TheGoogle Pixel 7ais among thebest mid-range phonesin the US. Besides its impressive camera setup, the phone uses aTensor G2 chip, just like its bigger and more expensive siblings. But as it turns out, the Pixel 7a uses a slightly revised version of Google’s second Tensor chipset — though you are unlikely to notice the difference in actual use.
In aTwitter thread, frequent leaker Kamila Wojciechowska reveals that Google went with an “IPOP” variant of the Tensor G2 for the Pixel 7a. The company used this same type of chip going back to early prototypes of the phone, barring some initial units.
So, what exactly is IPOP? While the silicon core is the heart of a chip, there’s lots of other stuff that needs to attach to it, and manufacturers have their pick of numerous packaging methods — different ways to connect all the other parts, like memory and I/O systems. IPOP is one of those packaging methods, as is Samsung’s proprietary FOPLP-PoP, used on the Pixel 6 and Pixel 7’s Tensor chips.
Wojciechowska feels that IPOP is a downgrade over FOPLP-PoP, and while she doesn’t provide any hard data to back this up, suggests that the Pixel 7a might run slower and hotter than the Pixel 7 as a result. Why would the company do something like that? Again, this appears to be utter speculation on Wojciechowska’s part, but she suggests cost-cutting as a possible motivation.
The switch to IPOP was not a sudden move, as Google had introduced a second device tree for this Tensor G2 revision back in early 2022 itself.
The idea of the Pixel 7a as a more restrained version of the Pixel 7 is kind of the phone’s whole point, and if that did mean getting a slightly less flashy CPU, we wouldn’t exactly be surprised — it’s just odd that we’re only hearing about this possibility now. We’re reaching out to Google to try and get more information about what might have driven this change, and what, if any real-world consequences users might expect.
