9.0
Google Pixel 8
Like
New design
Finest Take works effectively
The brighter display screen
7 years of OS help
Don’t love
Increased value
Audio Magic Eraser would not have a stay preview
Magic Editor is hit and miss
Some AI instruments like “summarize” do not work
The Google Pixel 8 is in contrast to another telephone you should buy at the moment. After testing it for almost every week, I spotted that the Pixel 8 and its AI options supply an early glimpse at how pictures, calling and even our telephone’s wallpaper might evolve. I would not run out and purchase a Pixel 8 at the moment solely due to these options, but it surely definitely exhibits how AI will proceed to be built-in into our each day lives.
For instance, there is a function known as Finest Take (which I maintain calling Face Swap) that works when taking just a few consecutive pictures of an individual or group of individuals. After taking the pictures, I can pull up a face and head editor (my time period, not Google’s) in Google Images and swap out an individual’s head with a special model from one other picture from the sequence to get their greatest facial features. The outcome is a photograph the place everybody’s eyes are open and smiling, if that is what you need.
Philosophically, this photograph would not truly exist as a result of the second by no means occurred. And but, right here it’s.
This photograph by no means occurred. CNET’s Jessica Fierro and Abrar Al-Heeti are usually all smiles. Whereas taking a bunch of pictures of them in a row, I used to be ready to make use of Finest Take and alter their faces with these extra severe ones from different pictures. Are you able to inform that AI helped make this?Â
At first, Finest Take creeped me out. However after making use of it to quite a lot of pictures of associates and coworkers, I feel it is unimaginable and works remarkably effectively. I can not see any strains the place the heads have been swapped. (Yep, I truly wrote that.) And I nonetheless cannot absolutely get my head across the prospects that Finest Take opens up. It is the beginning of a path the place our pictures could be much more curated and polished, even when the pictures we take do not begin out that manner.
Will Finest Take make us extra useless by giving us one other software to current a seemingly perfect model of ourselves on-line? Or ought to I simply get pleasure from that I can have a pleasant photograph the place my associates look their greatest at that potential second? I am nonetheless conflicted.
This photograph additionally by no means occurred. Components of it did. I used Finest Take to combine and match Jessica’s and Abrar’s expressions.
Beginning at $699 (£699, AU$1,199) the Google Pixel 8 is a perfect telephone for most individuals. And even for those who aren’t within the AI options (and there are loads of them), the Pixel 8’s up to date design, show and cameras make it among the finest non-Professional Google telephones. The upper value appears value it and makes you notice simply how extremely reasonably priced the Pixel 6 and 7 have been.
Watch this: Evaluate: We Examined the Google Pixel 8 and Its AI Options
The Pixel 8 is smaller, lighter and brighter
The Pixel 8 is sort of a svelte model of the Pixel 7. It is shorter and fewer extensive, though it is truly 0.2 millimeters thicker. It weighs 10 grams lower than the Pixel 7. Mix all that with the truth that almost each edge is rounded over, and you will find, like me, that the Pixel 8 is extremely comfy to carry, with or and not using a case.
My overview unit is the rose shade, which in most lighting appears to be like peach.
The Pixel 8 in rose.
The display screen is smaller, however so are the bezels round it. The 6.2-inch show now has a 60 to 120Hz variable refresh price for smoother scrolling and the next max brightness. It is easy to see beneath brilliant daylight, particularly in contrast with the Pixel 7 and 7A, which look dim by comparability. Watching movies, enjoying video games or simply admiring mundane Android 14 animations have been all pleasant on the Pixel 8’s display screen.
The again remains to be outlined by that extensive digital camera bar, which I like. Total, the Pixel 8 appears to be like dapper and nearly stylish.
The Pixel 8 has a brand new fundamental digital camera sensor
The Pixel 8’s rear cameras are nestled in a digital camera bar that spans the width of the telephone.
The Digicam app has a slight redesign. There are two icons on the backside: a photograph digital camera and a video digital camera. After I faucet on the photograph digital camera, all of the modes beneath the viewfinder change to photo-centric ones like portrait mode and lengthy publicity mode. And after I faucet on the video digital camera image, the modes develop into particular for video like gradual movement. It took a few day to get used to this transformation, however I am a fan of the brand new format.
