The Google Pixel 8 Professional might stand out as Google’s finest smartphone for 2023 by way of capabilities, however the smaller Pixel 8 has its personal place. At $699, a full $300 lower than its greater sibling, the Google Pixel 8 has a extra value-forward premise, and although it might lack some thrilling options — like a telephoto digital camera and “Professional” digital camera controls — it has related core options. And that is likely to be sufficient to assist it stand out subsequent to the Android competitors.
Google Pixel 8 – Design and Options
The Pixel 8 Professional made some extra visually obvious adjustments from its predecessor, the Pixel 7 Professional. The Pixel 8 didn’t. I’d be left scratching my head for hours in the event you set the Pixel 8 alongside a Pixel 7 and requested me which one is which. The brand new Pixel 8 is a bit of smaller, squeezing in a 6.2-inch show as an alternative of 6.3-inch, and trimming a number of millimeters of the peak and width, although truly including a bit of thickness.
Past that, it appears a lot the identical as final yr’s mannequin, besides in numerous colours. The blacked-out Obsidian shade remains to be round, however the options are a sandy-looking Rose or a Hazel that appears extra like a colorless grey that feels prefer it’s misplaced all of the life Google used to place into its Pixel shade scheme. Between this and the restricted saturation of iPhone 15 shades, I suppose shade vibrancy determined to take a break in 2023.
Apart from the disappointing shade, the dearth of a lot revision isn’t too unhealthy a factor. The Pixel 7 was properly designed and a sublime iteration on the Pixel 6, and the Pixel 8 simply retains that design going. It’s manufactured from sturdy Gorilla Glass Victus on the back and front, and it has an aluminum body that appears pretty much as good because it feels within the hand. The brand new, smaller measurement simply makes the telephone that a lot simpler to wield. Coming from the Pixel 8 Professional, I really feel much more snug one-handing this telephone, other than it being sort of slippery. Ought to it slip into water, although, it ought to survive because of its IP68 ranking — successfully the business commonplace for flagship smartphones.
The display might not sound like an improve over the Pixel 7, however it’s. The decision is equivalent, however the OLED panel can get a lot brighter, reaching a peak of two,000 nits for viewing in direct daylight (very like the iPhone 15). It’s additionally jumped to a 120Hz refresh charge (additionally matching the iPhone 15 Professional and Professional Max) and might nonetheless routinely swap to 60Hz for battery conservation. These upgrades make the smaller show helpful in additional situations. It additionally makes for a terrific little show for watching TV and flicks or gaming.
The stereo audio system pair decently with the show, placing out sufficient sound for an informal film viewing or to play a podcast whereas I take a bathe or prepare dinner within the kitchen, however they’re not impressively loud.
Google continues to supply an under-display fingerprint scanner that works in addition to ever, which is to say it’s okay however sort of gradual. Facial unlock can also be accessible, and upgraded by further AI processing. It proves pretty fast, although with out infrared scanning it’s incapable of working properly at nighttime.
Similar to final yr’s telephone, the usual Pixel 8 helps 5G networks however not the identical ones the Professional mannequin does. The $699 mannequin lacks mmWave help, although it’s accessible in Verizon and AT&T fashions that promote for $799, narrowing the hole between it and the $999 Professional down by $100. My preliminary expertise with mmWave led me to really feel it’s not a function value the additional cash, because it wasn’t very dependable even within the few circumstances it was accessible. Assist for Wi-Fi 7 supplies some future-proofing, not less than.
Google Pixel 8 – Software program
The Pixel 8 comes with Android 14, which is difficult to differentiate from Android 13. What Google has upgraded this go round is longevity, because it guarantees seven years of OS, safety, and have updates. That’s a big promise and will add tremendously to the worth of the Pixel 8 for anybody who’s not a daily upgrader (so long as Google lives as much as that promise). Nevertheless, Google’s premise that the Pixel 8 will probably be a tool that will get higher over time could also be a bit of extra doubtful. I haven’t felt my Pixel 7 Professional getting considerably higher within the final yr; on the contrary, I’ve to this point witnessed it even getting left behind in software program updates, equivalent to when the Professional digital camera mode for the Pixel 8 Professional was not handed all the way down to the 7 Professional as properly. So possibly the Pixel 8 will get higher over the following 11 months, however when it comes time for a Pixel 9, I think about Google will conveniently overlook some upgrades for the Pixel 8.
Different huge software program upgrades have much less promise. Google has launched a number of new digital camera options that use machine studying to make “Magic” edits to photographs, very like the Magic Eraser launched on the Pixel 6. However very like the Magic Eraser, the options can have some all-too-plain shortcomings. Magic Editor permits for fast number of topics for resizing, repositioning, or elimination, and AI will go and fill in background particulars that have been lacking. However the edge detection is hit and miss, making it exhausting to ensure you get the topic chosen completely, and the background fill is sort of all the time a bit of off when considered beneath any scrutiny. It’s an identical story for the face-swapping Greatest Take device that allows you to snap a succession of photographs after which create a blended picture by deciding on completely different faces for everybody within the photographs. The intention is to get one picture with everybody smiling and nobody blinking with out having to composit the photographs your self, however it will possibly run into ugly glitches as properly.
