An exquisite Android experience in Google's eighth generation.
The Google Pixel smartphones epitomises a cleaner and feature-rich software experience. Even with last year's Pixel 7 series, Google has stood firmer in the smartphone market where we have huge competition from different brands. The Pixel 7 (Review) was a very well solid, put-together smartphone except for the battery life, and the Tensor G2 GPU was not as powerful as some chipsets in different smartphones.
With the Pixel 8 series, Google seems to bring some minor improvements and with the Pixel 8, now you get a slightly better display as the refresh rate has been scaled from 90Hz (on the Pixel 7) to 120Hz with improved brightness levels, the battery capacity has been increased to 4575mAh and now it also supports slightly faster 27W charging.
However, the biggest announcement with the Pixel 8 series has been the assurance of 7 years of AndroidOS and security patch updates making it the segment best in software updates in the smartphone industry. How good is the newer Pixel 8 from Google and is it worth buying?
Let's find out in the full review.
Google Pixel 8 Design:
In terms of design, the Pixel 8 follows a similar design philosophy as that of its predecessor i.e. the Pixel 7. The back has a smooth matte finish which provides good grip but does catch a lot of fingerprints. The camera module remains unchanged from before which means you get a thick bar of aluminium at the top that houses the dual cameras with an LED flashlight and a secondary noise-cancelling microphone.
With the Pixel 8, the cameras are more protruded compared to the ones present in the Pixel 7. But now the size of the smartphone has been reduced to 6.2-inches from the 6.3-inches display on the Pixel 7. With each generation of the Pixel, Google has been reducing the size by 0.1 inches. Also around the corners, it is slightly rounded making it easier to hold in hands.
Around the sides, it is slightly thicker at 8.9mm compared to 8.7mm on the Pixel 7. There is an aluminium frame that has a matte finish and is easy to hold. The right side of the aluminum frame houses the power button and the volume buttons whereas the left side houses the single SIM card tray as the secondary SIM supported is the eSIM.
At the top, there is a primary microphone only and the bottom gets a USB Type-C port with two speaker grilles. There is neither a dedicated slot for a microSD card nor a 3.5mm headphone jack. In terms of protection, both the front as well as the back have Corning Gorilla Glass Victus which is good.
The back has an IP68 rating which makes it dust and water-resistant. Regarding weight distribution, the Pixel 8 feels lighter at 187 grams compared to 197 grams of weight on the Pixel 7. Overall, the build and design feel premium.
Google Pixel 8 Display:
The Pixel 8 has a slightly smaller 6.2-inches Full HD+(1080x2400 pixels) OLED display with a screen-to-body ratio of 20:9. Unlike the display of the Pixel 7 which supports 90Hz refresh rate, this display now supports 120Hz refresh rate and combined with it you get 360Hz touch response. However, this display is not an LTPO panel as on the Pixel 8 Pro.
Though this display is not an LTPO panel, this one is an Adaptive one where the display scales to 60Hz in idle conditions i.e. when you are not interacting with the display. Everything feels smoother whether it is gaming, scrolling between webpages, etc., the 120Hz display handles everything well. Since it is an OLED display, the colours look punchier and you get great viewing angles also.
This display has support for HDR10+ so you can stream HDR videos on YouTube and also Widevine L1 thus streaming HDR content is easy on OTT platforms. In terms of display brightness, the Pixel 8 can reach a peak brightness of 2000nits which is 600nits more than the display brightness of the Pixel 7. Regarding normal brightness, the display hovers around 1000nits and you get good visibility under direct sunlight.
There are two different colour modes to choose from - Natural and Adaptive. In Natural mode, the display covers the sRGB colour space whereas the Adaptive mode covers the DCI-P3 gamut thus resulting in saturated colours. There is an optical in-display fingerprint scanner on the display which is accurate and fast.
Google Pixel 8 Performance:
The Pixel 8 is powered by the latest and greatest Tensor G3 chipset which is a good upgrade over the last year's Tensor G2 chipset on the Pixel 7. The newer Tensor G3 chipset is based on an efficient 4nm process and has a nona-core setup that includes: a 1x3.0 GHz Cortex-X3 core combined with 4x2.45GHz Cortex-A715 cores and another 4x2.15GHz Cortex-A510 cores combined with a powerful Immortalis-G715s MC10 GPU.
