Google just announced its October Pixel event, where it'll finally launch its next smartphone series and a first-gen smartwatch. Of course, neither of these come as much of a surprise — the company revealed both back at I/O in May. In that spirit, Google isn't waiting for next month to deliver further information about its new devices, as it's finally revealing what its Tensor successor will be called.

As spotted by Kuba Wojciechowski on Twitter, the company updated its product pages for the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro to include some new Tensor branding. Until now, we've only known this chip as a "next-gen" processor, with Google unwilling to give away its latest chipset's name. Finally, timed with today's event announcement, we've learned the chip powering the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro is Tensor G2. It might seem unexciting, but it's undoubtedly smart branding. Not only can the G stand for "generation" — as in, this is Tensor Gen 2 — but it also squeezes in an abbreviation for Google's own company name.

Unfortunately, there isn't much new here outside Tensor's new model number. Google is still advertising its chipset as focusing on "helpful, personalized features," not performance gains or (unfortunately) networking improvements. We'll likely have to wait until next month's event to learn about its specs. Overall, performance on the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro is pretty fantastic, though there's plenty of room for improvement in future generations.

As small as it might seem, this change is big for Google. We already know Samsung is working on a third-gen Tensor chip for the Pixel 8 and other hardware in the far-off future. With a naming scheme in place, we finally know what those future processors will be called.

Thanks: Mishaal