Google has a good track record of not being able to keep its unreleased phones secret for long. The Pixel 9 series isn’t an exception in this regard. Previously, we had detailed images of the upcoming phones, and now, the Tensor G4 benchmark results are out. As per the benchmarks, the new SoC won’t offer a big performance jump from its predecessor.
  • @[email protected]OPMEnglish
    3•6 months ago

    When I was talking about thermals I was primarily speaking about the tensor G3. The previous generations are way worse.

    As for A series being priced midrange. In my country it costs Rs52999($635) for the base 8/128gb model. I can get the top 16/256gb variant of the oneplus 12R with the much superior Snapdragon 8 gen 2 for Rs45999($551). There are also other options like the Poco X6 pro, motorola edge 50 pro, and the Realme GT 6T which cost significantly less.

    Unless, pixels start approaching the price point of other smartphones. Its a no go to pay the google price just for software and camera alone.

    • Avid AmoebaEnglish
      3•6 months ago

      Well in that case the Pixels are simply overpriced there and there’s definitely more hardware to be had in the ones you mentioned.

      On a separate note, the Snapdragon based devices simply don’t compare in security update support. That’s the primary reason I’ve been putting up with the first gen Tensor. All of the first gen Pixels in use will be secure till the end of 2026. And the 8/8a series till 2030/31.

      • @[email protected]OPMEnglish
        2•6 months ago

        Samsung s24 series promise 7 years of OS and security updates just the same as pixel 8 smartphones. Fairphone also promises up to 8 years of security updates and at least 5 os updates until 2031.

        Samsung uses a mix of snapdragon and exynos. Fairphone uses an usual but enterprise grade midrange snapdragon processor. So, 7 years of updates do happen with snapdragon. Just depends on the manufacturer and the contract they have with Qualcomm.

        • Avid AmoebaEnglish
          3•6 months ago

          This is new development with Qualcomm’s chipsets and they’ve historically been extremely reluctant to sign contracts for long update support so I’m skeptical till proven otherwise. They’ve always been a super profit maximizing company and they’ve typically been the king of the hill for Android and still are for modems, so they have all the incentives to not sign such agreements or not honor them. We don’t know how strong these are. I’d be super happy to be proven wrong. I’ve worked (and still do) on the embedded side with devices built on QC chipsets and Qualcomm behave today as they did a decade ago.