The Google Pixel 6 will be Google's first smartphone with custom hardware, which could put the company's smartphones on par with Apple's iPhone.

Axios (via Android Central) reports that Google has partnered with Samsung to design a custom chipset, codenamed "Whitechapel." sources at Axios say that the first of these chips prototypes have been delivered to Google in recent weeks, but the final product is claimed to appear in Pixel phones by 2021. The new processors are also expected to appear in the Pixelbook series of laptops at some point thereafter.

Google already has several custom hardware products in its phones, including the Pixel Visual Core, which debuted in the Google Pixel 2 for photo processing, and the Neural Core, which first appeared in the Google Pixel 4 to enhance machine learning.

Samsung already has experience manufacturing CPUs thanks to the Exynos series of chips in the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy Note 10 (and many of its predecessors) devices sold outside the US. Samsung, along with TSMC, is also responsible for manufacturing some of the A-series processors for Apple's mobile devices, most recently the A9 used in the iPhone 6S.

Axios claims that Whitechapel chips are manufactured on a 5nm process. This would be the same size as the successor to Qualcomm's 7nm Snapdragon 865 CPU, which would theoretically pack similar power into a similarly sized silicon. Google's custom chip will have eight ARM cores (same number and architecture as the 865), but will be optimized for "always-on" use to take advantage of the features enabled by Google Assistants.

So why such troubling news for Apple and the iPhone? Apple is currently the only smartphone manufacturer that has control over both software and hardware design. Samsung and Huawei are the only Android phones that do not use CPUs designed by Qualcomm or MediaTek, and Huawei manufactures its own Kirin line of chips through HiSilicon. However, Samsung and Huawei still use Android and have not attempted to launch their own operating systems to compete with Google's open source operating system.

If Google succeeds in producing its own CPU, it may be able to provide seamless integration of hardware and software, similar to what Apple currently enjoys with its A-series CPUs and iOS/iPad OS software. However, it could be a long year for Google until the release of the Pixel 6. Especially since the iPhone 12 is rumored to have revolutionary changes, including the addition of 5G, a 120Hz display, and a wider range of device sizes.

We also haven't heard much about this year's rumored Google Pixel 5, which is expected to run Android 10 and inherit the 90Hz display from the Pixel 4. 5G support and the main sensor already in the Pixel 4 and We expect it to have an ultra-wide camera in addition to the telephoto sensor. However, the CPU is rumored to be the Snapdragon 765 instead of the 865, which may undercut Samsung, Apple, and even the new OnePlus 8 Pro.