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Google kept some of the popular benchmarking apps blocked on the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro until they became publicly available. It was an effort to avoid revealing hardware information prior launch through the benchmark apps – a Google spokesperson’s reasoning suggested.
Nearly every aspect of Google’s Pixel devices becomes pretty much confirmed by the leaks before launch. Besides creating a hype for the upcoming product, it brings some downsides too. A lot of the time, the circulated leaks seems bigger and flashy than they actually are. It creates unrealistic expectations among general consumers. And when the actual product comes out, it becomes a matter of disappointment.
Honestly, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Google tries to mitigate some of them by blocking the benchmark apps.
Google Spokesperson responds about the blocking of benchmark apps prior to launch
In a statement to 9to5Google, Google spokesperson confirmed about the intentional blocking of popular benchmarking apps on the pre-release Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro to prevent hardware information leak. Geekbench results are one of the last reliable sources to get some information about the SoC. Although there were no barriers in sideloading the benchmark apps for the tests.
“As with previous years, we blocked benchmarking apps for Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro ahead of launch to avoid benchmark and device spec leaks. These are unblocked ahead of the consumer availability of the phones. However, if reviewers want to try them sooner for reviews, they can sideload them on the phone.” said Google Spokesperson.
Google focus lies on ‘AI centric mobile computing’ rather than raw power
Google’s vision about Tensor chips or Pixel devices in general are focused around ‘AI centric mobile computing.’
Rick Osterloh, SVP of Devices & Services at Google, said “Across Google’s entire line of Pixel phones, we’re taking the approach that advanced hardware needs amazing software and state of the art AI to reach its full potential.”
Evaluating the performance of the Tensor G3 with a benchmark app will likely not do justice to the Pixel 8 series. Benchmarks like Geekbench focus on raw power. It’s neither the primary focus nor does it yield impressive results on a Pixel device. Google attempted to prevent reviewers from making potentially disappointing performance numbers available to the general consumers. And this is most likely one of the underlying reasons.
Meanwhile, the Google Pixel 8 and Google Pixel 8 Pro are indeed addressing significant improvements in managing heating issues.