Additionally, the Pixel 8 has a brand new macro focus function that kicks in when the telephone’s fundamental digital camera is inside centimeters of a topic. I like this addition and located it helpful for meals and occasional snaps, the place I need to get shut sufficient for the cup or plate to fill the body whereas remaining in focus.
The Pixel 8 has a brand new macro focus mode that kicks in once you get near your topic, on this case breakfast.
The 12-megapixel ultrawide digital camera is identical because the one on earlier Pixel fashions. The 50-megapixel fundamental digital camera has a brand new sensor that Google claims can acquire 21% extra mild. The front-facing digital camera can be new, however nonetheless solely has mounted give attention to the Pixel 8 – in contrast with the Pixel 8 Professional’s front-facing autofocus digital camera.
Have a look under at a few of my favourite pictures that I took with the Pixel 8.
I took this with the Pixel 8’s fundamental digital camera at 2x.
This shot of a canine within the afternoon solar exhibits off the Pixel 8’s dynamic vary. Discover the feel within the canine’s fur and the way it contrasts the feel of the ground’s wooden grain.
The Pixel 8, like earlier Google telephones, takes glorious pictures of individuals.
A shot of the Blue Angels flying over downtown San Francisco that I caught with the Pixel 8’s fundamental digital camera.
A slice of Medovyk from Veselka in NYC taken with the Pixel 8.
A Pixel 8 photograph taken in Night time Sight mode.
Listed here are a few selfies I took with the Pixel 8.
Does the Pixel 8 take higher pictures than the Pixel 7? Sure. However they don’t seem to be dramatically totally different. Try the pictures under of the Manhattan Bridge. Each look nice.
Each of those pictures of the Manhattan Bridge have been taken seconds aside. The left picture is from the Google Pixel 8 and the fitting one from the Pixel 7.
But when I punch in on the place the principle upright part intersects with the deck, you may see that the Pixel 8’s picture under has extra element and sharpness. Discover the person rivets on the steel uprights in comparison with the Pixel 7’s photograph, the place most of them do not present up.
Listed here are 100% crops from the pictures above with the Pixel 8’s picture on the left and the Pixel 7’s picture on the fitting.
The Pixel 8 is outlined by its digital camera AI instruments
The Pixel 8’s AI options like Finest Take steal the present in relation to the digital camera. By the way in which, Finest Take not solely works on pictures taken with the telephone, however any pictures in your Google Images library in your Pixel 8. I used Finest Take to swap out faces in pictures I took on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max as a part of my overview final month.
Finest Take solely works on a sequence of pictures in a sequence. So you may’t take a photograph of your self at 40 and change your head with one from a photograph of once you have been in your 20s. Additionally, the function works solely on individuals. However I can nearly hear Google’s SVP for gadgets and companies, Wealthy Osterloh, say on the Pixel 9 or Pixel 10 launch, “we heard you and we now supply Finest Take for pets.” Applause and cheers!
The Finest Take interface in Google Images on the Pixel 8.
Keep in mind the Magic Eraser that debuted on the Pixel 6Â that allows you to take away a distraction out of your photograph like somebody within the background? Now there’s Magic Editor on the Pixel 8 and eight Professional, which helps you to do much more. It may well take away somebody from the background and even transfer your photograph’s topic and resize it. I changed the sky, floor and even your entire background in some pictures. Mainly, for those who see somebody leaping abnormally excessive in a photograph taken on a Pixel 8, beware: that particular person might have used the Magic Editor to magnify issues.
For instance, under is a photograph I took of CNET’s Tara Brown and Theo Liggians leaping off a rock. I used the Magic Eraser, which has been round for a few years, to take away the rock. It is apparent one thing was altered.
On the left is the unique photograph that I took from the Pixel 8. One the fitting is identical photograph with the Magic Eraser utilized to the rock. It would not look nice.
Under is identical photograph after I used the brand new Magic Editor. It is not good, but it surely’s an enchancment over the Magic Eraser photograph.