In terms of daily performance which includes scrolling through webpages, playing games, streaming videos on the OTT platforms, etc. the smartphone could handle all of them easily without breaking a sweat. This chipset also has the newer Google's Titan M2 security chip and an AI-based NPU to handle all the AI-related tasks like image processing and translation features.
In terms of gaming, all heavy games like Call Of Duty Mobile, BGMI, etc. could easily run at the highest graphics settings with ease. In BGMI, the smartphone could achieve HDR graphics with Extreme frame rates but after a longer hour of gaming i.e. 3-4 hours, the back of the smartphone becomes warmer.
With normal usage like scrolling webpages, streaming social media, taking images and videos, etc. the back of the smartphone feels warmer which is not a good sign. However, Google has not mentioned the cooling system which has been used but this throttles down the CPU performance to a larger extent. In terms of CPU throttling test, the Pixel 8 could achieve around 50-55 per cent of sustained performance.
Even the benchmark scores are not the best in class when compared with other smartphones with much more powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 or 8 Gen 2 chipsets that outperform the Tensor G3 chipset on the Pixel 8. In terms of network performance, you get support for good carrier aggregation but still, the network connectivity drops from 5G to LTE very frequently.
In terms of 5G support, it supports almost all bands of 5G. The Pixel 8 is available in two different configurations that include - 8GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128/256GB storage with UFS 3.1 speeds. Overall, the gaming performance is good but due to the presence of heating the performance throttles in the long run which needs some improvement.
Google Pixel 8 Software:
The Pixel 8 runs on Google's Stock Android with Android 14 out of the box. Compared to Android 13, Android 14 brings a few changes as you get a similar look and feel and almost all the features present in Android 13 and there are some newer features. There is no bloatware or ads present which makes it cleaner and everything feels very minimalistic.
Some of the newer features include lossless audio support while using wired earphones. The presence of NPU helps in AI-related tasks like Live Translate which works in almost all applications and there is an interpreter mode that translates the live conversation between two people when they are speaking a similar language, then there is the smart messaging feature also.
When you receive a message from someone in a different language, then this feature translates that message and also allows you to write messages in different styles. The Call Screening feature works really well as the transcriber lists all the options to choose from. The AI can extract images and text and Google's Assistant can read the articles or anything that you are searching with the help of Bard.
In Google Photos, there are a bunch of newer additions like Audio Eraser, Magic Editor, Best Take, etc. Magic Editor lets you remove or crop the objects, and humans and also move them within the image by editing other things like the background. The Audio Eraser removes unnecessary noise from an audio or video recording if a background noise has been recorded by mistake.
Best Take works best when you take multiple selfies in a group or photos where it chooses the best photo and selects it. Other than that, there is a newer AI wallpaper feature which allows you to create your own wallpaper using different customizations. In terms of software updates, the Pixel 8 will receive another 7 years of AndroidOS updates and security patches making it the market leader in software updates.
Google Pixel 8 Cameras:
The Pixel 8 has a similar camera setup as that of its predecessor i.e. the Pixel 7 and comes with a 50MP f/1.7 main camera and a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera and on the front there is a 10.5MP f/2.2 camera for selfies. The only change is that the newer ultrawide camera has autofocus and a 126-degree field of view compared to the Pixel 7's 114-degree field.
The images from the Pixel 8's primary camera come out with sharper details and good dynamic range. The colours look natural without oversharpening in the background and the noise is almost non-existent. The contrast looks good and the white balance is well-handled. There is also a 2x setting in the viewfinder that lets you take 2x zoom images with sharper details and good dynamic range.
Similarly, at night, the images from the main camera come out with sharper details and have an excellent dynamic range with less noise in the background. However, the colours did look slightly less saturated but the exposure was very well maintained and also details in shadows were very well-lit. All these images are taken with the Night Mode being turned on by default.
However, turning the Night Mode resulted in images with good details and even the dynamic range came out good except that there is little noise present in the background. The colours came out accurate without any kind of oversharpening. At 2x zoom also, the images came out with great details and dynamic range with saturated colours but they do have some noise in the background.
In terms of ultrawide camera, during daylight, the images come out with sharper details and have a good dynamic range with no noise in the background and since now there is a larger field of view, there is almost very little distortion around the edges. The colours look saturated without any oversharpening.
