Google Pixel 8 Pro 256GB

The Google Pixel 8 Pro comes with a new set of camera sensors housed in the visor on the back. There's a 50MP primary camera with an f/1.68 aperture, a 48MP telephoto camera that's capable of 5x optical zoom, and a 48MP ultrawide camera with autofocus. The primary and telephoto cameras support OIS and EIS. At the front, you get a 10.5MP camera to take of selfies and video calls.In addition to the upgraded camera hardware, there is a whole bunch of AI-powered editing tools that Google announced during the keynote, some of them capable of changing a photo completely. Firstly, there's the upgraded Magic Eraser tool that previously allowed you to remove certain objects from an image. Now, Magic Eraser uses on-device generative AI to remove larger objects and people from a photo by generating new pixels to fill the spaces.Best Take is a new on-device editing tool that lets you fix group photos in which one or more people have their eyes closed or are looking elsewhere instead of at the camera. It analyses data from a series of similar group shots to suggest the perfect photo where everyone is looking at the camera and smiling with their eyes open. The feature is still in its early stages and didn't work evenly during the review, only managing to correct one face in the sample below, but the result was impressive nonetheless.Magic Editor is the biggest new AI-based photo editing feature on the Pixel 8 series. This tool doesn't just make subtle changes to a picture the way Magic Eraser and Best Take do, but it can completely manipulate a photo by allowing you to resize and reposition objects or people in a photo, change the colour of the sky, and more. I use the word 'manipulate' here because that's what Google is allowing you to do: use generative AI to change a photo to the point that one won't be able to tell what's real and what's fake. It's still in the early stages so it's not extremely accurate with cropping and shadows, so it's still easy to tell that a photo has been edited. It also takes a pretty long time to process multiple previews (which is likely happening in the cloud rather than on the device as it requires internet access).Let's talk about the picture quality now. The primary 50MP sensor captures excellent photos in daylight, with good colour-accuracy and sharpness. That said, photos will look a bit on the duller and warmer side of the spectrum compared to brighter, punchier colours, and cooler-looking images captured by the iPhone 15 Pro Max. An example of this can be seen below. We will be doing a more in-depth camera comparison between the Pixel 8 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, so stay tuned for that.Low-light shots look equally good through the 50MP primary sensor. Even without Night Sight mode, photos taken in dimly lit conditions offer good clarity and brightness without overexposing certain areas. Even lens flare has been largely reduced, although it is still present at times. The new Pro mode feature gives you basic manual controls like switching between 12MP and 50MP, shooting in RAW, and choosing between manual or auto lens selection.

A brand new Tensor G3 chipset powers the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. If you were thinking Google's latest processor is a significant improvement over the Tensor G2 and can finally take on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, you'd be mistaken. The Pixel 8 Pro's benchmark scores are quite average. The device scored 1727 in single-core and 3433 in multi-core on Geekbench and around 845,000 on AnTuTu. In comparison, the Galaxy Z Fold5 with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor scored 1968 and 5137, respectively, on Geekbench and 1,492,136 on AnTuTu. Even last year's iPhone 14 Plus with the A15 Bionic chipset scored higher, scoring 4689 in multi-core on Geekbench and 854,000 on AnTuTu.The Tensor G3 chipset also seems to throttles the performance of the device too, more so than the Tensor G2 last year. After a 20-minute CoD: Mobile gaming session, the CPU Throttle test showed a performance throttling of around 52 per cent. However, I didn't see any severe lag or frame rate issues during gameplay. In our 3DMark Extreme Stress Test, the device delivered around 70 per cent stability, similar to what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered iQOO 11 managed. That said, the Tensor G3 chipset paired with 12GB of RAM is capable of running day-to-day tasks without getting overwhelmed. You only get the 128GB storage option in India, which is disappointing considering the price tag.It's clear that the Tensor G3 chipset has performance throttling issues, which one hopes Google can fix to a large extent through a software update. When it comes to thermals, however, the Pixel 8 Pro performed better than its predecessor. The device does noticeably warm when playing games for long durations, but it's never too hot to cause any concern. It also gets slightly warm while running the camera app, but otherwise, the phone manages to stay largely cool throughout.Let's talk about the software because this is the part where Google left most people wide-eyed during the keynote. The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro are set to receive a staggering 7 years of software support! Yes, you read that correctly. These phones will receive 7 major OS upgrades, along with 7 years of security updates, Feature Drops, and AI innovations. This is a significant achievement, as no other Android OEM currently matches this level of support. It even surpasses Apple, which typically provides around 6 years of updates for iPhones. Google is essentially ensuring that these Pixel phones stay relevant even in 2030.The Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro ship with Android 14 out of the box, so they could get upgraded all the way to Android 21! But coming back to Andriod 14, you get a clean and stock interface that's dominated by Google's own apps. There are some new Google Assistant features like Summarize which uses AI to overview a web page in Chrome. Read aloud, which is an accessibility feature that generates an audio version of the content and reads it out loud in a bunch of languages of your choice, including Hindi. Summarize, however, is only available in the US.

The Pixel 8 Pro ships with a 5,050mAh battery which is about the same that you get in its predecessor. The battery is good to last you through a full day on moderate usage. Despite an LTPO display and a power-efficient chipset, the Pixel 8 Pro will still ask you to reach for a charger by the end of the day or, at best, in the morning before you head out to work. in our PCMark battery test, the Pixel 8 Pro lasted around 13.5 hours, which isn't bad but it's not great either.Google has (marginally) upgraded the phone's fast charging support. It now supports up to 30W speeds through wired charging instead of 23W, which is still quite slow for a phone in 2023, and a flagship one at that. The Pixel 8 Pro takes around 1 hour 30 minutes to charge from 20 to 100 per cent, and close to two hours if you're waking it from the dead.