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Google Pixel 8 Pro

MSRP $999.00

“With an exquisite design, top-notch cameras, and big processor upgrades, it’s Google’s strongest Pixel yet.”

Pros

• Google’s best phone design yet
• Lovely, vibrant display
• Phenomenal cameras
• Unbelievable photo-editing tools
• Face Unlock is magical
• Tensor G3 is a big improvement
• Seven years of updates!

Cons

• The temperature sensor
• Mediocre battery life
• Slow charging speeds

I’ve been really nervous to start writing this Google Pixel 8 Pro review. At the start of each day with my Pixel 8 Pro, I’ve been worried that a bug or glitch is going to rear its ugly head and ruin my experience with the phone. I’ve been walking on eggshells, going through each day with bated breath, and just waiting for the moment that something goes wrong.

But here’s the thing: that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve been living with the Google Pixel 8 Pro for a while now, and not once has it given me any sort of trouble — something I absolutely can’t say about last year’s Pixels. While its predecessor was a buggy, unusable mess of a product for me, the Pixel 8 Pro has been the exact opposite. In fact, it’s been pretty damn incredible.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro isn’t a perfect Android phone, but it’s absolutely the closest Google has ever gotten to making one — and I love it.

About our Google Pixel 8 Pro review

This Pixel 8 Pro review was originally published by Joe Maring on October 11, 2023, after using the phone for a little over a week in the U.S., then updated on November 15 to include a “one month later” section to recap how the phone had held up after more than a month of regular use. Subsequently, in mid-February 2024, the review was updated again by Andy Boxall after using a Pixel 8 Pro in the U.K. for two weeks. An additional section detailing this can be found below.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: Is it still this good in 2024?

Google Pixel 8 Pro Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

Unlike Joe, I had no problems with my Pixel 7 Pro, so I approached the Pixel 8 Pro thinking I’d get more of the same. I was right; it has been faultless in terms of software and reliability during my time with it. The Pixel 8 Pro’s battery has lasted me a full day without a problem and easily into the second day when my screen time is less than three hours. The camera is great, and I love how Google’s Magic Editor AI editing mode is evolving, as the edits it creates aren’t always so outlandish anymore. Instead, when you put it into action, there’s a great mix of arty, unreal, and enhanced reality edits.

It’s a slippery phone, though, often sliding off flat surfaces and taking a tumble. The basic black version I’ve been testing has none of the Bay blue version’s character and is rather boring to look at; plus, I don’t like the way the flat screen looks and how the sharper edges feel in my hand compared to the Pixel 7 Pro. These are small things, though, and don’t diminish the Pixel 8 Pro’s speed, smoothness, and ease of use.

The Pixel 8 Pro is very good, but the price increase over the Pixel 7 Pro is now beginning to hurt it.

However, while it’s a superb phone and a worthy purchase, coming back to it after loving the standard Pixel 8 and the release of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra shows its shortcomings. I appreciate the Pixel 8 Pro’s simplicity, but after using the Galaxy S24 Ultra — admittedly a more expensive smartphone — it does feel very stripped out. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s camera is superb; it has masses of power and ability, a stylus, a stunning non-reflective screen, amazing battery life, some fun AI features, and a long software update commitment. You pay more for it but get more for your money. It seems to do everything.

Yes, the S24 Ultra is more expensive, but the Pixel 8 Pro is also more expensive than its predecessor, and the $1,000 price makes me wince when I remember how good the Pixel 8 is, and it costs a more reasonable $700. There aren’t all that many differences between them, and I expect I could return to the Pixel 8 and be perfectly satisfied with it, and also with the extra $300 left in my bank account. The Pixel 8 Pro is very good, but the price increase over the Pixel 7 Pro is now beginning to hurt it. There are two other phones priced around it that are just as good or even better, plus the Galaxy S24 Plus at the same price, which turned out to be great as well. It’s a hard decision choosing between them all.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: design

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

People often say that Pixel phones are more about software than hardware, but the Pixel 8 Pro apparently didn’t get that memo. The Google Pixel 8 Pro has some of the best smartphone hardware I’ve used all year.

Although it looks very similar to the Google Pixel 7 Pro, everything about the Pixel 8 Pro’s design is nicer and more expertly crafted. Instead of the glossy glass back we had last year, the Pixel 8 Pro’s rear glass has a matte finish that feels smooth and velvety. It is a bit slippery, but it feels so nice that I honestly don’t care. The corners are also more rounded, allowing the phone to more comfortably nestle itself into your palm. And the dual camera cutouts on the 7 Pro are gone, replaced by a single, seamless cutout that spans the camera bar on the back of the phone.

