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Google Pixel 3 XL teardown confirms Samsung AMOLED display, gives peek at Titan M chip

Google Pixel 3

With every new device released, it’s tradition for someone (read: iFixit) to meticulously take it apart piece by piece. Sometimes, like in the case of the Pixelbook, an absolute feat of engineering is discovered. Today, a new Pixel 3 XL teardown reveals what Google is hiding beneath the glass surface.


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Pixel Visual Core support w/ HDR+ exits beta on Moment Pro Camera app, available to all

The camera on Google’s Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL is amazing. Part of what makes it so good is Google’s HDR+ mode. Thanks to the Pixel Visual Core, that handy trick can be extended to other apps, and now one of our favorite camera apps is picking up public support…


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Google loses head of Pixel Visual Core, Titan, and other chip development to Facebook

pixel 2 xl Google Camera reviews

As Google doubles downs on consumer hardware with the Pixel and Home, in-house chip development becomes increasingly important in order to own the entire stack and create an optimized experience. Those efforts might’ve taken a blow recently as Facebook poached an important Googler working on chips.


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Pixel Visual Core will be enabled on the Google Pixel 2 in Android 8.1 DP2 this November

The camera on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL is the best in the business, and it’s just going to get better thanks to a trick Google had hidden from public view — a fully custom chipset that improves HDR+ functionality. That was supposed to be enabled in Android 8.1, but it seems that’s been pushed back to the second developer preview.


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Google collaborated with Intel on the Pixel Visual Core in Pixel 2

Last week, Google revealed that the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL contains a “custom-designed co-processor” for machine learning and image processing. This Pixel Visual Core is not yet enabled, but when activated it should result in better processing, among other tasks. A new report today reveals that Google worked with Intel on their first consumer chip.


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Pixel Visual Core is Google’s first custom SOC, will make Pixel 2 photos even better in Android 8.1

Google is able to take such fantastic photos on the Pixel 2 because of a fine-tuned mix of physical hardware (camera lens and sensor), software (enabling HDR+), and machine learning. Even in its current form, the new phones take some of the best photos on a phone.

But the HDR+ process on the Pixel 2 and 2 XL uses a lot of processing power when capturing stunning photos with almost no latency, so Google made Pixel Visual Core, its first consumer-facing system-on-a-chip, which will help it process photos faster and more efficiently.


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