Up for review today is the Pixel 8 Pro variant of the Google Pixel family. Succeeding over the Pixel 7 Pro, the new entrant offers upgrades in design, display, camera, and processor, and incorporates a new set of AI-enhanced features.
Design
The Pixel 8 Pro maintains its family design elements, with the familiar camera bar prominently featuring on the back. The phone’s frame follows in the eco-friendly footsteps of its Pixel predecessors; it is constructed from recycled aluminium. The key placement, too, sticks to the design of the Pixel 7 Pro.
While there is no radical design departure from its predecessor, the rear glass panel now boasts a frosted finish similar to the iPhone 15 series, and offers a softer and smudge-resistant grip. The phone is also lighter and feels more comfortable to hold. It also boasts an IP68 rating for water resistance, offering protection against spills and rainy weather, making it a practical choice for daily use.
One intriguing addition to the phone’s design is a small circular feature beside the camera flash—a temperature sensor. This innovative sensor allows the phone to note temperature readings for objects or surfaces, easily accessible through the temperature app.
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Display
In contrast with its predecessors, the Pixel 8 Pro opts for a flat panel instead of a curved one. The top glass is constructed from Gorilla Glass Victus 2. The phone display features uniform bezels on all sides, as opposed to the Pixel 8, which has slightly thicker bezels at the bottom; however, the distinction is subtle.
The phone sports a 6.7-inch OLED display, dubbed the Super Actua display, with a 1344 x 2992 resolution and a 20:9 aspect ratio. It offers a choice between 60Hz and 120Hz refresh rates, and can drop down to 1Hz when not in use or when there’s no moving content. Right out the box, the Pixel 8 Pro comes with a 120Hz refresh rate but at a 1080p resolution, requiring manual adjustment to access the full native resolution of 1344p. The display supports HDR, boasting a peak brightness of 1,600 nits in HDR mode and an absolute peak brightness of 2,400 nits. It also provides HDR and wide colour support, although it has an 8-bit panel. It would have been nice to have Dolby Vision support, which the phone currently omits.
OS
The Pixel 8 Pro comes with Android 14 and Google’s tailored software features. AI is the key focus this year, enhancing most apps. Google Photos stands out with AI features like Audio Magic Eraser for noise removal in videos, Magic Editor for background adjustments, subject repositioning, and lighting changes, and the Best Take feature, allowing face and head swaps in group photos.
Processor
The phone is powered by the new Google Tensor G3 chip, manufactured on Samsung’s 4nm process. The chip utilises a nona-core design with a configuration of 1x 3.0GHz Cortex-X3, 4x 2.45GHz Cortex-A715, and 4x 2.15GHz Cortex-A510, paired with an Immortalis-G715 MP10 GPU. The device comes with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM, with no additional memory options. It’s only available in a 128GB storage configuration in India, which is quite limited for a flagship device in this price range.
The phone delivers a notably better experience compared to its predecessor, and also improves a lot on thermal performance. It does not heat up as much as the Pixel 7 Pro did; I have been watching the ongoing Men’s Cricket World Cup for roughly seven hours every day, and the phone remains relatively calm and cool.
Camera
The phone features a revised triple camera setup. The primary camera boasts a new 50MP sensor with an f1.68 aperture, along with multi-zone laser detect auto-focus and both optical and electronic image stabilisation. Google also introduces a new 48MP ultra-wide camera with an f1.95 aperture and a wide 125.5-degree field of view. It also includes an updated 48MP 5x telephoto camera with a brighter f2.8 aperture and a slightly wider 21.8-degree field of view. There’s an improved 10.5MP front camera with an f2.2 aperture featuring autofocus. Notably, the phone allows users to select between the 12MP and 50MP resolutions.
Pixel 8 Pro camera sample | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
The main camera delivers excellent images, characterised by good dynamic range and a respectable level of detail, despite the 12MP resolution. Google includes its signature features, like highlight exposure, contrast enhancement in mid-tones, edge sharpening, and a cooler white balance with a magenta bias, to achieve the classic Pixel look. There’s a subtle improvement in perceived detail over the Pixel 7 models, likely due to increased sharpening. Shadow details also appear slightly cleaner. Pixel 8 Pro images look sharper than those taken by the new iPhone 15 Pro Max, even when comparing against the default 24MP iPhone images.
Pixel 8 Pro sample image | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
The phone excels in ultra-wide photography, providing more detail and cleaner images compared to the Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 8’s 12MP ultra-wide images. As for zoom, these phones interpret 2x magnification differently compared to the Pixel 7 phones and iPhone 15 Pro. The Pixel 8 phones crop more for 2x magnification as compared to the other devices.
The portrait mode is a delight. The camera lens captures the photos very artistically, separating the subject and the background in a refined manner. In low-light conditions, all phones automatically engage night mode, delivering excellent image quality.
Pixel 8 Pro low light image | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
The selfies we captured came out with very high precision. The image quality was top-notch, with no unnecessary alteration of the face. Google has also padded the phone with lots of AI features like Magic Editor and Best Take that prove efficient in everyday scenarios.
Battery
The Pixel 8 Pro is equipped with a battery capacity of 5,050mAh, a slight upgrade from the Pixel 7 Pro. It withstands a day’s use quite comfortably on a single charge. It supports 30W wired charging and takes around 1:20 - 1:30 hours to reach full charge. Additionally, it offers 23W wireless charging capabilities and supports reverse wireless charging, adding to its versatility and convenience.
Verdict
Within the Pixel realm, the new Pixel 8 Pro offers a promising upgrade over its predecessor, offering up a non-slippery feel, superior processing, thermal efficiency and a new temperature sensor. The camera capability is something we always loved about the Pixel family, and the Pixel 8 Pro takes this to new heights, bolstered further by new AI tools.
For the first time ever, Google has breached the ₹1 lakh milestone, pricing the Pixel 8 Pro at ₹1,06,999 (12GB/128GB, single variant only) and that is something buyers will definitely take into account with phones like Samsung Galaxy S23 and Apple iPhone 15 also on offer. However, in terms of overall competition, Google has some serious catching-up to do, particularly when it comes to market strategies for its hardware business in India.
Published - October 18, 2023 02:25 pm IST