These changes don’t sound like much on paper, but by holding the Pixel 8 Pro side by side with the Pixel 7 Pro, you can really feel the difference a year has made for Google’s hardware team. The back glass texture is exquisite, the buttons feel better to press, and the phone is just so incredibly comfortable. I really don’t have anything to complain about.

I also need to praise Google for the stunning Bay blue color you’ll see throughout this review. It’s a gorgeous baby blue shade that’s warm and calming in a way that’s difficult to describe.

The way it pairs with the silver camera bar and black camera lenses is incredible. And no matter how light hits the phone, the blue is always apparent without being overbearing. I do wish it wasn’t the only “fun” color available (the other styles are Obsidian and Porcelain, aka black and white), but the Bay shade is a phone color for the ages.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: screen

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Google also flaunts its hardware chops with the Pixel 8 Pro’s display. This year’s Pixel offers a 6.7-inch OLED display with a 2992 x 1344 pixel resolution. It’s a similar panel to the Pixel 7 Pro’s, but there are a few important upgrades.

The 120Hz refresh rate returns, and it’s as smooth as ever — offering fluid scrolling and smooth animations. But it can now scale all the way down to 1Hz instead of 10Hz, meaning it’s drawing less energy for things like the always-on display, reading articles on Google Chrome, etc. It’s also a lot brighter this year, now going all the way up to 1,600 nits for HDR content and 2,400 nits for peak brightness. For context, the latest iPhone 15 Pro Max only gets up to 2,000 nits. Whether I was soaking in a late summer sunset while walking the High Line in Manhattan or enjoying the last bits of sunshine in Southwest Michigan, I never once had trouble seeing what was on the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen.

I’m not sure I really notice a difference between it and my iPhone 15 Pro Max, but I appreciate Google going the extra step and ensuring I’ll never have to think about it. What I appreciate even more is how dim the display gets. When turning the brightness all the way down on my iPhone and the Pixel, the Pixel 8 Pro gets noticeably darker, which is great when you’re using your phone in a dark room and don’t want to disturb your sleeping partner next to you.

Beyond the better refresh rate and brightness, everything else about the Pixel 8 Pro’s screen is excellent. The display is plenty sharp, colors look fantastic, and — unlike the Pixel 7 Pro — all of the display bezels are perfectly symmetrical. Just like the Pixel 8 Pro’s design, Google knocked the screen out of the park.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: cameras

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

OK, it’s time. Let’s talk about the Google Pixel 8 Pro’s cameras. The Pixel 8 Pro has a similar triple-camera setup compared to the Pixel 7 Pro, and it consists of main, ultrawide, and telephoto sensors. All of them have been upgraded in meaningful ways.

The 50-megapixel main camera has an f/1.68 aperture for 21% more light sensitivity and it is capable of 2x optical zoom. The new 48MP ultrawide camera touts an f/1.95 aperture with a 105% increase in light sensitivity, plus an improved macro mode that allows you to get as close as 2 centimeters away from your subject. The 48MP telephoto camera gets a 56% boost in light sensitivity. It has an f/2.8 aperture and once again offers 5x optical zoom. For the selfie fans out there, the 10.5MP front-facing camera has an f/2.2 aperture and now supports autofocus.

Those are a lot of numbers, and in practice, they translate to the Google Pixel 8 Pro taking exceptional photographs. The 50MP primary camera on the Pixel 8 Pro is outstanding. Whether I’m taking pictures of my dog in broad daylight or capturing the ambiance of a dimly lit bar, the Google Pixel 8 Pro makes me confident that I’ll end up with a photo I’m happy with. And the best part is how effortless it is to get these great-looking shots. Point the Pixel 8 Pro at your subject, tap the shutter button, and you can pretty safely assume you’ll get an excellent image.

The Pixel 8 Pro also performs strongly with its 5x telephoto camera. No, it’s not a 10x optical zoom like you get on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but the quality of the sensor is outstanding. It delivers excellent details at its 5x range, with very similar colors to the main camera. And even if you punch in all the way to the 30x digital zoom, the Pixel 8 Pro still churns out very usable images.

While it would have been great to see Google increase the optical zoom range, I think the upgraded light sensitivity easily makes up for it. Photos from the telephoto camera look fantastic. The sharpness is there, the composition and colors are lovely, and it gets you substantially closer to your subject while rarely sacrificing image quality.