By far the best of those instruments is the Audio Eraser, which may break up completely different sounds in a video recording into separate channels for particular person adjustment. It’s helpful for eradicating wind and environmental noise, and pretty spectacular for the way easy it makes the duty. However just like the others, it’s not good, and it doesn’t present loads of flexibility with tweaking the way it separates channels. In a single case, it received most of my voice into the proper channel besides one phrase I mentioned, and there was no getting it again except I wished to deliver the entire room noise again with it.
These options might enhance over time, however as they stand, I wouldn’t name them a compelling motive to improve.
Google Pixel 8 – Gaming and efficiency
In on a regular basis use, the brand new Tensor G3 on the coronary heart of the Pixel 8 is proving an admirable chip. It retains processes on the telephone working easily with hardly a hitch. In common use, I haven’t had any notable hiccups other than some misbehavior in a third-party launcher, Nova, that I additionally bumped into on my private Pixel 7 Professional. Even in gaming it musters respectable efficiency, enjoying Honkai Star Rail at maxed settings and holding up 60fps pretty properly, although I observed dips right here and there even in less complicated environments.
In the end, in the event you’re in search of essentially the most highly effective {hardware}, this isn’t it. It’s actually an improve over the Tensor G2 chip within the earlier telephones, but it surely nonetheless has some room for enchancment in relation to catching as much as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips for top-end smartphones. I examined the Nothing Telephone 2 earlier this yr, which ran on final yr’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chipset, and it achieved increased speeds in Geekbench 6 for single-core, multi-core, and GPU exams, and in 3DMark for graphics exams. The distinction in CPU testing was minor – just some proportion factors – however graphics efficiency ranged from 15-33% higher for the Nothing Telephone 2. By no means thoughts that this yr’s Galaxy S23 telephones are working a more recent Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that ought to additional widen the hole. In case you’re after gaming capabilities and shear efficiency, Google is lagging behind.
It will assist if the AI focus of Google’s Tensor chips was truly including extra to the bundle, however essentially the most significant and efficient device I’ve encountered with them is solely the improved speech-to-text, which I already felt was ok on the Pixel 6. For a fast textual content it’s miles forward of tapping out the message with my thumbs, although it’s not fairly as much as the duty of dealing with dictation for complete articles with out shut commentary to verify it will get the punctuation and sentence breaks appropriate.
Whereas the Tensor G3 is an enchancment on the G2 so far as effectivity goes, the Pixel 8 has a tougher time contending with warmth than the Pixel 8 Professional did in my testing. Simply casually looking the net had the telephone getting notably heat in my hand – hotter than I bear in mind the Pixel 8 Professional getting even whereas gaming – and this wasn’t even with the display working at a vibrant stage. This is sensible, as the same materials and similar chip imply the Pixel 8 doesn’t have any solution to dissipate warmth higher than the 8 Professional, and it has much less floor space to take action.
Google Pixel 8 – Digicam
Relating to images, Google is separating the usual and Professional fashions even additional this yr. Each cameras acquired the identical improve to the primary rear sensor, and their selfie cameras are practically equivalent, however the Pixel 8 Professional acquired a extra succesful ultra-wide sensor that comes along with the unique telephoto sensor. This leaves the Pixel 8 extra akin to the Pixel 7 than the Pixel 8 Professional was to the Pixel 7 Professional.
Listed below are the cameras the Google Pixel 8 packs:
- 50MP (binned to 12.5MP) Extensive, f/1.68, 1.2-micron, Laser AF, OIS
- 12MP ultrawide, f/2.2, 1.25-micron, 125.8-degree FOV
- 10.5MP Selfie, f/2.2, 1.22-micron, 95-degree FOV
For the Pixel 8, it’s all about that major sensor. It’s sharp and soaks in mild, letting it maintain up fairly properly even in dim environments — and even darkish environments, so long as photographs are taken with a reasonably regular hand. It captures scenes with a pure look, not exaggerating any colours or struggling an excessive amount of with movement. The sensor can deal with a 2x zoom decently, not instantly changing into a large number of digitally zoomed pixels, but it surely doesn’t maintain up when pushed to the 8x restrict. The laser AF can also be fairly snappy, serving to get topics in focus rapidly. Nevertheless, if the telephone thinks it ought to swap to macro mode for a really close-up topic, it may be annoyingly gradual to change again to concentrate on one thing farther out.
By comparability, the ultrawide feels just like the weaker beast that it’s. Element is softer, particularly with noise that’s all the simpler to see when zooming in on photographs. It does seize a bit extra of a topic, even including 11.8 levels further discipline of view in comparison with final yr’s UW sensor, and it will possibly work properly within the daytime beneath vibrant lighting, but it surely’s sufficient of a distinction between it and the primary shooter that I’d all the time attempt to again up and use the primary rear digital camera as an alternative if I need a good wanting picture. That’s a little bit of a disgrace, too, for the reason that macro mode depends on the ultra-wide sensor, which implies you’re simply not going to get macro photographs on this telephone wherever near pretty much as good as they’re on the Pixel 8 Professional.
The selfie digital camera sees the smallest adjustments, truly lowering in decision barely however bumping up FOV by a pair levels. It’s nonetheless a transparent shooter with a pleasant, broad angle good for getting a number of individuals right into a shot.
