The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro won’t be available right away, but a few features about them have already been made public.
The Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro have barely been released when first information about their successors is already reaching us via the reputable German publication WinFuture.
The range of new Pixel devices currently being developed by Google is constantly growing. After hearing about one or more Google Pixel foldable smartphones and a cheaper Pixel 7, there are now two more new models. “Husky” and “Shiba” could already represent the next model generation of the Pixel series.
A new Tensor chip
We learn that Google internally chose the codenames Husky and Shiba to refer to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. As with the Pixel 6 and 7 series smartphones, both devices will be equipped with a Tensor chip developed by Samsung, in partnership with Google.
However, we do not know what engraving technology will be used for this SoC. The first two generations of Tensor were based on a process using a fineness of 5 nm, but we know that Samsung has worked a lot on a fineness of 4 nm as well, even if this was not considered sufficiently interesting by Qualcomm to favor Samsung over TSMC on its chips.
Samsung has also formalized a 3 nm SoC technology, but mass production should not be for now and this hypothesis does not seem the most likely today. We know, however, that the future chip adopts the code name Zuma and will ship the same Samsung G5300 5G modem as on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.
A faster memory
For the rest, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro would benefit from 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, while their predecessors were based on less efficient LPDDR5 RAM. The Google Pixel 8 would have a screen displaying a definition of 2,268 x 1,080 pixels and the Pixel 8 Pro would offer a quality of 2,822 x 1,344. If these figures are confirmed, they are slightly lower than those of the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro. This can be explained by a lower resolution, a change in screen ratio or a smaller panel.
New Google processor codenamed “Zuma” & plenty of RAM
The chip is codenamed “Zuma” by Google and has the same modem as the Google Tensor G2 (G201), i.e. a 5G G5300 modem developed by Samsung. Specific details about the SoC are not yet available, but it is known that Samsung recently worked on another new ARM SoC from its production, the Exynos 2300. It is conceivable that “Zuma” is a customized variant based on it with the Google-typical optimizations for machine learning and AI.
According to the source, the additional features of both “Shiba” and “Husky” include a total of 12 gigabytes of RAM, which means that the two new Google devices can be located quite securely in the high-end sector. This is also supported by the screen resolution
While the Google “Shiba” has a very stretched Full HD resolution of 2268×1080 pixels, the Google “Husky” has a resolution of 2822×1344 pixels, so it should have a “better” display and is therefore a bit above the first model be settled. All in all, both devices appear to have equipment that is at the upper end of the scale.
Whether it is actually the Pixel 8 and the Pixel 8 Pro is of course pure speculation. The form factors suggest that we are dealing with smartphones in the classic bartype design and not with foldables or tablets. It would still be very early to talk about the next generation of Google’s top smartphones if they are not to be launched until summer or autumn 2023. It is also conceivable that these are just test platforms from Google’s hardware team.