I’ve been equally happy with the ultrawide and selfie cameras. Like the telephoto camera, the ultrawide camera does a good job of producing similar colors to photos taken with the main camera. It also gives you a much wider field of view, with minimal edge distortion. The selfie camera has also been solid. The addition of autofocus this year is very much welcome and works great. Portrait mode can still be tripped up by stray strands of hair, but otherwise, there’s little to complain about.

While it’s not something that fits into the way I take photos with my smartphone, the Google Pixel 8 Pro finally adds a Pro/manual mode to the camera app — offering granular controls for your brightness, shadows, ISO, and more.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: AI photo editing

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

Although most photos you take with the Pixel 8 Pro will likely require little to no editing, there are some fascinating tools to dig into if you do want to tweak your photos.

The first of these is called Best Take. Picture this: you take a selfie with your friend or a group family photo, and — as the story often goes — not everyone is smiling or looking at the camera. You’ve taken multiple photos of everyone together, but there’s no perfect one. On the Pixel 8 Pro, you can find those pictures in Google Photos, tap the Edit button on any one of them, and then tap Best Take. The Pixel 8 Pro analyzes the faces of everyone from the various shots you took and then lets you swap out someone’s face with a better shot of them. This isn’t Google using AI to recreate faces or anything like that — it’s simply taking faces from other similar photos and applying them to a single shot. It doesn’t always look perfect, and it takes a few seconds to load the feature, but when it works, it is pretty damn magical.

Something else Google is introducing on the Pixel 8 Pro is the Magic Editor. If you have any photo backed up to Google Photos — not just ones taken with the Pixel 8 Pro — you can use the Magic Editor to erase and move objects/people, change the sky, add or remove portrait effects, and more. Think of it like AI-powered Photoshop in the palm of your hand. It’s a lot at your disposal, and it means the possibilities are as grand or as minute as you want them to be.

You can easily ignore the temperature sensor on the Pixel 8 Pro, and I’d recommend that you do. Even so, it’s a bit embarrassing that — presumably — a lot of time, money, and research went into such a niche feature that’s lacking the main reason you’d want to use it in the first place.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: Face Unlock

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

One of my all-time favorite Pixel features makes a return on the Google Pixel 8 Pro: Face Unlock. Google reintroduced Face Unlock on the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro last year after debuting it on the Google Pixel 4, but on the Pixel 7 phones, it was only good for unlocking your lock screen. If you wanted to log into your password manager, a banking app, or authorize a purchase, you still had to rely on the fingerprint sensor.

Face Unlock on the Pixel 8 Pro still works great for getting past your lock screen, but it also works perfectly for all of those other things. Unlike iPhones or the Pixel 4, however, Face Unlock on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro doesn’t require any specialized hardware sensors. The only hardware component is the selfie camera, and while that typically hasn’t been secure enough for this level of facial recognition, Google says AI and machine learning upgrades in the Tensor G3 chip allow it to meet necessary security standards without any extra hardware.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: Tensor G3

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

In my hands-on preview of the Google Pixel 8 series, this is where I said things could go horribly, horribly wrong

For everything Google’s gotten right with its previous two generations of Pixel devices, the company’s Tensor chips have always caused problems. Whether it was the first Tensor chipset in the Pixel 6 family or the Tensor G2 powering last year’s Pixel 7 devices, it doesn’t take long to find people complaining about Google’s custom chipsets. With issues that include overheating, poor cellular reception, and general performance instability, Tensor doesn’t really have the best reputation.

Considering everything working against it, that means the Tensor G3 — Google’s new chip inside the Pixel 8 Pro — has a lot to prove. The good news? It’s actually pretty solid.

Through all of it, Tensor G3 has held up like a champ. It handles all of my apps with ease, plays games like Marvel Snap and Call of Duty: Mobile, and never left me yearning for more power.

Google Pixel 8 Pro: battery and charging

Joe Maring / Digital Trends

The Tensor G3 is a big upgrade when it comes to performance, reliability, and heating. But do those upgrades also translate to better battery life? Not really!

Battery life on the Google Pixel 8 Pro hasn’t been bad, but it’s also a far cry from some other Android phones I’ve used this year. If I start a day at 7:30 a.m. or 8 a.m., I can expect the Pixel 8 Pro to have anywhere from 15% to 5% remaining (depending on my usage) by about 10:30 p.m. That’s with around five hours of screen-on time. Most days, this includes at least 30 minutes of playing Marvel Snap and frequent use of apps like Threads, Duolingo, Telegram, TikTok, YouTube TV, and others. In other words, the Pixel 8 Pro has very firmly been a one-day smartphone for me.

Something else that could be improved with the next generation is charging speed. The Google Pixel 8