The brand new Magic Editor did a greater job, however issues might look higher.
However why cease there? I attempted the Magic Editor a second time and changed the precise zigzag tiled floor and synthetic turf with one fully fabricated from bricks. This obscured the shadow left from the rock and made every little thing look extra uniform. I do not know the place the Pixel 8 got here up with the substitute floor since there weren’t any bricks within the precise floor and that is one of many downsides to utilizing AI this fashion.
I used the Magic Editor to interchange the bottom and rock with one fabricated from bricks. There weren’t any bricks at this park, but it surely does make the photograph look higher.
A majority of the time, Magic Editor generations took a matter of seconds. It did not really feel like I waited lengthy. However there have been a few instances the place it took 10 seconds and one other one time the place I needed to shut the Google Images app as a result of it appeared caught. Finest Take seems like a extra mature function than Magic Editor which nonetheless has an experimental vibe to it.
Sadly, my colleague Jessica would not truly float. Clearly this was made with the Magic Editor.
Right here is an occasion the place the Magic Editor went wild, changing the ground and partitions (undecided the place it acquired this artwork deco backdrop from) and eradicating Jessica’s arms and toes.
The Magic Editor is loads of enjoyable, and I actually consider it provides one other stage of creativity to telephone pictures. However it does so whereas elevating moral questions round picture manipulation. Fortuitously, Magic Editor-generated pictures have flaws, or at the very least the vast majority of the pictures that I used it on did. I can normally spot the variations between pictures I utilized it on versus unedited pictures. The way in which the AI tries to fill within the background normally ends in one thing wanting off. However not everybody could also be as photo-savvy as me, and I think about that Google will maintain refining the AI behind it to a degree the place it is laborious to inform the distinction between an altered photograph and an unedited one.
Right here is an unedited Pixel 8 photograph with Jessica (entrance) and Abrar.
I used the Magic Editor to take away Abrar. Discover the way in which it crammed within the background the place Abrar was, particularly the door and wall.
There’s another AI-powered digital camera software known as Audio Magic Eraser, which might clear up audio in recorded movies for higher readability. It removes distracting background noise or music that may intervene along with your video’s audio. Watch the overview video that accompanies this text to see examples of it earlier than and after, with and with out the Audio Magic Eraser utilized.
Utilizing the software was straightforward sufficient. Nonetheless, the stay preview did not mirror the adjustments to the audio that I made, which looks as if a bug. I needed to save a replica of the edited video to listen to the distinction Audio Magic Eraser made – which was spectacular.
Taken in complete, the Pixel 8 has an excellent digital camera system with loads of options you simply do not discover on the dearer iPhone 15 and Galaxy S23. It is fascinating to see Google, who has a wonderful popularity in relation to getting the very best pictures out of a telephone digital camera, nonetheless be capable to match the likes of Apple and Samsung all whereas leaning closely into these hit-or-miss AI digital camera options.
My CNET colleague Andrew Lanxon, who’s reviewing the Pixel 8 Professional, wasn’t as enamored with Finest Take as I used to be.
Pixel 8 efficiency and battery
A facet view of the Pixel 8. Simply take a look at how a lot that digital camera bar stands out!
Google’s Tensor chip has by no means been about pure horsepower. As an alternative, it targets optimizing particular duties and powering all these AI capabilities talked about earlier. And that is the case for the Pixel 8’s Tensor G3 chip. Throughout my six days with the telephone, I by no means bumped into any efficiency points. After I was downloading Genshin Influence and PUBG Cellular and setting them up, the Pixel 8 did get very heat. However that was the one time I observed this occur.
The G3 chip together with Android 14 makes the Pixel 8 a delight to make use of. There’s Face Unlock, which is as soon as once more safe sufficient to make use of for contactless funds, even with out the Pixel 4’s fancy radar sensor. There are unusual non-camera AI options like AI Wallpaper that creates an authentic wallpaper on your residence display screen primarily based on MadLibs-style prompts. You’ll be able to’t enter your personal phrases and are restricted to a listing of phrases for every entry. I may also use Google Assistant to learn articles aloud, and there is a summarize function that I by no means set to work. Anytime I requested the Assistant to summarize a narrative I am met with the message, “Sorry I can not summarize on this machine but.”
