The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional are the most recent smartphones from Google, they usually include a ton of latest enhancements past simply iterative spec bumps. The telephones are additionally barely costlier than their predecessors, costing $699 and $999, respectively.
Right here, we’ll listing the highest new options of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional and see how they assist enhance your smartphone expertise and whether or not they’re well worth the improve.
1. New Design and Colours
The very first thing you may discover concerning the Pixel 8 sequence is its new design with extra rounded corners and new colorways. Google presents the $699 Pixel 8 in Hazel, Rose, and Obsidian, whereas the $999 Pixel 8 Professional is available in Bay, Porcelain, and Obsidian.
In contrast to the Pixel 7 Professional, which had a separate housing for its telephoto lens, the Pixel 8 Professional bundles all three of its rear cameras in a single housing.
The Pixel 8 has a shiny again with Gorilla Glass Victus on the back and front, and the Pixel 8 Professional has a matte again with stronger Gorilla Glass Victus 2 safety. If you happen to’re questioning, this is identical Gorilla Glass variant used on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Extremely.
2. Seven Years of Software program Assist
The Pixel 8 sequence presents a whopping seven years of software program help within the type of main OS updates, safety patches, and Pixel Function Drops—that is greater than what every other main Android cellphone model presents proper now. Good job, Google!
After all, you are in all probability not going to maintain your cellphone for seven years, however it’s definitely higher than the 4 years of OS updates that Samsung presents. Longer software program help means you do not have to purchase a brand new Android cellphone to expertise new options.
3. Tensor G3 and Titan M2 Safety Chip
The Pixel 8 sequence comes with a brand new and improved 4nm Google Tensor G3 chip, so you possibly can count on it to be extra highly effective, environment friendly, and clever than its predecessor, resulting in improved multitasking, elevated battery life, and higher general usability.
With the Tensor G3, Google additionally guarantees extra cutting-edge picture and video options, improved Clear Calling for high-definition cellphone calls, higher audio and video high quality, and different software program enhancements.
Nonetheless, do not count on Tensor G3 to compete with the likes of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Apple’s A17 Professional chip. Google’s Tensor as an alternative is extra catered to bettering AI and machine studying capabilities resembling picture algorithms, pure language processing, reside translation, and extra.
The units additionally boast Google’s devoted safety chip Titan M2, which provides an additional layer of hardware-based safety to maintain your private stuff personal. For these questioning, it is just like the Knox safety system Samsung makes use of on flagship Galaxy telephones.
4. New Digital camera {Hardware} and Software program Options
The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional get new digicam {hardware} too. Each share a 50MP f/1.68 essential sensor, however the Pixel 8 has a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide lens, whereas the Pixel 8 Professional has a 48MP f/1.95 ultrawide lens and a 48MP f/2.8 telephoto lens with 5x optical and 30x hybrid zoom.
Google has additionally added a spread of useful software program options for Pixel’s cameras. As an illustration, Audio Magic Eraser enables you to take away distracting background noise out of your saved movies so you possibly can give attention to what you are truly attempting to take heed to.
Much like Picture Unblur, Video Unblur will now allow you to make your outdated movies clear and detailed as a way to relive these reminiscences in excessive definition. It’s also possible to make Photoshop-like edits to your photographs in seconds due to a generative AI-powered enhancing function referred to as Magic Editor, which Google confirmed off at I/O 2023.
For group pictures (that are notoriously exhausting to drag off completely), you should use Greatest Take to merge everybody’s finest shot utilizing AI so all of the individuals in your group picture look good. There’s additionally Macro Focus that permits you to get nearer to things to up your macrophotography sport.
5. Greater Peak Brightness
The units additionally function brighter shows than their predecessors; the Pixel 8 goes as much as 2,000 nits whereas the Pixel 8 Professional goes as much as 2,400 nits of peak brightness, making them among the brightest Android telephones on the market.
Clearly, outside use on the Pixel 8 sequence won’t be an issue. For reference, the iPhone 15 Professional Max can attain 2,000 nits of peak brightness, whereas the S23 Extremely can solely go as much as 1,750 nits.
6. Evening Sight for Movies
Evening Sight is an evening images function Google first launched with the Pixel 3, tweaking your low-light photographs to be brighter, extra detailed, much less blurry, and color-accurate.
To date, the function has solely been out there for nighttime photographs, however with the Pixel 8 sequence, Google is lastly bringing Evening Sight to movies to assist spruce up your low-light footage. We’ll look ahead to reviewers to place this function to the take a look at to see how good it truly is.
7. A New Temperature Sensor
There is a new infrared temperature sensor on the steel digicam visor of the Pixel 8 Professional. You should utilize it to watch your physique temperature and be alerted in case of any sudden drops that will probably be indicative of well being points.
It’s also possible to use it to rapidly get the temperature of objects like drinks or cookware by scanning them in order that you already know if they’re secure to the touch.
8. 1TB Storage Choice
The Pixel 8 Professional additionally has a 1TB storage choice for energy customers, avid gamers, or content material creators since downloading a variety of video games and flicks and taking high-res photographs and movies will eat up space for storing rapidly. Sadly, Google would not supply a 1TB storage choice for the usual Pixel 8.
Each units additionally begin with 128GB of base storage, not like the Galaxy S23 Extremely or iPhone 15 Professional Max, which each now begin with 256GB as the bottom storage. So, it’s possible you’ll wish to try how a lot storage you want in the event you’re not absolutely certain if the bottom storage is sufficient.
Google’s Pixel 8 Collection Is Higher Than It Appears
Smartphone upgrades in recent times are often iterative at finest, however the Pixel 8 sequence appears to be greater than only a spec bump. With a brand new design, Tensor G3 chip, new digicam {hardware}, tons of latest software program options, seven years of software program help, Evening Sight for video, and a brand new temperature sensor, it is exhausting to argue towards shopping for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Professional.