The Pixel 5 is very different from the Pixel 4 that was announced last year. The design is not the only area but there are also key changes under the hood. Some of which we know includes the choice of a Snapdragon 700 series processor over a Snapdragon 800 series chipset; and the return of the rear-mounted fingerprint scanner. Now, it has been confirmed that the Pixel Neural Core chipset is gone and so also is Active Edge.
Starting with Active Edge, Google first removed it from the Pixel 4a which came as a surprise as the Pixel 3a from last year has it. However, we didn’t expect that it would not be present on the Pixel 5 too (the Pixel 4a 5G doesn’t have it too). Active Edge allowed users to squeeze the sides of their Pixel phones to wake up the Google Assistant and can also be used to silence alarms, timers, and calls. With all of the phones Google launched this year not having it, it is safe to say Active Edge is dead and buried.
For the Pixel Neural Core, Google confirmed to Android Police that the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 (and Pixel 4a too) do not have the chip which helped with imaging, machine learning, and also powered Face Unlock on the Pixel 4 series.
While the new phones do not have Face Unlock, the neural core chip still has other functions it can perform such as helping with imaging. However, Android Police said that the Pixel hardware team informed them during a Q&A session that they were able to get a similar camera performance with the Snapdragon 765G inside the Pixel 5, thus making the need for the chip redundant.
Which feature will you miss the most in the new Pixel phones? Let us know in the comment box.
