned upon in the tech world. People want their tech to be able to keep up with the times. Not only that, but it could go deeper. Apple recently announced the iPhone 15. The base model of that phone will use the same processor powering the iPhone 13. One could guess that this could be a move by Google to emulate what Apple is doing. Hopefully, that’s not the reason.
This move, however, might not be the worst move on Google’s part. Companies like Samsung, OnePlus, and others advertise how amazing their phones are at gaming; Google doesn’t. The company doesn’t angle its phones to be the most powerful high-octane devices on the market. They’re a conduit to showcase Google’s AI prowess and the latest versions of Android. So, if the Pixel 9 isn’t the best when it comes to gaming, that might not be the biggest blow. In any case, let’s just hope that this rumor isn’t true.