Similarly, at night, the images from the ultrawide camera come out with good details and dynamic range with accurate colours in the background without any kind of oversharpening. The ultrawide camera also doubles up as a macro camera and the results came out with excellent details with good dynamic range since it has autofocus present, it crops from the centre of the ultrawide camera.
The portraits come out with good edge detection and details look sharper with almost less noise in that background. The dynamic range looks great and there is a proper background blur with the portraits shot at both 1x and 2x. The skin tones look accurate without any oversharpening as such.
In terms of selfies, the main camera does a good job in terms of details that look sharper and have a good dynamic range. The skin tones look accurate without any oversharpening and there is very little noise present in the background. In terms of selfie portraits, there is good edge detection and proper background blur is present.
When it comes to videos, all three cameras can record 4K videos at 60fps and the videos from the main camera come out with excellent details and dynamic range with less noise in the background. The colours look realistic without any oversharpening as such. At 2x zoom levels, the videos do have slightly softer details as it is a digital zoom but still, you get good dynamic range with proper colour saturation.
The videos from the ultrawide camera come out with sharper details and have a good dynamic range with less noise in the background. There is some oversharpening present but still, it is negligible. However, you get a slightly larger field of view which is good. Similarly, at night, the videos come out with sharp details and good dynamic range with some noise in the background.
There is the OIS that works very well in the elimination of noise. The ultrawide camera videos at night do introduce some noise in the background and the colours look slightly washed out at times in the background. The videos from the front camera come out with good details that look sharper and have proper natural-looking skin tones with less noise in the background thanks to EIS present.
Google Pixel 8 Battery Life:
The Pixel 8 sports a larger 4575mAh battery which is slightly larger in capacity compared to the battery present on its predecessor i.e. the Pixel 7. With normal usage including casual web browsing, streaming social media, etc. the smartphone easily lasts for a day and a half whereas with heavy usage which includes playing games, running benchmarks, taking videos, etc. the smartphone easily lasts for a single day.
The standard screen-on time was around 3-3.5 hours with heavy usage whereas with normal usage, it was around 5-6 hours which is slightly better than the Pixel 7 thanks to the slightly newer 4nm process-based chipset. But still, the battery life is not the best as other flagships do offer slightly better screen-on time and also battery life.
Now one of the bigger upgrades comes in terms of charging where the Pixel 8 now supports slightly faster 27W charging. However, just like Pixel 7, there is no dedicated fast charger inside the box and you need to purchase it separately but using that 27W fast charger, will take around 0 to 100 per cent around 1 hour 15 minutes which is very much time-consuming.
Other than that, there is also support for 18W wireless charging which is fast enough and also reverse wireless charging which you can charge other wireless charging devices when placed on the back of the smartphone. But still, the wired charging speeds are still not the fastest when compared to other flagships that do offer 65/120W fast charging speeds.
Google Pixel 8 Audio Quality:
The Pixel 8 supports a dual audio stereo speaker setup that sounds adequately loud and clearer and the sound separation between the loudspeaker at the bottom and the earpiece is well-balanced. There is no 3.5mm headphone jack present.
Verdict:
The Google Pixel 8 is a well-rounded compact flagship that suites all the necessary requirements which include a premium build and design, a great display for media consumption combined with a set of stereo speakers, good performance with the newer Tensor G3 chipset in daily tasks, a great set of cameras, and a solid software experience with the Android-best software update lifecycle.
The most striking of every Pixel smartphone has been the plethora of software features which get new additions with each generation of Pixel smartphone and it is no different here. But there are some areas where there is a larger scope for improvement especially when it comes to battery life which is improved over the Pixel 7 but still it is not so good.
The Tensor G3 chipset though powerful enough does exhibit signs of overheating while doing even normal or heavy tasks which needs urgent fix further and the gaming experience is not as good as some of the smartphones that have Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 or 8 Gen 2 chipsets. Also, you can see the charging speeds are not the segment as other smartphones do offer higher charging speeds.
Now the Pixel 8 is also priced slightly premium compared to its predecessor i.e. Pixel 7 but you do get a solid product with some good improvements whether it is the battery life, display, performance, software updates, etc. The Pixel 8 is a perfect buy for a person who wants an all-rounder smartphone that focuses more on the pure Stock Android experience and its features thus sacrificing in terms of battery life and gaming performance.
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