Google’s next Pixel phones are launching this fall, and there’s a lot to be excited about. Leaked renders of the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 “Pro” suggest that Google is taking a bold new direction for the design, display, and cameras. Rumors suggest that, under-the-hood, the new Pixel phones will be powered by Google’s own ‘GS101’ silicon, which we’ve corroborated through our own sources as well as an unintentional disclosure in AOSP. Thanks to yet another unintentional disclosure, we’ve learned a bit more about the chipset that will power the 2021 Pixel phones. Specifically, we’ve learned that the Pixel 6 will feature the same Mali GPU as Samsung’s Exynos-powered Galaxy S21 sold globally.
Since we first heard of Google’s custom silicon project code-named “whitechapel”, we were expecting it to feature an off-the-shelf Mali GPU from ARM. In a comment on the Google Issue Tracker spotted by tipster @akes29, a Googler published an ANGLE logcat taken on a “P21” device. The logcat lists the renderer as the Mali-G78 GPU, ARM’s second GPU IP based on the Valhall architecture.
The Mali-G78 supports up to 24-cores as seen on Huawei’s Mate X2, but Samsung’s global Galaxy S21 uses a 14-core variant. We don’t know how many cores there are in the Mali-G78 GPU in the Pixel 6, nor do we know the maximum frequency of these cores.
However, we at least now know that Google plans to use a high-end mobile GPU for its upcoming Pixels, and that means it should provide a noticeable improvement over the Adreno 620 GPU in the Pixel 5. The poor GPU performance was one of the most disappointing aspects of Google’s Pixel 5, but coupled with Android 12’s new game mode, the new Pixel 6 should offer mobile gamers a better experience.
