Google Pixel 5 won’t have motion sensing Soli chip: Report

Google’s revolutionary radar-based motion sensing feature on Pixel 4 may not make it to the successor. 

According to 9to5Google's Stephen Hall, Google will skip the Soli radar chip on the Pixel 5. While there’s no word on why Google will do so, but the recent developments may give an answer. 

Just recently, Google Pixel camera division’s head Marc Levoy quit the company. Levoy is known for heading the computational photography on Pixel which has received mostly positive reviews worldwide. Google’s Pixel phones haven’t done well commercially. The premium phones compete with Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S series. 

As far as Google’s motion sensing chip goes, the technology allows users to access some of the key functionalities of the phone by just waving their hands. The technology is also quite rare for a mobile device. Some users, however, complained the tech leads to battery drain. Some even said it doesn’t perform consistently.

The feature also blocked the phone’s availability in key markets such as India. The feature uses 60GHz mmWave frequency to operate and Google failed to secure licence for the frequency. 

"Pixel 4 will be the first device with Soli, powering our new Motion Sense features to allow you to skip songs, snooze alarms, and silence phone calls, just by waving your hand. These capabilities are just the start, and just as Pixels get better over time, Motion Sense will evolve as well. Motion Sense will be available in select Pixel countries," Google had said in a post.