The Google Pixel 9 lineup launched with a new SoC, the Tensor G4. Like the predecessors, it can't quite match the flagship Snapdragon and Dimensity chips in benchmarks, but Google says that it wasn't designed to excel in performance benchmarks to begin with.https://www.notebookcheck.net/Google-responds-to-lackluster-benchmark-scores-of-Tensor-G4-inside-the-Pixel-9-line.877326.0.html
Helps to clarify what SoC means
SoC = system on chip
Pay high price for mid range proc... We reach another level.
literally any other phone with pixel experience can do better
After reading this article it seems like Google keeps side stepping the facts that their Tensor G4 pales in comparison to Qualcomm snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Media Tek dimensity 9400. When the Tensor chip debuted in 2021 Google kept mentioning that Tensor was all about AI rather than performance benchmarks. Well guess what,in 2024 8 Gen 3 is ahead of Tensor G3 in AI. Compared to Qualcomm and Media Tek, Google Tensor has delivered only hollow promises which is why I've always maintained Google should have never ditched Qualcomm.
At least they matched something, the flagship prices with this series 👎
Definitely a generation to skip. Same TPU as the previous, and not useful with llms, barely used for anything but photography applications..
Given that it's the only phone that does vanilla well, has an open boot loader and will run lineageos perfectly, I still recommend it over any other phone.
Hopefully next year Google comes up with a better SoC.
Quote from: Moha on August 20, 2024, 20:02:48Helps to clarify what SoC means
You could just search the term. It's a combination of most chips into a single one. Typically the CPU and GPU, and the IO (storage chip aka south-bridge), but also often a NPU or TPU for matrix operation acceleration (search Google if you don't understand some term), a DSP for image capture, a 5G modem. Some of those things might be on separate chips.
It rarely includes RAM, usually that's a separate chip.
I'm not really sure why anyone considers Pixels anything except phones for Android devs.
They are the only ones who benefit from fast updates + barebones Android + long support, and don't care much about peak performance.
Pixel always was an obligatory phone for every dev for app testing, just to put it into a work desk and walk around with an iPhone. Google's attempt to market it to wider audience is quite meh, but there's always several brand fans, so why not.
I think most people who talks bad about Pixels honestly have never used one.
Quote from: aJs on August 21, 2024, 12:54:30I think most people who talks bad about Pixels honestly have never used one.
Pixels are very good in the the honeymoon phase (first few weeks/months). They're good at it because they feel good in the hands and get basics right. Then this phase tends to end quite quickly and you realise you just spent hundreds on a device that is comparable to rest now as competition has caught up. That having a longer update policy can be a con in that they often make changes that can break stuff or make features worse. It gets boring because there really isn't much you can do with them being stuck on a phoneOS (TBF this applies to almost all phone/tablet devices) + limited capabilities of Tensor SoCs. That you pretty much bought into the marketing hype. These are just AI vessels for Google to pump more of their own LLMs. Their camera's while decent the underlying algorithms which made them so ground breaking several years ago, hasn't really changed all that much now. All they do is barely incremental improvements.
I don't mind that Google are not using the greatest/fastest chip. But if they are using a slower chip they shouldn't be charging the same price as the iPhone equivalent which have better chip. They should charge a lower price.
Ok. Thanks for the article. Same lack luster performances just like the last Pixel phones, only more AI for Google to screw your phone up with. I left Pixel phones because I am sick of Google screwing up their phones with under performance and littered with software issues they expect us to weed out for them. To hell with that.
I'll leave this real work test here....interesting...
youtu.be/SucwT88p0oY?si=EGLwvpVCtUyp4VqO
Honestly pixel phones are garbage. I used many in the past and swapped to Samsung Galaxy for a few phones and came back to pixel with the 8 pro. Biggest piece of s*** I've used the camera has great specs but the camera app is completely trash you can't lock exposure properly the higher megapixel mode lags like crazy making it unusable. Will never be buying one again.
As a mobile app dev I use Pixels for development purposes and I honestly love them. I would also prefer to use Pixels as daily driver, but due to lackluster performance my last non dev Pixel was the Pixel 4. The new P9 series looks amazing but there is no way im gonna spend flagship price on a device which can barely beat my Zenfone 9. Im slightly concerned about the performance too. Even I would say that while the ZF9 could certainly take 3-4 OS updates any further update would essentially make it unusable. If I take into account the G4 is on par with 8 Gen 1, then I dont think this phone coulf handle anything above 5 years.
They say this bs since tensor g1. The truth is, app loading and running on pixel is slower than iPhone or snapdragons. Also, when using aaI functions to edit photos and videos it is slower than snapdragons too.