Early Pixel 2 rumors suggested the phones will be powered by the Snapdragon 836, a mid-year refresh to the Snapdragon 835 with a minor uptick in performance. Qualcomm did the same last year with the Snapdragon 821, which made its debut on the first-generation Pixel. But according to two new reports from XDA Developers and Android Police, Qualcomm never had any plans for a Snapdragon 836, with Google's upcoming flagships said to feature the Snapdragon 835.
The Pixel 2's FCC filing revealed that the smaller model will indeed be powered by the Snapdragon 835 (MSM8998), and it now looks like the larger Pixel XL 2 will also feature the same chipset. The Snapdragon 836 was also rumored to be powering Xiaomi's upcoming bezel-less Mi Mix 2, but Qualcomm China announced on Weibo that the phone will run the Snapdragon 835.
Qualcomm likely doesn't see a need to roll out a refreshed variant of the Snapdragon 835 with a minor bump in clock speeds seeing as how the chipset is still one of the fastest in the market. The new Pixels are rumored to make their debut on October 5, and we should hear more in the coming weeks.