Name Display debuted on the 2018 Pixel 3 and lets the Google Assistant reply a name when you hear in. On the Pixel 8, the Name Display’s voice feels like an precise human. I can not inform if it is faux or a recording of an precise human voice, which exhibits you the way far Google has pushed this know-how over the previous 5 years.
The Pixel 8 has a barely greater battery than final 12 months’s Pixel 7. Over the six days, the Pixel 8 had no drawback making it via a full day on a single cost. I am nonetheless engaged on working CNET’s arsenal of battery life checks and efficiency benchmarks, so verify again quickly for the outcomes.
Ultimate phrase on the Pixel 8
Google Pixel 8 Professional in blue (left) and Pixel 8 in rose).
The 2 largest adjustments to the Pixel 8 do not have something to do with the bodily telephone. The primary is the value. The Pixel 8 prices $699, which is $100 greater than the Pixel 6 and seven’s launch costs. However the updates you get, just like the refined design, new show and fundamental digital camera enhancements, are value it. And the Pixel 8’s greater value is extra reflective of simply how ridiculously reasonably priced Google priced the Pixel 6 and seven in contrast with different main smartphone makers on the time. Outdoors the US, the Pixel 8’s value improve may be steeper.
The opposite huge function is software program help. The Pixel 8 will obtain seven years of OS support, which is longer than most Android telephones. However the Fairphone 5Â takes the crown with 8 years of help. Will the Pixel 8 survive till 2030? Perhaps? I do not know.
However in that spirit, I casually polled a few of my CNET colleagues over Slack to ask them what was the longest period of time they owned a telephone. Most saved their telephones for lower than 5 years, however just a few of my coworkers had almost 6-year-old telephones just like the iPhone 8 and Galaxy Note 8. So maybe there may be an viewers for this profit.
I like to recommend the Pixel 8 to anybody coming from a Pixel 6A or older, or any telephone that is at the very least three years outdated. In the event you’re making an attempt to determine between the Pixel 7A and Pixel 8, know that the Pixel 8 is best in almost each manner however does price $200 extra. And by way of the Pixel 8 and eight Professional, you get 85% of that Pixel 8 Professional expertise on the common Pixel 8. The Pixel 8 Professional has a nicer display screen, a brand new greater decision extremely extensive digital camera, extra RAM and a devoted 5x telephoto digital camera, all of which the Pixel 8 lacks. The Pixel 8 Professional additionally has extra digital camera instruments, like video increase, in comparison with the Pixel 8.
With the Pixel 8’s launch, Google’s present lineup has a telephone for each funds: $499 for the Pixel 7A, $699 for the Pixel 8, $999 for the Pixel 8 Professional and $1,799 for the Pixel Fold. The Pixel 8 is not Google’s most reasonably priced machine, but it surely’s a telephone most individuals ought to take into account. Its AI options, cheap value and 7 years of software program help assist it stand out amongst its Pixel siblings.
