When you get your hands on a Pixel device, then you are guaranteed the fastest OS updates, the best camera, and the purest AOSP experience. But that’s not all. You are also guaranteed battery drain, poor network connectivity, and overheating. Unfortunately, that has become the USP of the Pixel series over the past couple of years. But what has happened during these years that gave birth to these concerning issues, all at once? Well, the answer could be summed up in three words: Google Ditching Qualcomm!
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The Beginning: Google Leaving the Qualcomm Ecosystem!
Up until the Pixel 5 series, the Silicon Valley giant used the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset for its devices. However, from the sixth series onwards, it jumped ships over to its own in-house Tenshor chipset. However, the Tenspr chipsets are not completely manufactured by Google, Samsung’s Exynos still has a minor yet crucial role to play. And this is where things began to go south. Even though the chipset is from Google, the modem is still being used from Samsung.
In this regard, the Pixel 6 series used the Google Tensor (5 nm) chipset with Exynos 5123 modem and the end result was horrible during the initial launch, at least from the network connectivity point of view. However since it was a first iteration, users were a little bit flexible and gave Google some time to rectify its wrongdoings. Over the due course of time, subsequent OTA updates did manage to minimize this issue quite considerably.
Then came the second iteration aka the Pixel 7 series and it was along the obvious lines that Google would have learned from its past mistakes. With the new second-generation Google Tensor G2 (5 nm) chipset and the new Exynos 5300 modem, the hopes of a finally efficient modem were on the cards. But that card was nowhere to be found! The Pixel 7 series is just the carbon copy of its predecessor when it comes to poor modem connectivity issues.
At this point in time, users had started losing faith in the company itself and that is completely understandable as well as justifiable. If we take the modem bug away, the device is among the best that any OEM has to offer. But taking away the ability to make calls without any hiccups and then judging a device hardly makes an iota of sense! Now coming to the most hotly debated topic in the tech community:
Is the Pixel 8 Pro Modem any better
The Pixel 8 series has the same old Exynos 5300 modem which straightaway raised a few eyebrows. However, instead of the 5-nanometer chipset, we now have the 4-nm Google Tensor G3, which although doesn’t sound much on paper, but could prove to of significant difference in the real-life usage of the device. In a nutshell, here are the three major improvements in the modem that the Pixel 8 series beholds:
- Newer 4 nm EUV process
- Idle power savings optimizations
- Satellite communication support
Will we have Pixel 9 without a Samsung Modem?
So there does seem to be some lights at the end of the tunnel this time around. However, it is still quite an early stage to make any decisions and we’ll have to test this device for a few weeks before coming to a conclusion. Moreover, there was some evidence that beginning with the Pixel 9 series in 2024, Google will have a “fully custom” Tensor chipset aka with its own modem. So many users were looking to skip the 8 and directly jump over to the 9th series.
Unfortunately, we have some bad news in this regard. The deadline has been delayed and Google’s fully custom chipset will not be included in the Pixel 9 series, so you might have to wait for the Pixel 10 series in 2025 at the earliest to get holds of a Pixel device that doesn’t have a Samsung modem. This for many might prove to be quite a lengthy time frame.
Concluding Remarks
So this was all from the Pixel 8 Pro modem guide. What are your views on this entire fiasco? Have you been aggravated by the poor network connectivity that the Pixel lineup has to offer or do you belong to the few lucky souls that haven’t been affected much by this bug? Do let us know in the comments section below.
