Highest number of Pixel returns are tied to the Tensor chip

Google’s Pixel phones have been an odd mix of joys and frustrations over the past few years. On the one hand, they offer excellent camera output and clean software, but they are also held back by recurring overheating and performance issues.

It seems that the company is well aware of those shortcomings, and also knows that the highest number of customers return their Pixel phone due to bad thermal output. The high temperatures are also said to ruin the experience of running demanding tasks.

According to internal documents obtained by Android Authority, 28% of the negative buyer sentiments are directed solely at overheating and related issues. Apparently, the Pixel team is aware that the threshold of thermal limits is a little too high compared to what other smartphones can achieve.

Another reason frequently cited in customer dissatisfaction anecdotes is the poor battery life. Once again, a silicon with performance and thermal optimization woes of its own is never good news for the battery uptake.

From my own experience with Google’s smartphones, especially those with custom-designed Tensor processors, heating has been a mainstay. Moreover, the poor battery life, as recent as the Pixel 8 series, nudged me to finally look elsewhere.

​​Now, Google has been using Samsung’s Exynos processors as somewhat of a rough template for designing its own Tensor silicon. And that means the Exynos performance woes are clearly visible on the Pixel smartphones, too.

Talking about performance, thermal throttling always comes hand in hand. In my recent tests, the frame stability of the Tensor processors has always fallen behind the Qualcomm and Apple A-series mobile processors. Moreover, the aggressive throttling often reduced the peak performance dramatically.

During my tests running games like Diablo Immortal, I have noticed the phone’s temperatures regularly climbing over the 110-degree Fahrenheit mark.

Another core reason that Google’s Pixel phones have often struggled with heat management is the lack of effective cooling hardware. Where the competition made strides with solutions like multi-layer heat dissipation and larger vapor chambers, the Pixel phones never stood out in this department.

The result, inevitably, was a device that runs hotter even in normal usage. Reddit and product forums are, unsurprisingly, brimming with testimonies of Pixel phone buyers returning their phones due to overheating troubles.

On a positive note, Google is reportedly shifting base from Samsung’s silicon division, and will reportedly follow the same strategy as Apple and Qualcomm. The end goal is to work with TSMC’s superior process node and have deeper control over the silicon design for next-gen Tensor processors.