Recently, there have been a lot of rumors about the Google Pixel 5 series coming with the Snapdragon 765G. This is a potential problem for the future of the Pixel series. Let me explain. The Nexus series were affordable, stock Android devices, that were mid-range, but feature packed devices that came with quick updates, and without all the carrier bloatware that device OEM's installed on their devices. The Nexus line was very good, and kept improving with each iteration, and added more feature with each version. That ended with the Nexus 6P. Google then decided it wanted to take control over the entire hardware and software engineering of it's own devices after the Nexus 6P.

Herein comes the Google Pixel. The very first hardware and software engineered device made by Google. It was a great device, and didn't completely break the bank. It had a awesome camera, great battery life, thanks to Google's own software being done in-house, and was overall a great device.

Then the Pixel 2 came out. Another flagship Google phone that had, and still has, one of the best camera's ever made on a device, it took amazing photos, still had Google's award winning Android updates that improved the device over time, and was an overall a great device. The display was subpar, and the internal base storage was upgraded from 32GB to 64GB. But as with the OG Pixel had a flagship chipset.

Then comes the Pixel 3 XL. At around this time other phone manufacturers started to catch up with the Pixel series and were able to give the Pixel series a run for it's money with the camera. The device had about subpar hardware at launch, a giant screen bezel, and a better display than the Pixel 2.

And then the Pixel 4 comes out. Subpar hardware, premium price tag. Not to say it is not a great device, it is, however through all the Pixel series of devices, it became more and more apparent as time went on that Google wanted customers to pay a premium price for the their devices, but put subpar hardware with their devices. The problem with this thinking is the software. More feature hungry software, more power required. So what ends up happening is that about 6 months (or less) into your phones usage, your device becomes laggy, and unresponsive at times. This right here is the problem with the Snapdragon 765G. As time goes on, Google releases more features on its newer versions of Android, but doesn't seem to want to invest in higher tier hardware for their devices. This is a bad thing because features like Always On Display need a bigger battery, period, because of the excessive amount of battery OLED displays require to run. Also, base OS requirements for initial install require more and more space each iteration of Android, (that's before you add anything at all to the device) but yet Google refuses to upgrade the base storage capacity of the Pixel series. So you will get less and less storage out of the 128GB variants, and even more so out of the 64GB variants.

All that said, Google has the capability, reach, and influence to become one of the most dominant phone manufacturers on the planet, and give Apple a run for it's money. However, either due to internal disagreements on where the Pixel line should go, or because the Pixel hardware team doesn't have enough leeway to engineer a high end, perfect Google device the way it should, (which is most likely the case), the Pixel series has some serious hurdles internally that needs to be worked out.

But I may have a solution. If Google were to use it's base model Pixel series for mid-range hardware, and it's XL series as it's higher end side of the hardware side, it would be able to more freely compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung for hardware software dominance. This would ensure the Pixel series reached a broader ranger of customers who would prefer a more premium device, while catering to budget conscience consumers. But to put the Snapdragon 765G on the entire Pixel series would be a colossal mistake for Google with the Pixel 5 XL. For one, as stated above, as time goes on the features that are being dropped to Android need better hardware requirements to run smoothly, and to be able to do things like multitask, or game, a more powerful chipset would be required. If Google decided to go with the Snapdragon 765G on the Pixel 5 but the XL model went with the 865 then that would be great, but so far, no information has surfaced to suggest Google is going down the road. Hopefully the XL model does have the 865, but I won't hold my breath.

The future of the Pixel series needs to be re-worked. Google has options, and the above post should go to show there's a easy way to fix this. Hopefully Google goes down that road. Time will tell.