The Smaller Battery In Samsung Galaxy S26 Lasts 3 Hours Longer Than The One In Pixel 10 Pro XL

That Google’s Tensor G5 is a flawed SoC is no longer a matter of debate. After all, the AP excels at AI-related tasks but falls short of the competition in most other areas. Even so, a new battery endurance test for the Samsung Galaxy S26 has placed the Tensor G5 chip’s copious flaws in a stark contrast.

Behold the beleaguered battery endurance of Google’s Pixel 10 Pro XL vs. Samsung’s Galaxy S26, as the chronically unoptimized Tensor G5 takes its proverbial pound of flesh

For the benefit of those who might not be aware, Google’s Tensor G5 bears the following architecture:

1. An eight-core CPU
   • 1 high-performance Cortex-X4 core clocked at 3.78 GHz.
   • 5 medium-performance Cortex-A725 cores clocked at 3.05 GHz.
   • 2 efficiency Cortex-A520 cores clocked at 2.25 GHz.
2. A fifth-generation TPU to handle machine learning and AI workloads.
3. An Imagination IMG DXT-48-1536 GPU – a PowerVR-series integrated GPU clocked at 1.10 GHz, with theoretical performance comparable with other high-end mobile GPUs, including the Adreno 732/740 or ARM Mali G715 MP7, but without ray-tracing support.
4. A Samsung Exynos 5G modem.

As we noted in a dedicated post, the Tensor G5 chip suffers from two critical flaws. First, Google leveraged ARM’s now-nearly-three-year-old CPU cores to save on costs, which then show up in the AP’s degraded performance versus its peers. Second, despite the fact that Google has worked closely with Imagination to develop the new IMG PowerVR DXT-48-1536 GPU and recently rolled out critical software updates, the GPU remains subpar at best.

Now, all these Tensor G5 flaws have been thrown in stark contrast, courtesy of the new battery endurance tests for the Samsung Galaxy S26. For one, despite the fact that the Samsung Galaxy S26 bears a battery that is around 1,000mAh smaller than the one on the Pixel 10 Pro XL, the former lasts over 3 hours longer in video playback test, and nearly 2x as long in gaming. On average, the Galaxy S26 lasts 15 hours and 20 minutes in active use vs. the 12 hours and 29 minutes that the Pixel 10 Pro XL lasts.

This test goes a long way to practically demonstrate that mindlessly cramming extra milliamp hours in your battery counts very little if your AP is as unoptimized as the Tensor G5.

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