As someone who has used every Google-released smartphone to this point, I’ve been eagerly anticipating the Pixel 8 Pro. After extensively testing the Pixel 8 Pro over the past two weeks, I’m mostly impressed by Google’s progress, but a few nagging issues hold the phone back from being truly excellent. As a Pixel fan, I want to see Google go all-in on polish and quality for the Pixel 9. For now, the Pixel 8 Pro is a solid choice for Android fans who prioritize software, but for everyone else, I’d wait for a discount.
Pixel 8 Pro Design and Display
When the Google Pixel 8 Pro is unboxed, the phone improves on last year’s design, delivering a device that not only looks fantastic but also feels solidly built to rival the best smartphones on the market. Available in Porcelain, Obsidian and Bay, the phone brings a level of elegance and style to the range that is sure to appeal to even the most ardent Apple fans. The in-hand feel is some of the best I have seen from Google, making it a joy to hold and use on a daily basis.
The matte glass back on the Pixel 8 Pro looks and feels premium, with a soft touch finish that is comfortable to hold. My only complaint is the polished metal frame, which is a fingerprint magnet. A brushed metal texture would have better complemented the matte back. Still, with an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance paired with wireless charging support, Google has checked all the boxes for a premium, durable design.
The Pixel 8 Pro represents a major stride forward in design for Google’s smartphones. Gone are the thick bezels and dated aesthetics of the past. Instead, the Pixel 8 Pro sports a modern, sleek look with slim bezels all around the 6.7″ display. The curved edges that were present on prior Pixel models have been eliminated in favour of a completely flat display (something I am very happy to see). This flat panel is not only more durable and practical but also enables full edge-to-edge screen protectors for maximum coverage.
That stunning display is a major highlight, with a sharp 3K resolution and a variable refresh rate from 1-120Hz enabled by LTPO technology. It’s bright, vibrant, and remains easy to see even in direct sunlight. In fact, Google claims a peak brightness of 1500 nits, which is extremely impressive. The panel’s colours are also highly accurate, making the Pixel 8 Pro great for photo and video editing. An ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader rounds out the display features, offering fast and reliable biometric unlocking, although I did have some issues unlocking the phone at random, and could, at times, take a few tries to work.
In terms of size and ergonomics, the Pixel 8 Pro hits a sweet spot with its 6.7″ screen. It’s big enough for immersive media consumption and multitasking yet small enough for comfortable one-handed use. The slim bezels keep the overall footprint manageable relative to the display size. At 213 grams, the Pixel 8 Pro has some heft but doesn’t feel overly heavy in the hand, and feels comparable to most flagships on the market.
Performance and Battery Life
The Google Pixel 8 Pro delivers excellent all-around performance thanks to its cutting-edge internal hardware. It is powered by Google’s latest Tensor G3 processor, which utilizes a 4nm manufacturing process for improved power efficiency versus the 5nm Tensor G2. The Tensor G3 combines two high-performance ARM Cortex-X1 cores running at up to 2.85GHz with two mid-range Cortex-A78 cores and four efficiency Cortex-A55 cores. This heterogeneous multi-core design balances performance and battery life.
For graphics, the Tensor G3 GPU provides up to 50% higher performance than the prior generation, according to Google. This ensures smooth framerates in demanding 3D games. The Pixel 8 Pro configuration I tested came with a generous 12GB of ultra-fast LPDDR5 RAM, which is more than enough for heavy multitasking. Storage is also blazing fast thanks to UFS 3.1 flash memory.
“The Google Pixel 8 Pro delivers excellent all-around performance thanks to its cutting-edge internal hardware.”
In daily use, everything feels snappy and responsive on the Pixel 8 Pro. Apps open swiftly, multi-tasking is fluid, and system animations are buttery smooth. Gaming performance impresses, too, with even graphics-intensive titles like Genshin Impact running at high frame rates with consistent performance.
In gaming, the Pixel 8 Pro was better than past iterations, but it still feels like it lags a bit behind Qualcom and their Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Jumping into games like Genshin Impact, everything felt snappy, with no noticeable screen tearing. The same goes for Honkai: Star Rail, with most of the action feeling near console quality.
Even though it felt smoother than past iterations, it did not feel quite as buttery smooth compared to the latest Xiaomi 13 Ultra or the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. I have to commend Google; even though it is not quite as responsive, it feels noticeably better than the Pixel 7 Pro and shows just how far they have come.
The Pixel 8 Pro also excels at battery life thanks to the power efficiency of the Tensor G3 chip, a 5000mAh battery capacity and software optimizations. During my testing, I consistently got through a full day of heavy use with over 5 hours of screen time. More moderate users should be able to get 1.5-2 days per charge. When you do need to recharge, you can plug in a compatible fast power block and get a 50% charge in just 30 minutes. Wireless charging and reverse wireless charging are also supported for added flexibility.
With its cutting-edge Tensor G3 chip, ample RAM and storage, and excellent battery life, the Pixel 8 Pro has all the performance and endurance I expect from a premium flagship phone in 2023. Google has clearly stepped up its hardware game to match the best from Apple and Samsung.
Camera: Impressive but Inconsistent
If you have watched any of the ads from Google, you know just how much the company is pushing the camera as the major selling point for Pixel phones, and that is just as true for the Pixel 8 Pro. It is one thing I normally mention when talking about the Pixel range, and this remains true with this offering, at least for the most part. While the cameras are impressive overall, I did encounter some inconsistencies in certain situations during my testing.
