Pixel 7 series' Tensor SoC will be manufactured on Samsung's 4 nm process node

Even though the upcoming Pixel 7 showed up on eBay, a lot of its specs remain shrouded by mystery. Some new information about its SoC has emerged from Korea Daily. The second-generation Tensor chip powering the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7 will be fabbed on Samsung's 4 nm process node, the same one used by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Exynos 2200.

Google likely had no choice but to stick with Samsung for its second-generation Tensor requirements. TSMC's 4 nm fab space is highly coveted and probably running at maximum capacity, especially with Qualcomm jumping ship at the last moment. Then again, Google's intention with Tensor was never to top benchmarks charts, to begin with, and the Pixel 7 could make up for it in other ways.

The original Google Tensor had a unique architecture with two Cortex-X1 cores, two Cortex-A76 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores. Its successor might not follow the same formula, though, as the current-generation Cortex-X2 core is notoriously power-hungry. Products fabricated on Samsung's 4 nm node have been prone to overheating, and it'll be interesting to see how Google works around the problem.

Buy the Google Pixel 6 Pro on Amazon