Google Pixel 8 specs vs. Pixel 8 Professional, Pixel 7A, Pixel 7
| Google Pixel 8 | Google Pixel 8 Professional | Google Pixel 7A | Google Pixel 7 | |
| Show measurement, tech, decision, refresh price, brightness | 6.2-inch OLED; 2,400×1,080 pixels; 60-120Hz adaptive refresh price | 6.7-inch OLED; 3,120×1,440 pixels; 1-120Hz adaptive refresh price | 6.1-inch OLED; 2,400×1,080 pixels; 60 or 90Hz variable refresh price | 6.3-inch OLED show, FHD+ (1080 x 2400 pixels) , 90Hz |
| Pixel density | 428 ppi | 489 ppi | 361 ppi | 416 ppi |
| Dimensions (inches) | 5.9 x 2.8 x 0.4 in | 6.4 x 3.0 x 0.3 in | 6.00 x 2.87 x 0.35 in | 6.13 x 2.88 x 0.34 in |
| Dimensions (millimeters) | 150.5 x 70.8 x 8.9 mm | 162.6 x 76.5 x 8.8 mm | 152 x 73 x 9.0 mm | 155.6 x 73.2 x 8.7 mm |
| Weight (grams, ounces) | 187 g (6.6 oz) | 213 g (7.5 oz) | 193 g (6.81 oz) | 197 g (6.9 oz) |
| Cellular software program | Android 14 | Android 14 | Android 13 | Android 13 |
| Digicam | 50-megapixel (extensive), 12-megapixel (ultrawide) | 50-megapixel (extensive), 48-megapixel (ultrawide), 48-megapixel (telephoto) | 64-megapixel (fundamental), 13-megapixel (ultrawide) | 50-megapixel (extensive), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), |
| Entrance-facing digital camera | 10.5-megapixel | 10.5-megapixel | 13-megapixel | 10.8-megapixel |
| Video seize | 4K | 4K | 4K | 4K |
| Processor | Google Tensor G3 | Google Tensor G3 | Google Tensor G2 | Google Tensor G2 |
| Storage and RAM | 8GB + 128GB, 256GB | 12GB RAM + 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB | 8GB + 128GB | 8GB + 128GB, 256 GB, |
| Expandable storage | None | None | None | None |
| Battery | 4,575 mAh | 5,050 mAh | 4,385 mAh | 4,355 mAh |
| Fingerprint sensor | Underneath show | Underneath show | Facet | Underneath show |
| Connector | USB-C | USB-C | USB-C | USB-C |
| Headphone jack | None | None | None | None |
| Particular options | 5G (Sub 6, mmWave); VPN by Google One; 7 years of OS, safety and Function Drop updates; front-facing digital camera has autofocus; 13W Qi wi-fi charging; 30W wired charging; USB-3.2 speeds by way of USB-C; IP68 mud and water resistance; Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on back and front | 5G (Sub 6 and mmWave); VPN by Google One; 7 years of OS, safety and Function Drop updates; front-facing digital camera has autofocus; 13W Qi wi-fi charging; 30W wired charging; USB-3.2 speeds by way of USB-C; IP68 mud and water resistance; Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on back and front | 5G (Sub6, mmWave); IP67 score; 18W quick charging; 7.5W wi-fi charging | 5G, Magic Eraser, Photograph Unblur, Actual Tone, Face Unblur, Lengthy Publicity Mode, Motion Pan; Maintain For Me, Wait Occasions, Direct My Name Dwell Translate |
| US value off-contract | $699 (128GB) | $999 (128GB) | $499 (128GB) | $600 (128GB) |
| UK value | £699 (128GB) | £999 (128GB) | £449 (128GB) | £599 (128GB) |
| Australia value | AU$1,199 (128GB) | AU$1,699 (128GB) | AU$749 (128GB) | AU$999 (128GB) |
How we check telephones
Every phone tested by CNET’s reviews team was truly utilized in the true world. We check a telephone’s options, play video games and take pictures. We look at the show to see if it is brilliant, sharp and vibrant. We analyze the design and construct to see how it’s to carry and whether or not it has an IP-rating for water-resistance. We push the processor’s efficiency to the extremes utilizing each standardized benchmark instruments like GeekBench and 3DMark, together with our personal anecdotal observations navigating the interface, recording high-resolution movies and enjoying graphically intense video games at excessive refresh charges.
All of the cameras are examined in quite a lot of circumstances from brilliant daylight to darkish indoor scenes. We check out particular options like night time mode and portrait mode and evaluate our findings towards equally priced competing telephones. We additionally take a look at the battery life through the use of it each day in addition to working a sequence of battery drain checks.
We keep in mind further options like help for 5G, satellite tv for pc connectivity, fingerprint and face sensors, stylus help, quick charging speeds, foldable shows amongst others that may be helpful. And we in fact stability all of this towards the value to provide the verdict on whether or not that telephone, no matter value it’s, truly represents good worth. Whereas these checks might not at all times be mirrored in CNET’s preliminary overview, we conduct follow-up and long-term testing in most circumstances.
