Long before Google officially announced its Tensor chip, there was a rumor that the company would not focus on performance but on efficiency, and after this comparison, this rumor was true.
That being said, it is absolutely outrageous that a chipset in a top-of-the-line device cannot compete with an A12 Bionic, a dedicated chip that Apple introduced three years ago.
The performance comparison, provided by 9lekt on Twitter, shows the Geekbench 5 results of the Tensor chipset and the Apple A12 Bionic. And as you can see, Apple’s chipset from three years ago outperforms the Tensor in both single-core and multi-core tests, and of course, these numbers will confuse potential customers.
With Qualcomm’s top processor, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro would at least still be competitive with the rest of the top Android smartphones. While these numbers are disappointing, they only tell half the story, and what you see doesn’t necessarily mean poor performance in the real world.
As we’ve mentioned in other notes, Qualcomm chips overheated, as was the case with the Pixel 5a, which didn’t even use a top-end SoC. With Tensor, Google has clearly sacrificed performance on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, but with more sophisticated software and better control over the hardware, it is possible for the OS to run much smoother on Google’s phones than on the competition.
Google could have a very different plan with its Tensor chips, but we will not see good results anytime soon, at least not in terms of pure performance.