The Google Pixel 9 and 9 Pro, like most of Google's smartphones, have been hailed by the press as very good devices. But if there's one point on which the Pixels are somewhat unanimity against them, it's their raw performance.
Why the Pixels aren't the performance champions
This can be explained by several factors. First, Google has historically focused on AI capabilities, even before generative AI and ChatGPT exploded. However, this relies more on the NPU, the processing unit Neural Processing Unit (Neural Processing Unit).
Another element to take into account when designing its Tensor G chips is that Google relied on a partner, Samsung, for both the chip design (the Tensors are reworked Exynos chips) and manufacturing, since Samsung Foundry is in charge.
However, Samsung's semiconductor branch has struggled for several years to convince, particularly with very fine engraving. So much so that Google has reportedly changed suppliers for the Tensor G5, which is expected to arrive on the Pixel 10, to turn to the sector leader, TSMC.
More broadly, Google can be described as rather conservative when it comes to the performance settings of its smartphones. As proof, as spotted by the Spanish site Xatak Android, the latest quarterly update of Android 15 has provided a significant performance boost.
An 18% gain on Geekbench 6
In this case, Google has updated its GPU (graphics processing unit) drivers. And the result is clear. On a Pixel 9 Pro XL on loan, we ran a GPU test on the Geekbench 6 benchmark to compare with the score obtained at the time of the test and measured an increase of 18%.
| Score before the update | Score after the update day | Variation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 (GPU) | 6540 | 7737 | 18% |
A Pixel 7a user even claims a 75% boost on Reddit.
Where does this performance boost come from? As is often the case, expert Mishaal Rahman has the beginnings of an answer. Out of the box, Pixel phones come with somewhat dated ARM drivers. Then, Android 15 updates integrate new drivers, but not always the latest ones. For example, the Tensor G1 (Pixel 6), G2 (Pixel 7), and G3 (Pixel 8) relied on drivers dating back to February 2024 when Android 15 was launched in August 2024. However, two new versions had been released since then.
While it is common for manufacturers to take advantage of updates to update smartphone drivers, it is rare to detect such a practical difference from one driver to another.
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