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Since the beginning of the Pixel program, Google phones have always run on the silicon of the Qualcomm Snapdragon mobile platform. In fact, you’d have to go back to the 2011 Galaxy Nexus, which ran on a Texas Instruments OMAP 4460 to find a Google phone that didn’t have some sort of Snapdragon inside. While most Pixel phones used Qualcomm’s powerful high-end chips over the years, the Pixel 5 (our full review) dropped to the Snapdragon 735G for 5G connectivity and mid-range performance. However, if the rumors are true, this fall could usher in something entirely new for the company: custom Arm-on-a-chip (SoC) -based systems, Google’s next Pixel flagship.
A year ago, rumors began to circulate that Google was working on its own custom silicon, codenamed Whitechapel, for its phones. This design was created in partnership with Samsung and was based on a 5-nanometer process. Samsung’s own Exynos SoCs have not been used outside of the international version of its own phones, although the company did make some of Apple’s iPhone processors before Cupertino started looking exclusively for TSMC.
During his Q3 earnings call last October, CEO Sundar Pichai joked with Whitechapel again, when he said Google was making some “deeper investments” in hardware, and that we would see the first fruits of its roadmap in 2021. That could certainly point to the Pixel 6 shipping with Google Silicon.
Now, 9to5Google reports that it has confirmed that Google’s next phone will run the Whitechapel “GS101” platform. According to an available document, Whitechapel is linked to a Google hardware platform codenamed “Slider”, something that has also been mentioned recently in Google’s camera app. “Raven” and “Oriole” are apparently the code names of the two phones intended to be produced on the Slider platform. As was the case previously, the Samsung name is attached to the processor. Unsurprisingly, Google declined to comment on the story.
A higher-performing SoC would be good news, as the Pixel 5 had a very nice design and user experience, but the absolute performance wasn’t that great, thanks to its mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. That’s especially true at its $ 700 introductory price, which was almost immediately surpassed by Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Fan Edition and its Snapdragon 865 processor, which was discounted by $ 550 before even launch.
That said, Google’s class-leading camera experience and three years of day one Android updates for all of its phones is a very attractive proposition. We’ll just have to see what comes with the Pixel 6 when it launches this fall.
