Google may not have exactly used the SoC from the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro for the Pixel 7a. Mind you: all three have the Tensor G2and that clock frequency, number and type of cores, production process and company are the same between the Pixel 7 Tensor G2 and the Pixel 7a Tensor G2 – at the moment – is not in question. Google may have changed the packaging though of the SoC, to put it in rough but understandable terms the “envelope”, the external part, with the aim of cutting costs.
The indiscretion comes from the Twitter account of Kamila Wojciechowska explaining what was discovered. In short, on Pixel 7a there would be a variant of the SoC used on the older brothers. Google would have asked Samsung to use a different technology to coat the mid-range chips, something simpler and therefore less effective but also cheaper. For the packaging of the Tensor G2 of the Pixel 7 Samsung would therefore have used the proprietary technology FOPL extensionwhile for the Tensor G2 of Pixel 7a the IPOP.
The exterior of the Pixel 7a SoC it would be slightly thicker and consequently less permeable to the heat generated by the Joule effect from the smartphone in operation. As the load to be performed increases, the required power increases and consequently also the heat produced, and if less heat is evacuated, the device overheats faster, so the drop in performance comes first.
So what’s this IPOP stuff about? It seems like Google made a version of Tensor G2 in a worse package, most likely to reduce cost.
The implications of this? According to Samsung [3]IPOP is thicker, larger and hotter than FOPLP. pic.twitter.com/tBar4uLhde
— kamila ️⚧️ (@Za_Raczke) June 19, 2023
In a nutshell, this would be the difference between the Tensor G2 of the Pixel 7 and that of the Pixel 7a. No one can estimate the real impact of the difference – assuming that it exists, as the insider claims – between the two versions of the second generation Tensor, but it would be nothing appreciable except, perhaps, in extreme conditions. But Logica suggests that while Google has modified, however slightly, the Tensor G2 design for use on the Pixel 7a, certainly IPOP costs less than FOPLP in a non-negligible way.
Google Pixel 7 – Unlocked Wide Angle 5G Android Smartphone with 24 Hour Battery Life – 128GB, Cedar Green
579€ Google Pixel 7a – Unlocked 5G Wide Angle Android Phone with 24 Hour Battery Life – 128GB – Sky Blue
497€