The main 50MP wide camera takes stunning, detailed shots in daylight with excellent dynamic range and accurate colours. It’s a top-tier sensor that captures the Pixel 8 Pro’s signature look. The new 48MP telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom also lets you get much closer to subjects without any loss in quality. And the 12MP ultrawide camera fits more into each frame, which is great for landscapes or architecture.
So, in ideal lighting conditions, the Pixel 8 Pro cameras shine and produce images that can rival professional cameras (at least for the average user). However, some issues arise in more challenging scenarios. For example, high-contrast scenes can sometimes fool the HDR processing into blowing out highlights or clipping shadows. The colours may also look slightly unnatural as a result of the aggressive tone mapping, with people looking very strange in these situations. This results in a loss of detail in the shadows and highlights.
One feature that I loved when Google first introduced it, but which honestly doesn’t feel like it’s progressed as much as in previous iterations, is the portrait mode, which honestly feels hit or miss this time around. When it works, the simulated background blur looks great. However, I found the edge detection around hair and complex shapes to be inconsistent. There are also no portrait lighting effects like those found on the iPhone and some other Android offerings.
Low light photography is another area where the Pixel 8 Pro cameras falter somewhat. While Night Sight helps, there’s more noise than I’d like, and fine details get muddied. The iPhone 14 Pro remains one of CGMagazines best performers in this area, with the Xiaomi 13 Ultra also boasting some impressive results. I had hopes for the Pixel 8 Pro, but it just falls short when compared to some of the heavy hitters in the smartphone camera space.
Thankfully, even though the Google Pixel 8 Pro makes taking photos as simple as possible, they have not forgotten the pro mode, giving content creators the controls they need to get the perfect shot. While most people will never touch Pro Mode, it is something I use often, especially when photographing tech, so I am glad Google paid attention to this area with the Pixel 8 Pro.
“Thankfully, even though the Google Pixel 8 Pro makes taking photos as simple as possible…”
It is as intuitive as I would have hoped, at the same time, giving the level of control I sometimes need. Google has made the mode feel much more a part of the experience this time around, and I really enjoyed playing with it while testing the phone. And I am always happy to see that side of a phone get the attention it deserves.
The video capabilities are solid, with the Google Pixel 8 Pro managing some fantastic video, allowing for 4K capture that looks positively stunning. There are also some smart software features behind the scenes that let you capture fantastic video that truly pops, a great thing for people who use their phones for content creation. It also manages everything you would hope for from a smartphone, including video chatting that looks solid, with new features launching later that are said to add HDR+ and Night Sight to video, something I am sure creators will love to take advantage of.
So, while the Pixel 8 Pro cameras shine in ideal conditions, the inconsistencies in HDR processing, portraits, and low-light photography show that Google still has work to do. The cameras come close to being the best you can get on a smartphone, but the software issues hold them back from being truly excellent.
I’m hoping Google can iron out these kinks with updates. When the Pixel 8 Pro cameras work as intended, the results are stunning. But the bugs and quirks definitely tarnish the experience. For a flagship smartphone camera system in 2023, I expect more polish.
Software: Refining the Pixel Experience
The Pixel 8 Pro ships with the latest Android 14 software, which continues to refine and enhance Google’s vision for their Pixel phones. Android 14 maintains the clean, intuitive interface that Pixel devices are known for while introducing thoughtful new features that leverage Google’s strength in AI and machine learning.
One of my favourite additions is Magic Eraser, which lets you easily remove unwanted objects or people from photos with just a few taps. The technology behind it is impressive, automatically detecting distractions in the background and replacing them with content-aware fills so the end result looks totally natural. For fixing old photos, the new Photo Unblur feature uses AI to reconstruct details and sharpen faces. All these features located in the photo app make them easy to use, and honestly, they work better, at times, than Adobe Photoshop, something I never thought I would say about a phone, but here we are.
Live Translate, powered by Google’s advanced machine translation system, is another neat trick that transcribes conversations in real-time. You can have back-and-forth discussions in different languages, with the phone automatically translating everything into text on the fly. The Recorder app even goes a step further by generating automated transcripts of any recording, allowing you to search through audio.
These AI-driven capabilities really showcase Google’s expertise in artificial intelligence and demonstrate how it can meaningfully enhance the user experience. Android 14 also introduces some more playful touches, like a new My Photo widget that automatically curates your best pics into a rotating showcase and a Cinematic Blur mode that simulates artsy depth of field effects in videos.
But for me, the standout upgrade in Android 14 is Google’s new 7-year update pledge for the Pixel 8 series. This guarantees you’ll receive the latest software updates, new features, and security patches through 2030 — a lifecycle far beyond the typical 3-4 years of support. This extended longevity makes the Pixel 8 Pro an even smarter long-term investment.
The Pixel 8 Pro checks nearly all the boxes: great design, display, performance, and camera, but issues like inconsistent camera performance and lack of polish in areas hold it back from being truly excellent. For now, the Google Pixel 8 Pro is a solid choice if you prioritize software and love to see Android on a device that is built to take advantage of all it has to offer, but I don’t see it swaying any iPhone lovers, at least not in its current state. It comes close to being the complete package but falls just short of greatness. With refinement, the Pixel could truly compete head-to-head with the best the industry has to offer.
